In European urban policy discourse, the meanings assigned to concepts only partly correspond. This can be explained by the divergent contexts in which the assigning of meanings takes place. But the discourse is also used for a mutual politics of scale, as expressed in the ways in which actors position themselves and others in the discourse. This politics of scale is especially inspired by the process of European integration.

Focusing on the Netherlands, this research analyses how the assigning of meanings and the politics of scale takes place between different governmental levels (European, national, regional, local), within the framework of European urban policy.

This PhD research project was started in order 

The fieldwork for this research was mainly derived from the EU funded UGIS project (Urban Governance, Social Inclusion and Sustainability) which ran from 2000-2003; theory and method were mainly developed in the USA (University of Minnesota), where the author followed a Master’s programme in Human Geography (1996-1999).

Case study research is combined with a discourse analysis.

The EU funded the UGIS project, from which a part of the fieldwork for the PhD research was derived. Additionally, the EU (in particular European area- based urban programmes) was the subject of the PhD research.

In the past 10-15 years, a policy network has developed around European urban policy. The discourse connected to it, is only partly shared by the actors involved. It reveals a politics of scale, expressed in ways of (self-) positioning of the actors towards each other.

During the European URBAN-I programmes in Amsterdam and The Hague these cities were not ready for an active political attitude towards Europe yet. This is also reflected in the politics of scale: this mainly took place between the European and national governmental levels, while the local level did not participate yet.

The actors involved in the URBAN-I programme were mainly governmental, although in Amsterdam local residential groups have successfully exacted involvement.

AMIDSt
Dr. M.J.M. (Thea) Dukes (Researcher), tel. +31 20 525 1264

01/12/2006

Dr. M.J.M. (Thea) Dukes

research

Urban Policy