Against all odds: poor people jumping scales and the genesis of an urban policy in Flanders, Belgium

Autor: Maarten Loopmans, Justus Uitermark, Filip De Maesschalck
Jazyk: English<br />French
Rok vydání: 2002
Předmět:
Zdroj: Belgeo, Vol 3, Pp 243-258 (2002)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1377-2368
2294-9135
DOI: 10.4000/belgeo.15726
Popis: Theorising on politics of scale falls in two general categories: class-theoretical (actor-) and capital-theoretical or structural approaches. We discuss how notions of «path-dependency» and «critical conjunctures» can serve as a means to transcend the discrepancies between both approaches. Our analysis of the emergence of an urban policy in Flanders, Belgium shows how a path-dependent development of anti-urban politics was interrupted and changed into a deliberately urban focus when political stability was threatened by the sudden electoral successes of the extreme-right party Vlaams Blok in Flanders. Actors concerned with the fate of disadvantaged neighbourhoods grabbed this chance to build up power at the regional (Flemish) level and managed to influence form and content of the established urban policy. By imposing a top-down approach, they equally strengthened their position at the local level. New developments in 1999 have diminished their power at the regional level, but at the local level, their institutional materialisations now seem to constitute a new element of path dependency in many municipalities.
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