This summer the Netherlands city of Enschede announced plans to demolish cheap
housing, with the deliberate intention of forcing low-income households out of
the city.
This was the first example I saw of a European city openly adopting such a
policy. This week a report to the Netherlands minister for housing has
recommended this as a standard strategy, for all urban areas. The report is
from the neoliberal think-tank Nyfer (associated with the private Nijenrode
Business University).
Displacement of low-income groups by high-income groups has been studied,
since the beginnings of urban sociology. Since the 1950's the pattern is
familiar in US cities. The ghettos are demolished, the poor move on to the
next ghetto, or they are re-housed in 'projects' at the edge of the city (in
the least attractive locations). However, it is still an exception for
European cities. It is certainly new to adopt a strategy of displacement for
an entire city, let alone for all cities in one country.
I suggest that the term 'social cleansing' should be used or such policies. It
puts the issue where it belongs: in social philosophy and ethics. The
displacement of a social class should receive the same moral analysis, as the
displacement of an ethnic group.
In this case the underlying philosophy is neoliberal. It can be formalised in
this way:
1. neoliberals believe that society exists for the talented (who are equated
with the present high-income groups), not for the untalented
2. neoliberals believe that all levels of the population should be subjected
to the pressure of competition - even if they have already failed in previous
competition. In other words, the option of just being poor does not exist in a
neoliberal society: the disadvantaged will be further disadvantaged. At times
this can take the form of an (economically irrational) social persecution of
an underclass.
3. in urban policy this ethic takes the form of a monopoly claim on cities, by
high-income and middle-income groups, enforced by deliberate displacement policies.
--
Paul Treanor
http://www.diagonal.demon.nl/neolib.html
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|