Everyday Autochthony: Difference, Discontent and the Politics of Home in Amsterdam
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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Everyday autochthony: Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam Mepschen, P.J.H. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Mepschen, P. J. H. (2016). Everyday autochthony: Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:03 Oct 2021 Everyday autochthony Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam Paul Mepschen Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam Everyday autochthony Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam by Paul Mepschen Everyday autochthony Difference, discontent and the politics of home in Amsterdam Academisch proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op vrijdag 29 januari 2016, te 12.00 uur door Paul Jacob Hendrik Mepschen geboren te Coevorden. Promotores: Prof. Dr. E. H. Tonkens, Universiteit voor Humanistiek Prof. Dr. W.G.J Duyvendak, Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: Prof. É. Fassin, Université Paris VIII, Saint-Denis, Vincennes Prof. Dr. P.L. Geschiere, Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. A. M'charek, Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. B. Meyer, Universiteit van Utrecht Prof. Dr. J.L. Uitermark, Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Voor mijn ouders, Gerda en Herman, die altijd voor me klaar staan. Acknowledgements This is a book about social relations, but it is also the product of multiple social relations - with friends, colleagues, lovers, health professionals, and what have you. Back in 2008, when I had just been hired for this research project, I fell seriously ill. It took me six months to get back on my feet. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by wonderful people who helped me out. Thanks very much to those who were there when it really mattered. I have been blessed with a loving circle of friends. Thanks a lot to Judith Böhmer, Corrine Bot, Arthur Bruls, Laurens Eijkenaar, Moraan Gilad, Koen Haegens, Eli den Hartog, Fleur Heinze, Colin Mepschen, Mick Pauwe, Lieke Peeters, Marcelle Senden, Mirjam Sierat, Josine Strörmann, Alexander van Steenderen, Ronnie Sweers, Linda Tromp, and Filip de Vos. I hope you all know what I mean when I say that I am grateful. A big shout out also to my comrades and ‘political’ friends: Lot van Baaren, Willem Bos, Saskia Boumans, Peter Drucker, Alex de Jong, Leo de Kleijn, Kevin Levie, Rob Lubbersen, Anja Meulenbelt, Ineke Palm, Jan Willem Stutje, Patrick van Klink. Thanks to all other friends in TENK and the Rotterdam SP. And many others. I look forward to the struggle ahead. Thanks so much to my supervisors, Evelien Tonkens and Jan Willem Duyvendak, whose intellectual influence is, I hope, apparent in these pages. It has been an honor to work with them. Special thanks I owe to Peter Geschiere, for his critical engagement with my work and for being a wonderful mentor. And thanks to my fellow researchers in the projects I was part of: Bregje Termeer, I will never forget our numerous discussions in the train between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Rogier van Reekum, Francio Guadeloupe, Judith Elshout and Mandy de Wilde: I learned so much from all of you. A large amount of gratitude also to students, colleagues, and staff involved in the projects: Josip Kesic, Anne Brouwers, Fatiha El-Hajjari, Nazima Kadir and Martine Buijs. I also want to thank the staff at the Department and the AISSR at large, especially Cristina Garofalo, Muriel Kiesel and Joris de Vries. Thanks also to Jill Bradley and Takeo David Heymans. I have also enjoyed working with the research fellows in the two projects - and with many other people. Within the academic community, there are so many people to thank: Maria Paula Adinolfi, Apostolos Apostopolis, Frank van As, Andre Bakker, the late Gerd Baumann, Anneke Beerkens, Marguerite van den Berg, Niko Besnier, Marten Boekelo, Sarah Bracke, Robbie Davidson, Jolanda van Ede, Marieke van Eijk, Sara Farris, Éric Fassin, Thomas Franssen, Erella Grassiani, Marcel van den Haak, Gert Hekma, Ernst van den Hemel, Anouk de Koning, Yvette Kopijn, Willemijn Krebbekx, Amade M’charek, Bram Mellink, Eva Midden, Wayne Modest, Annemarie Mol, Annelies Moors, Andrea Muehlebach, Walter Nicholls, Bowen Paulle, Mattijs van de Port, Baukje Prins, Jasmijn Rana, Joan