Artikel

Een analyse van het overheidsstreven naar een evenwichtige stedelijke bevolkingssamenstelling

---

Abstract

An analysis of the aspiration of governments for a social mix in the city - The recent revaluation of living in the central city led to a confrontation with the concentration of lower status people in many inner city areas. Numerous governments - national and local — are arguing against such segregation, in preference to a social mix. This means that higher status people should move in, and/or lower status people should be dispersed over a larger area. In this article some aspects of the struggle against the concentration of the latter are analysed and evaluated. After a short description of some basic concepts in the first part, the second gives an overview of the arguments against residential segregation. Firstly, segregation seems to be bad because of the ability to bear for some city-functions, e.g. retail trade, cultural development, employment. Secondly, it seems to create difficulties— conflicts, retardation, withdrawal — among the different socio-economic groups, and thirdly, the concentration of the lower clasxes decreases the financial grounds of many central communities. In the third part the aims of integration programmes are summarized. Such aims consist, for instance, in levelling up living standards, the promoting of diversity, creating stability and so on. We also look at the measures taken to create an integrated neighbourhood. These measures involve several kinds of population policies, e.g. such as stimulate the moving in or out of some population categories. The last two parts contain an evaluation of some statements made in the former. Paragraph four places the appeal for residential integration in a broader societal context, more especially in an ideological context. Looking back in history, we may see integration as a kind of „crisis-thinking”, in the sense that by creating integrated neighbourhoods, some governments believe that the lower classes — the worst victims of a crisis — will be adapted to the dominant middle class system. The fifth and last part evaluates briefly the whole integration atmosphere. Firstly, some consequences of the integration measures are considered, e.g. the ousting of lower status people by the better-off in urban renewal areas and the adaptation problems of foreign workers when they are dispersed all over the city. Secondly, some consequences linked with segregation are questioned and reformulated, e.g. crime and disintegration in lower class areas; financial problems of many central cities. Thirdly, the causes of segregation are summarized very briefly. Some of them are institutionalized and therefore integration acts are questionable. Doubts may be expressed with regard to planning in view of the other points raised.

How to Cite:

De Decker, P., (1984) “Een analyse van het overheidsstreven naar een evenwichtige stedelijke bevolkingssamenstelling”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 29(1), 35–63. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94867