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Paper Proposal for the Master Thesis Who are the gentrifiers in new-build gentrification? A study on the ‘‘Kop van Zuid’’-developments in Rotterdam, the Netherlands Master Thesis Human Geography and Planning, specialisation: Urban Geography University of Utrecht, Faculty of Geosciences Linda Anna Maria Elise Bletterman (UU student number: 3008991) Supervisor: Dr. Brian Doucet Nov 2010 Contents Figures 4 Tables 5 Preface 6 Summary 8 1.1 Introduction: reasons and motives 10 1.2 Research questions and the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands 11 1.3 Social relevance: new-build gentrification as a global urban strategy 12 1.4 Scientific relevance: new-build gentrification as the new research frontier 13 1.5 Structure of the report 15 2 Gentrification and moving decisions: an overview of the existing literature 17 2.1 Towards a definition of gentrification 17 2.1.1 Effects of gentrification on the neighborhood- and city-level 19 2.2 Causes of gentrification: production-side v/s consumption-side explanations 21 2.3 „Third wave‟ gentrification 22 2.4 On preferences, moving intentions and actual moving behaviour 26 2.4.1 People‟s preferences and neighborhood reputations 26 2.4.2 People‟s motivations, „triggers‟ and housing decisions 31 2.5 Who are the gentrifiers in new-build gentrification? 33 2.6 Conceptual model and expectations about the new-build gentrifiers 37 3 „Flourishing‟ neighborhoods in Rotterdam, the Netherlands 40 3.1 Gentrification in the Netherlands 40 3.1.1 The Dutch housing market: trends and troubles 40 3.1.2 The role of the government in Dutch urban planning 42 3.2 Stimulating gentrification in Rotterdam 44 3.2.1 Rotterdam and the river: a brief story about the city of Rotterdam 44 3.2.2 Current situation on the Rotterdam housing market 45 3.3 New-build developments on the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ 47 3.3.1 The „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ project 48 3.3.2 Discussion on the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-developments 49 4 Who are the gentrifiers? – A survey held on the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟, Rotterdam 51 4.1 Motives, goals and relevance of the research 51 4.1.1 Why Rotterdam and why the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟? 52 4.2 Data and methods 53 4.2.1 Operationalization of the conceptual model 53 2 4.2.2 Exogenous and endogenous variables 54 4.2.3 The questionnaire 55 4.2.4 The sample 57 4.2.5 A few remarks on the survey 60 5 Who are the inhabitants of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟? 62 5.1 Characteristics of the inhabitants of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ 63 5.1.1 Socio-demographic characteristics of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample 63 5.1.2 Socio-economic characteristics of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample 66 5.1.3 Position of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample on the housing market 71 5.2 Motivations of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-inhabitants for moving into this area 74 5.2.1 Life-cycle related motivations 75 5.2.2 Current dwelling and neighborhood specific motivations 77 5.2.3 Previous dwelling and neighborhood specific motivations 81 5.3 About the housing preferences of the inhabitants of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ 85 5.2.1 Preferences regarding dwelling 86 5.2.2 Preferences regarding neighborhood 87 6 Conclusion and recommendations 94 6.1 Differences between the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-residents and the „traditional gentrifiers‟ 94 6.2 What do these results say about new-build gentrification? (Towards an answer on the problem statement) 98 6.3 Critical reflection on these outcomes 99 6.4 Recommendations 100 Reference list 101 Appendices: A Summary of the process of operationalization 106 B The questionnaire (in Dutch) 108 C Characteristics of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample 117 D Motivations of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample for moving into the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟ 124 E „Grouping‟ on the basis of the respondents‟ characteristics 127 F Housing preferences of the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample 130 G Results and text deleted from section 5.2 132 3 Figures Picture on the cover page: apartment building on Landtong, „‟Kop van Zuid‟‟ Source: CIE Architects, Photo derived in Oktobre 2010 1.1 Who are the gentrifiers in new-build gentrification? 14 1.2 Structure of the report 16 2.1 Gentrification as a continuous interplay of supply and demand 22 2.2 Where does the intention to move come from? 28 2.3 What about opportunities and constraints? 