Scott, Marieke Slootman, Jitse Schuurmans, Alex Strating, Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Justus Uitermark, Markha Valenta, Oskar Verkaaik, Milena Veenis, Jojada Verrips, Anick Vollebergh, Robbie Voss, Marleen de Witte. My two ‘old’ teachers Peter van Rooden and Birgit Meyer have played an especially pivotal role in encouraging my work. I owe special thanks to Markus Balkenhol, Daan Beekers, Laurens Buijs, Sébastien Chauvin, Irene van Oorschot, Merijn Oudenampsen, Rachel Spronk, Irene Stengs, Theo van der Meer, Yannis Tzaninis, and Naomi van Stapele. It is nice to have colleagues, but it is even better to have friends. *** This project was part of the research project on Citizenship, National Canons and the Issue of Cultural Diversity (NWO project number 312-99-102) headed by Jan Willem Duvyendak, Peter Geschiere, and Evelien Tonkens. This project ran from september 2008 to November 2013 at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam. If was funded by NWO, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, by Oxfam-Novib and by FORUM, Institute for Multicultural Affairs. My project was also part of another research project – Responsible, engaged citizens and inviting, connecting institutions. Towards new connections between citizens and between citizens and institutions in a democratising and meritocratising society – headed by Evelien Tonkens. This project ran from January 2009 to May 2013 at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam. It was funded by the VSB-fund, by Aedes and by the housing corporations Rentree, Mitros and Stadgenoot. The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency. Walter Benjamin Before familiarity can turn into awareness the familiar must be stripped of its inconspicuousness; we must give up assuming that the object in question needs no explanation. However frequently recurrent, modest, vulgar it may be, it will now be labeled as something unusual. Bertolt Brecht Contents INTRODUCTION 19 A culturalization of citizenship 22 A reification of culture 26 Ordinary people 32 Commonplace diversity? 34 New West: a very short history 38 The local as a microcosm of the nation 43 Tropes of autochthony: displacement, nostalgia, and respectability 47 Post-Fordist affect 52 Structure of the book 56 CHAPTER 2 Populism and the discourse of displacement in New West 59 Toward an ethnography of populism 62 The assault on public housing 70 A discourse of inevitability 77 A discourse of displacement 86 The politics of distrust 91 Resistance and the right to the city 95 Scheefwoners and (post-)migrants 96 ‘You can’t control things’ 104 Conclusion 107 CHAPTER 3 Longing for the state. Disorder, respectability, and nostalgia in New West 111 The conduct of things 115 Bodily co-presence and boundaries 116 A mutual focus of attention and a shared mood 119 Moral community 121 Spatial stigmatization and the politics of home 123 Narratives of decline 128 The reification of the state 134 Disorder and authority 138 The question of disorder 142 Understanding respectability 147 A culture of control 149 Conclusion 152 CHAPTER 4 Knowing the Other. Everyday life and the politics of alterity 157 Enacting autochthony: change and cultural loss 161 Enacting autochthony: commonplace culturalism 168 Knowing the Other 172 Racializing the city 178 Enacting autochthony: culturalist pluralism 182 Conclusion 188 CHAPTER 5 Homophobia and exclusion. Sex and secularity in Amsterdam 195 The peripheralization of homophobia 199 Gay men and their Others 206 Secular nostalgia 211 A post-progressive nation 214 Social-democracy and the 'new social question' 220 Civil Islam: Sexuality and liberal Muslim 223 'techniques of the self' Making homosexuality ‘bespreekbaar’ 227 Conclusion 233 CONCLUSION 239 REFERENCES 249 ENGLISH SUMMARY 271 NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING 281 INTRODUCTION As the entanglements of everybody with everybody else have grown in recent times, to the point where everyone is tripping over everyone’s feet, and everyone is in everyone’s face, its disruptive power, its capacity to induce doubts in those who think they have things figured out, taped, under control, rapidly increases. We live in a bazaar, not a cathedral; a whirl, not a diagram, and this makes it difficult for anyone anymore to be wholly at ease with his or her own ideas, no matter how official, no matter how cherished, no matter how plated with certainty.