Bruno Meeus

GEOGRAPHIES OF WHITENESS AND WEALTH: WHITE, MIDDLE CLASS DISCOURSES ON SEGREGATION AND SOCIAL MIX IN FLANDERS, BELGIUM

ABSTRACT: While policy makers in different parts of the world are worried about the supposedly negative consequences of spatial concentrations of ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged people, researchers continue the debate about the desirability and feasibility of social mix. In this article, we add to this literature by focusing on the often neglected, but crucial practices and discourses of the privileged in urban and suburban neighborhoods. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 74 white, middle class residents of eight different neighborhoods of the Ghent urban region in Belgium, we demonstrate that few middle class whites actually want to live in a mixed neighborhood. We also make it clear that those living in diversity do not necessarily take up the roles they are expected to take up by the advocates of social mix policies. Drawing on these findings, we propose to broaden the research agenda of studies on segregation and social mix.

Welfare through migrant work: what if the Romanian ‘safety valve’ closes?

The Romanian work migration system came as an answer to the increased individual welfare risks caused by a particular form of Romanian neoliberalism. The system acts as a transnational labour market built up from the grassroots. Through its maturing, this migration system has acted as a ‘safety valve’ in Romania: neoliberal principles could be built into the Romanian welfare system. As such, migrant work abroad became a structural aspect of the Romanian welfare system. The austerity measures that are currently imposed on Mediterranean economies hosting Romanian migrants, and on Romania itself, therefore, create a double pressure on welfare in the latter, since they undermine the ‘safety valve’ capacity of the migration system.

Staying Put! A Housing Pathway Analysis of Residential Stability in Belgium

Governments all over the world try to influence in one way or another the residential mobility of their citizens. This article takes the vantage point of why Belgians do not want to change residence a lot and how they actually succeed in doing this. We claim that the framework of a housing pathways approach helps to get to grips with the historically built-up archive of normalizing discourses and practices related to housing and diverse other domains of life. Our in-depth interviews with 67 residents reveal that normalizing discourses and practices on becoming and remaining a stable home-owner mainly support the two pillars of Belgian housing policy (home ownership and commuting) even when these practices and discourses further endorse ecological and accessibility problems. Policies that successfully want to change the relocation practices of people do have to take this archive seriously.

Leaving an Institution in Flanders (Belgium): A Road to Homelessness?

Abstract People living in an institution will leave this residential context one day and have to proceed to a stable independent way of living. This transition is not without difficulties as it turns out this socially vulnerable group runs an increased risk of becoming homeless. Research in Flanders (Belgium) has shown that a considerable share of the homeless population has previously stayed in an institutional setting, mostly in youth care (48.7%), psychiatric (34.4%) and penitentiary (33.1%) institutions. Moreover, the share of homeless people with a history in one of these institutions has increased in the past decades. Institution leavers, face at least three obstacles to a stable housing situation in Flanders: a lack of affordable housing, a lack of access to (non-residential) social assistance and personal difficulties in coping with living independently. Yet, there are several programs that support institution leavers and prepare them for the transition to an independent living situation and legal developments that strengthen their position in society and on the housing market. In this paper, we explore these initiatives and developments in three case studies (Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven). Based on in-depth interviews with “street-level bureaucrats” who work in these institutions (youth care, psychiatric and penitentiary settings), social support services and social housing organizations, we reconstruct the pathways of institution leavers to the housing market, the support they receive and the experienced difficulties.

Aandacht voor ruimte én tijd

Kritisch omgaan met tijd is in de ruimtelijke wetenschappen eigenlijk nooit een prioriteit geweest. Tijd loopt en lijkt een eenvoudig constant gegeven. Maar is dat wel zo? Was het niet Einstein die beweerde dat de tijd relatief is? Dat tijd verschilt naargelang waar je je bevindt?