32 2.4 Conceptual model on (new-build) gentrification 38 3.1 Map of Rotterdam 47 4.1 Map of situation of Stadstuinen, Landtong and Entrepot 57 4.2 Photograph of neighborhood Stadstuinen 58 4.3 Photograph of neighborhood Landtong (by night) 59 4.4 Photograph of neighborhood Landtong (by day) 59 4.5 Photograph of the Entrepot warehouse 60 5.1 Age of the respondents in six categories (in percentages) 63 5.2 Household composition of the sample 64 5.3 Sector of education in which the respondents of the sample graduated 66 5.4 Labour participation of the respondents and their partners 67 5.5 Workplace of respondents 68 5.6 Workplace of respondents‟ partners 68 5.7 An overview of the sectors in which the respondents are employed 69 5.8 An overview of the sectors in which the respondents‟ partners are employed 70 5.9 Income categories of the households in the sample 70 5.10 Where did the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-residents that were in the sample came from? 72 5.11 The recent address of the respondents: owner-occupied, private or social rented 72 5.12 Type of recent dwelling of the respondents 73 5.13 Good condition or quality of the dwelling 86 5.14 Historical characteristics 87 5.15 Modern characteristics 87 5.16 Quietness 88 5.17 Green spaces 88 5.18 A lively neighborhood 89 5.19 Safety in the neighborhood 89 5.20 Luxury or rich appearance 89 5.21 Historical elements 90 5.22 Modern elements 90 5.23 Public services 91 5.24 Shops and stores 91 5.25 Culture and nightlife 91 5.26 Reputation of the neighborhood 92 5.27 Nearness of the city centre 92 4 Tables 2.1 Expected characteristics of the „new-build‟ gentrifiers 39 5.1 Age of the people in the „„Kop van Zuid‟‟-sample and the residents of the city of Rotterdam in total, divided into five age categories 64 5.2 Household composition of the sample in comparison to all households in Rotterdam 65 5.3 Motivations - life cycle related 75 5.4 Motivations regarding current dwelling and neighborhood 78 5.5 Rating of two factors regarding the current dwelling, by age categories 79 5.6 Motivations regarding former dwelling and neighborhood 82 6.1 Summary of the results 96 5 Preface ‘‘Gentrification, isn’t that the refurbishing of old property by bohemians and artists in Berlin?’’ As I have always been interested in the cultural and creative side of cities as well as in urban development, over the past years I have tried to study these two subjects in relationship to each other. „The creative city‟, „backpackers in Amsterdam‟, „the literary climate in The Hague‟, „the Berlin nightlife‟... these are just some subjects that have had my full attention, before I discovered gentrification as a research topic. In contemporary cities around the world and in the places I visited, gentrification is setting the stage. This has confronted me repeatedly and I found the working of gentrification fascinating: pioneers, bohemians and artist who are moving into old and deteriorated parts of inner cities and their surrounding neighborhoods; that are renovating their dwellings and changing the image of neighborhood in a way that it attracts more and more people; displacing the former inhabitants of the neighborhood. Remarkable is that at a certain stage, the increasing popularity of the neighborhood amongst middle- and even upper income class households also causes the ones that first started the process of gentrification (i.e. the pioneers, bohemians) to move. It seemed however that this image of gentrification has become partly obsolete, in a sense that the more recent „types‟ of gentrification are including new-build developments, large scale restructuring or regeneration projects and even prestigious flagships and landmarks. First I did not agree in that the meaning of gentrification should be stretched this far. What had happened? When I started orientating on this subject, I reminded a story that I had read once for one of the courses in the Human Geography Bachelor program. It was the story of „„the Blind Men and the Elephant‟‟ that Hamnett (1992) used in his paper on gentrification as a metaphor to describe gentrification studies. In a rather different way he tried to show how partial approaches to understanding neighborhood change led to unnecessary debate and a failure to grasp the scope of the problems involved. The thing is that during my master‟s thesis I did not wanted to be like these blind men. So I made an attempt to unravel lots of different aspects of gentrification, and in doing so I tried to keep open-minded to the different approaches and meanings that I found. Hamnett used the story to point at the intellectual battlefield between the cultural and the structural approach, between consumption and production, between the liberals and Marxists. Because several authors and scientists (such as Chriss Hamnett, Sharon Zukin, Loretta Lees) have plead for complementarity, instead of supplementarity, of the demand-side approach (David Ley) and the supply-side approach (Neil Smith), this debate has been brought to an ending. However another debate regarding gentrification has made it to the scientific agenda already, namely: the debate on whether new-build developments can be accounted for as being a new type of gentrification as well, either called „new-build‟ gentrification or „third wave‟ gentrification.
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