Conserving conservation areas in the Achterhoek A case-study research into the active roles of the conservation areas in the Achterhoek in a time of decreasing population 16 – 08 – 2019 J. Reitsema (Jelle) Masters thesis in Economic Geography at Radboud University Nijmegen I Conserving conservation areas in the Achterhoek A case-study research into the active roles of the conservation areas in the Achterhoek in a time of decreasing population 16 – 08 – 2019 Jelle Reitsema S4487834 Masters thesis in Economic Geography at Radboud University Nijmegen Supervisor at Radboud University Nijmegen: Dr. P.J. Beckers Supervisor at Gelders Genootschap: Dr. S.M. van den Bergh Word count main text (excluding preface, summary, sources, etc): 41.015 Ill. front cover: Shore of IJssel river at Bronkhorst. Own image. Greyscale: ‘Entrance’ of Achterhoek sign edited. Own image. II Preface and acknowledgements This is the preface of my thesis on Dutch conservation areas. Ahead of you is a thesis I have been happy to work on as hard as I did, and of course a product I hope will be enjoyable to the reader. This thesis marks the end of my Masters in Economic Geography in Nijmegen. When I started some time ago, I already knew I wanted to put as much effort into the research as possible. After all, this was the ideal time to pick a subject and work on the qualitative research I enjoy doing so much. The subject of ‘conservation areas’ was picked based on the idea “what do I know a little bit about that I could learn more about and write about”. This has been central to every time I needed to pick a subject, so it also starts with a lot of literature study beforehand. My goal was to make sure anybody who picks up this thesis would learn what a conservation area is. After that, there is also a research goal and a practical relevancy too, of course. All my other projects have also been about concepts that may cause some confusion to others, clearing that up will always feel like an accomplishment by itself. In this case, the confusion might have been that conservation areas freeze a city (they don’t) or that they are just ‘protected’ and nothing else happens (there’s more). If you read this thesis, you’ll be sure to understand this facet of Dutch heritage planning a bit more. Getting to pick a subject and taking the time to write a good thesis is something I need to thank my internship organisation, Gelders Genootschap, a lot for. One of their main goals is to promote the debate around spatial quality, so they were happy to help me in connecting two things that had not been connected yet: population decline and conservation areas. In the four months I was there, I could write the basis of this thesis, hold interviews and learn a lot about ways to look at public space. The high standards they held themselves to, pushed me to give my fullest every moment. First, I need to thank are the many people who made the interviews possible. The people at the local organisations who sent me the right way, the municipalities and the local businesses that were happy to help and tell about their experiences have been amazing. Arie Vries in particular has often helped me to think about the more practical side of finding and interviewing locals. There have been so many people that allowed me to write this thesis. The courses by Hans Renes, Christoph Augustynowicz, Tonny Nijmeijer, Gert-Jan Hospers and Peter Ache are the first five I recall that helped me to develop a clear view of how to deal with every theoretical and practical challenge that came up during this thesis. At Gelders Genootschap I met many people who were key to my thesis, such as Gerard Derks for helping me see conservation areas in a better way, dr. Elyze Storms- Smeets for helping me out with maps, and dr. Simon van den Bergh for guiding me through the entire process. There have also been many friends that helped me put my mind elsewhere when I needed to start a chapter with a fresh viewpoint, such as Max de Blank, Isabelle Reinders, Maxim Reinders, Lindsay Kempen, and many more. Finally my parents Rieks and Ineke Reitsema were always there for me. Without all these people, this thesis would not have been the product it is right now. I hope reading this thesis will be as much an enjoyable and educative experience for any reader as it was for me. I hope that it helps municipalities understand even more about conservation areas and they keep approaching it as more than just old bricks by thinking about roles. Jelle Reitsema Brummen, August 2019 III Summary of the thesis Conservation areas are in Dutch ‘protected cityscapes and townscapes’. All types of spatial features determine the atmosphere of a place, that may become heritage. Their listing takes spatial planning into account to ensure identified qualities are not lost when towns develop over time. This process of listing was introduced when the Dutch economy grew, and the cities and towns did as well. The cause for this research was that there are now CA’s in regions that have begun to lose population and municipal funds might decline. There is little development to protect against now. To turn the issue around, this research took the approach that since meaningful places can have an effect on people, its agency might make the conservation area listing useful instead of a costly commitment. A recent research where heritage and population decline overlap provided the way to approach this thesis: it can have four active roles that align with goals of depopulating regions. How it can attract or connect people and how it focuses on a socio-economic or symbolic function determines their role for the region and how they can be dealt with. Because this structure had not been applied yet on CA’s, this thesis would be the first to look at such officially recognised areas. ROLES OF HERITAGE HERITAGE ATTRACTS (EXT. ORIENTATION) HERITAGE CONNECTS (INT. ORIENTATION) FOCUS ON SOCIOECONOMIC FUNCTION SEEDBED MEETING PLACE FOCUS ON SYMBOL FUNCTION BILLBOARD TOTEM POLE To do this, theory on heritage, spatial planning and rural development had to be connected to find the best way to perform this research. This turned out to be the use of an embedded case study and to look at as many conservation areas as possible in a single region. In the Achterhoek, they had somewhat comparable circumstances and more importantly, the possibility of regional cooperation. The research incorporated several steps in terms of scale. Some policy was analysed regionally, the situation concerning protection was assessed at each of the seven CA’s, and an in-depth data collection took place at three of these conservation areas. First, the context and history of CA’s was elaborated on, followed by more explanation about population decline. Then, depopulation policy in the region was put on a timeline, which showed four time periods where heritage had a specific role in policy. In the first period depopulation was not even on the agenda, but this changed quickly when expectations were ‘beaten’. Now actions have been taken, the policy actions are more decentralised again, and heritage policy is as well. After that, the analyses of all listings and land-use plans could help to see the state of these areas, by also visiting the seven CA’s. They were visited to see the scale of the place and the atmosphere that had been described. It turned out that the listed qualities were still preserved to this date, and development was still possible. The visits were key for finding the most useful conservation areas to analyse more in-depth. Bronkhorst, Bredevoort, and the Mallumse Molen were chosen for this. For these three places, there have been reviews of policy documents and interviews with policy workers at the part of municipal expectations, and interviews with local actors such as interest committees and business owners to understand more about the roles they might have had. It turned out that the municipalities had some plans that could fit with the roles of heritage, but the local actors still showed even more, while confirming that there was room for all four roles. In some cases, their projects were mainly to connect locals to each other, but they kept in mind that it would attract new visitors as well. People from outside would be involved also, drawn in by the atmosphere. IV This finding also lead to the main conclusion of the research, namely that the recognition of the conservation areas can be effective when targeting negative effects of population decline when they are considered as a collection of policy instruments that acknowledge its symbolic value to the group that is targeted. These groups are most often inhabitants and even local businesses. This was the answer to the main research question. At the closing part of this thesis, there were recommendations for the municipalities. These were based on implications for businesses and civic actors and how the local government should take that into account. Providing a clear view of the possibilities in a conservation area, taking note of the totem pole role by approaching active locals as a starting point and finding ways to make sure the symbolic value stays were the three main recommendations. These were based on making it easier to cooperate, more important to cooperate and making sure people stay active. The research recommendations were based on what could still be possible to find out.