Perceptions of Diversity in the Bijlmer Neighbourhood in Amsterdam
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Perceptions of Diversity in the Bijlmer Neighbourhood in Amsterdam Master’s Thesis Anthea Gick Student number: 11737476 [email protected] Supervisor: Pamela Prickett Second reader: Apostolos Andrikopoulos MSc Sociology, Migration and Ethnic Studies Graduate School of Social Sciences, July 2018 University of Amsterdam Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Pamela Prickett, who has helped and guided me through the process of conducting this research that finally resulted in my master’s thesis. I would like to thank all the people that agreed to participate in this research, sharing their experiences and ideas with me. Thanks also goes to my friends and study colleagues Annika, Renée, Kerem, Fernanda, Naiara and Johanna who inspired me and made this intensive time memorable. Finally, I want to acknowledge my second reader Apostolos Andrikopoulos. Content Summary ................................................................................................................................ 1 1. Introduction: How I got to know the Bijlmer ................................................................. 1 2. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Conceptualizing Diversity ....................................................................................... 4 2.2 Categorization and Normalization of ethnic Difference .......................................... 6 2.3 Reflection of Power Structures in Perceptions of Diversity .................................... 7 3. The Bijlmer ................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 Historical Development and Population ................................................................ 10 3.2 Urban Restructuring and Gentrification ................................................................ 10 4. Research Design and Methodology .............................................................................. 12 4.1 Respondents ........................................................................................................... 12 4.2 Conceptual Framework .......................................................................................... 13 4.3 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 14 4.4 Analysis ................................................................................................................. 14 4.5 Access .................................................................................................................... 15 4.6 Analytic Approach ................................................................................................. 16 5. Analysis: Perception of Diversity ................................................................................. 17 5.1 Enjoying ethnic Diversity ...................................................................................... 19 5.2 Focus on ‘own’ Ethnicity ...................................................................................... 26 5.3 Unity in Difference ................................................................................................ 31 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 39 7. Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 43 8. Appendix ....................................................................................................................... 46 I Perception of Diversity Summary The neighbourhood of the Bijlmer (or Bijlmermeer, officially referred to as Amsterdam Zuidoost) was designed as a neighbourhood of the future in the 1960’s and today is famous for its super-diversity (Wassenber 2006, Vertovec 2007), with a share of people with migration background of 71% in comparison to 48% in all Amsterdam (Van Heelsum 2007). In the context of this neighbourhood, this research is interested in how ethnic diversity is perceived by the residents and in how far the own positionality within the social context affects these perceptions, aimed at understanding and deconstructing the discursive power behind perceptions, which is necessary to acknowledge and work against structural inequality. Studying peoples’ perception of diversity and ethnic difference, or more generally of the ‘Other’ is a first step towards a better understanding of existing narratives and the power structures behind. For this purpose, a qualitative research approach will be used to filter out individual ideas and perspectives to make them tangible and to include them in the discourse around Bijlmer. This research tries to give explanatory approaches and show a certain range of how people understand and make sense of their surrounding, which finally can contribute to a more holistic view on social processes in the context of neighbourhoods like the Bijlmer in Amsterdam. 1. Introduction: How I got to know the Bijlmer Already the first time I visited the neighbourhood of the Bijlmer made me curious. I had an appointment for a viewing of a room I was desperately in need for, just having moved to Amsterdam for my studies. Without informing myself about the place I was going, I got on the metro downtown with a mix of different people, but the further we got outside the centre I couldn’t help but notice that all white people had left except myself and more and more black people entered. Black and white segregation in the Netherlands? I decided to take the room, even without meeting my new flatmates. Within the first few days I got to know them, all white girls from other European countries in their mid- twenties, working. After a while living together, they shared their feelings about the neighbourhood ranging from ‘there are a lot of black people, but they don’t do anything’ over ‘those black people always talk to you’ to ‘it’s dirty and everyone is black, I don’t feel safe’. None of them had any connection to the place or the people, knowing only the shopping mall, the metro station and our apartment. 1 Anthea Gick These observations intrigued me, the level of social distance and disconnection, the coexistence of different ethnic groups with hardly any point of contact and the perception of my white flatmates, living in the seventh floor of a newly renovated high-rise building, literally looking down on the black population of the neighbourhood. Was Putnam (2007) right with his statement, that diversity reduces trust and solidarity in neighbourhoods? Or was it just the lack of intergroup contact (Allport 1954), that lead to the strong perception of difference of my flatmates? And what role plays the socio-economic situation in the perception of the ‘Other’? With this research, I will try to present a more complete picture of the Bijlmer with a focus on its ethnic diversity and to get a more integrated understanding of social processes that take place in this neighbourhood. Understanding and deconstructing the discursive power behind perceptions of diversity is necessary to acknowledge and work against structural inequality. Studying peoples’ perception of diversity and ethnic difference, or more generally of the ‘Other’ is a first step towards a better understanding of existing narratives and the power structures behind. For this purpose, a qualitative research approach will help to filter out individual ideas and perspectives to make them tangible, in order to include them in the discourse around Bijlmer. This research tries to give explanatory approaches and show a certain range of how people understand and make sense of their surrounding, which finally can contribute to a more holistic view on social processes in the context of neighbourhoods like the Bijlmer in Amsterdam. Aiming at understanding the different ways of perceiving diversity and ethnicity within the diverse setting of the neighbourhood of the Bijlmer, I will ask the following research questions: How do residents perceive ethnic diversity in the Bijlmer neighbourhood in Amsterdam? The objective of this research will be to get a grasp of how people perceive ethnic diversity and ethnic difference, how own positionalities in the ethno-social context influence these perceptions as well as the awareness of the meaning of power and privilege. With a better understanding of peoples meaning making in the context of ethnic diversity, as well as of the possible consequences of demographic change on perceptions of ethnicity, this research can also contribute to suggestions for neighbourhood policies. First, I will give an overview of theoretical approaches that can help to understand the concept of diversity and ethnicity in todays society followed by an elaboration on why the study of perceptions is important to understand power structures. With theoretical support from Lamont et al. (2014) and Pascale (2008), the processes of categorization and normalization, as well as the power of common-sense knowledge will be used to explain the reproduction of 2 Perception of Diversity difference, which then will be illustrated by the example of Wessendorf’s (2013) study about perceptions of diversity in the Hackney neighbourhood in London. The chapter will be rounded up with a comparison of the ‘contact theory’ and the ‘conflict theory’ in the emancipation of the perception of difference. In the following, I