Social Mix and the Neighbourhood Effect. Policy Ambitions and Empirical Evidence

Segregation is a central concept in both academic and policy debates on urban issues. It has been argued that the process of globalisation results in increased social polarisation and subsequently sharper spatial segregation. Indeed, many politicians express a fear of rising segregation, envisioning the emergence of 'ghettos' or as it is called in the Netherlands 'income neighbourhoods'. In order to prevent concentrations of poverty from forming, a new area-based policy was formulated which aimed to restructure the urban housing market at the neighbourhood level and mix low-quality with high-quality houses. Such a concern with social mix has become common in a number of developed countries. In this regard the analysis has a wide relevance. This paper explores these ideas both by discussing the theoretical framework underpinning the policy, and by examining empirical support for it. Since the policy of housing-quality mixing is still in the first phase of implementation, relevant longitudinal data is not yet available. As a consequence our evaluation addresses present poverty concentrations and housing stock (mix) characteristics in the city of Amsterdam. By comparing neighbourhoods that already have a 'mixed' housing stock to homogeneous neighbourhoods, it has been possible to see whether mixing really does correspond to significantly lower poverty rates. It turns out that the empirical facts are quite different from the expected results: mixing does not in fact reduce poverty. It is concluded that the policy lacks an empirical basis. Housing-mix policy requires substantial budgets, while the goal of reducing poverty cannot be reached. As an alternative, we suggest that poverty is a personal characteristic and that it is therefore preferable to approach poverty directly instead of hoping for the results of a dubious 'neighbourhood effect'.     

Basing maintenance needs on accommodation policy

Managers and maintenance consultants in The Netherlands are working to objectify the inspection of real estate, and to increase the possibilities of controlling long-range maintenance expectations and setting priorities. However, in this view maintenance policy is still largely determined from the 'bottom up'; technical maintenance requirements play a predominant role. However, maintenance and investment practice ought also to be based on a 'top-down' vision of the desired level of functional performance of a particular building and of the total stock of buildings in the future. This vision would result in accommodation scenarios for these buildings to which a maintenance policy can then be adapted. Such a maintenance policy would link together the top-down and the bottom-up approaches. Aux Pays-Bas, responsables et consultants en entretien travaillent a objectiver l'inspection des immeubles, a augmenter les possibilites de controler les previsions d'entretien a long terme et a fixer des priorites. Dans cette perspective, la politique d'entretien reste toutefois largement determinee par des methodes "ascendantes"; Les besoins en entretien technique tiennent un role dominant. Or, les pratiques en matiere d'entretien et d'investissement devraient egalement reposer a l'avenir sur une vision "descendante" du niveau souhaite de performances fonctionnelles d'un batiment donne et de l'ensemble du parc de batiments. Une telle demarche devrait se traduire par des scenarios de logement pour ces batiments auxquels peut etre adaptee une politique d'entretien qui associerait les deux methodes "ascendantes" et "descendantes".     

Renewable electricity policies in The Netherlands

Many analysts agree that the support system for renewable electricity (RE) in the Netherlands has been opaque, confusing and lacking long-term security, due to the numerous instruments and to the several changes in the details of the policies. However, most analysts fail to notice that these factors per se are hardly responsible for the uncertainty observed in the Dutch market. This paper surveys the policies introduced in the last decade or so and discusses their effectiveness in facilitating the diffusion of RE. Although the government brought about a remarkable increase in demand for RE, the creation of domestic supply has lagged behind. This relatively slack expansion can be ascribed to the uncertainty in the Dutch framework, caused by the lack of a clear relation between policies stimulating demand and supply for RE. This also hindered the development of national industry and delayed the debate on the removal of planning and administrative bottlenecks.     

Ideology, politics, and personality: Shaping forces in Dutch psychology of religion, 1907–1957.

Although the academic establishment of the psychology of religion in the Netherlands has been stronger than in any other Western country, the start of these developments has been remarkably late (in 1957), especially when taking into account that Dutch academic life: (1) before World War II modeled itself after Germany (where psychology of religion flourished); and (2) was to a considerable extent included in the system of pillarization, which characterized Dutch society at large. The general factors that can be distinguished as having played an important role in the shaping of the situation for psychology of religion in the Netherlands had different impacts in the several universities under consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Housing as a Transitional Tenure? Reflections on the Netherlands' New Housing Memorandum 2000-2010

This contribution gives some reflections on the Netherlands' New Housing Memorandum 2000-2010, which was published on 15 May 2000. This Housing Memorandum urges the housing corporations (the social housing organisations which own 37 per cent of the housing stock) to sell 500 000 dwellings in 10 years. This seems to confirm Harloe's assertion that social housing in Europe is only a transitional tenure. Even in the Netherlands-champion of social rented housing within the European Union-the owner occupied sector would seem destined to marginalise the social rented sector in the long run. This paper argues that the housing corporations, being private, independent social entrepreneurs, will be only partially inclined to take the political message of the Housing Memorandum to heart. It is expected that the Dutch social rented sector will remain a differentiated sector and continue to blossom alongside home ownership. Harloe's theory will, in short, not be confirmed by the housing developments in the Netherlands.     

Bridging the Threshold of Interior and Landscape: An Interview with Petra Blaisse

In a design practice dedicated to fusing insides and outsides, Petra Blaisse converses with Lois Weinthal about the atmospheric calling of interior textiles. As curtains and floor coverings furnish programmatically organised interior environments, they reflect larger spatial and historic contexts to demonstrate a confluence of micro and macro scales. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of road lighting: An analysis based on Dutch accident statistics 1987-2006

This study estimates the safety effect of road lighting on accidents in darkness on Dutch roads, using data from an interactive database containing 763,000 injury accidents and 3.3 million property damage accidents covering the period 1987-2006. Two estimators of effect are used, and the results are combined by applying techniques of meta-analysis. Injury accidents are reduced by 50%. This effect is larger than the effects found in most of the earlier studies. The effect on fatal accidents is slightly larger than the effect on injury accidents. The effect during twilight is about 2/3 of the effect in darkness. The effect of road lighting is significantly smaller during adverse weather and road surface conditions than during fine conditions. The effects on pedestrian, bicycle and moped accidents are significantly larger than the effects on automobile and motorcycle accidents. The risk of injury accidents was found to increase in darkness. The average increase in risk was estimated to 17% on lit rural roads and 145% on unlit rural roads. The average increase in risk during rainy conditions is about 50% on lit rural roads and about 190% on unlit rural roads. The average increase in risk with respect to pedestrian accidents is about 140% on lit rural roads and about 360% on unlit rural roads.     

Amorphous and crystalline oxides on aluminium

In order to study the transition from amorphous to crystalline aluminium oxides, high purity aluminium was oxidized in dried oxygen of atmospheric pressure at 673 and 913 K. The morphology of the oxide layers produced was investigated by optical microscopy methods (phase and interference contrast) and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The crystallinity was determined using electron (micro)diffraction methods. The existence of a hitherto undescribed transition aluminium oxide was established. Interface coarsening resulting from the formation of “tops” and “depressions” or “dimples”, as consequences of vacancy creation and injection in the substrate surface layers, was quantified by Auger depth profiling. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique revealed differences in the coordination of the aluminium cation between the amorphous and crystalline oxides.