Marguerite van den Berg

Women from the catacombs of the city: gender notions in Dutch culturist discourse

The current discourse on minorities in the Netherlands has two striking features: (1) it has been narrowed down to Muslim immigrants with Moroccan or Turkish backgrounds; (2) it focuses largely on gender-related issues. In this article, we suggest that there has been a historical switch in the focus of discourse on immigrants from structural factors such as employment and crime rates to cultural factors related mainly to the Islamic background of the immigrants concerned. We argue that currently the focus on gender-issues and integration in practice has the dual effects of excluding the minorities in question and of discursively counteracting the emancipation of Muslim women. Both points become apparent when reviewing the practical effects of the institutionalization of the gendered discourse on integration in policy efforts currently being undertaken. These effects are a negation of the autonomy of Muslim women and a form of ‘new racism’ that bears all the characteristics of Orientalism.

Femininity As a City Marketing Strategy

Rotterdam organised the festival ‘La City’ as an entrepreneurial strategy to upgrade the city’s class position, using femininity as a tool. ‘La City’ was an attempt to introduce a new economy in Rotterdam: one that is service-based and post-industrial. Rotterdam is a former industrial city and is now trying to establish a new economy and a new spatial organisation. In this article, ‘La City’ campaign material, texts on the character of the city and interviews in local newspapers with policy-makers are analysed in the context of the urban renewal and gentrification policies of Rotterdam. This research shows how the city uses femininity as a marketing strategy to ‘cleanse’ Rotterdam of its working-class mythology as well as construing a hegemonic gender identity capable of excluding lower-class groups. Rotterdam, according to its own texts, is after bourgeois, feminine inhabitants that ‘lounge’ in ‘cocktail bars’ to replace the ‘rough’ men who worked in the harbour. ‘La City’ is one of many strategies to establish genderfication: the production of space for not only more affluent users (as gentrification is often defined), but also for specific gender notions. Genderfication is also established by practices of ‘mixing’ urban neighbourhoods and building homes for middle-class families.Rotterdam organised the festival ‘La City’ as an entrepreneurial strategy to upgrade the city’s class position, using femininity as a tool. ‘La City’ was an attempt to introduce a new economy in Rotterdam: one that is service-based and post-industrial. Rotterdam is a former industrial city and is now trying to establish a new economy and a new spatial organisation. In this article, ‘La City’ campaign material, texts on the character of the city and interviews in local newspapers with policy-makers are analysed in the context of the urban renewal and gentrification policies of Rotterdam. This research shows how the city uses femininity as a marketing strategy to ‘cleanse’ Rotterdam of its working-class mythology as well as construing a hegemonic gender identity capable of excluding lower-class groups. Rotterdam, according to its own texts, is after bourgeois, feminine inhabitants that ‘lounge’ in ‘cocktail bars’ to replace the ‘rough’ men who worked in the harbour. ‘La City’ is one of many strategies to establish genderfication: the production of space for not only more affluent users (as gentrification is often defined), but also for specific gender notions. Genderfication is also established by practices of ‘mixing’ urban neighbourhoods and building homes for middle-class families.

Paternalizing mothers: feminist repertoires in contemporary Dutch civilizing offensives

The stress in Dutch policy texts and policy practices on the emancipation of migrant women from their family and spouses goes hand in hand with a focus on precisely women’s role within the family: that of the mother. In this paper, we ask the question how this is possible. We aim to shed light on this question by understanding contemporary policy texts and policy practices in the context of 1) a strong domestic motherhood ideology and 2) a Dutch tradition of paternalism. These tensions between notions of autonomy and emancipation from the family and marriage on the one hand, and motherhood on the other hand, lead to paradoxical practices of teaching migrant women to become emancipated within their role as mothers. Feminist discursive repertoires are put to work in paternalist policy practices that focus on autonomy in particular ways. In this article, we analyse these notions in policy discourses and in practices that we recorded in ethnographic research in parenting courses in Rotterdam.

Subjective social mobility: Definitions and expectations of ‘moving up’ of poor Moroccan women in the Netherlands

Social mobility is most commonly measured in terms of occupational prestige or educational attainment. Alternative approaches to social mobility can mostly be found in qualitative research. However, these approaches also often conceptualize social mobility as attainment of occupational status or educational degrees. Interpreting the narratives of Moroccan migrant women in the Netherlands, alternative definitions of social mobility are discerned that go beyond formal schooling or paid work and which contribute to a broader definition of class and ‘social upgrading’. What is striking is how the women subscribe to dominant definitions of mobility for their children and have alternative definitions for themselves that are grounded in their social context. La mobilité sociale est le plus fréquemment mesurée en termes de prestige professionnel ou de niveau d’études. Quelques recherches qualitatives adoptent des approches alternatives de la mobilité sociale, mais celles-ci continuent de penser la mobilité sociale essentiellement en fonction des statuts professionnels ou des qualifications formelles. L’analyse des récits de femmes marocaines installées aux Pays-Bas nous permet de dégager quelques définitions alternatives de la mobilité sociale, qui contribuent à l’élaboration d’une définition élargie des appartenances de classe et de la « revalorisation sociale », au-delà des qualifications formelles et du travail rémunéré. Il est frappant de constater la manière dont ces femmes adhèrent aux définitions dominantes de la mobilité quand il s’agit d’envisager l’avenir de leurs enfants, mais adoptent des définitions alternatives, adaptées à leur contexte social, quand il s’agit de penser leur propre situation. La movilidad social se mide habitualmente en términos de prestigio ocupacional o logro educativo aunque pueden encontrarse enfoques alternativos en la investigación cualitativa principalmente. Sin embargo, a menudo estos enfoques también conceptualizan la movilidad social como logro de estatus ocupacional o niveles educativos. Interpretando las narrativas de mujeres inmigrantes marroquíes en Holanda, se distinguen definiciones alternativas de movilidad social que van más allá de la escolarización formal o el trabajo remunerado, las cuales contribuyen a una definición más amplia de clase y “ascenso social”. Es especialmente llamativa la forma en la que las mujeres suscriben las definiciones dominantes de movilidad social, al tiempo que tienen definiciones alternativas para ellas mismas, las cuales están enraizadas en su contexto social.Social mobility is most commonly measured in terms of occupational prestige or educational attainment. Alternative approaches to social mobility can mostly be found in qualitative research. However, these approaches also often conceptualize social mobility as attainment of occupational status or educational degrees. Interpreting the narratives of Moroccan migrant women in the Netherlands, alternative definitions of social mobility are discerned that go beyond formal schooling or paid work and which contribute to a broader definition of class and ‘social upgrading’. What is striking is how the women subscribe to dominant definitions of mobility for their children and have alternative definitions for themselves that are grounded in their social context.

The discursive uses of Jane Jacobs for the genderfying city: Understanding the productions of space for post-Fordist gender notions

The massive increases in women’s labour participation and the return of families with children to the city are often overlooked in understanding contemporary views on urban planning, despite decades of feminist urban theory. This article proposes to understand what is termed the ‘urban gender revolution’ through looking closely at the celebration of Jane Jacobs as the planning hero of the day. Zooming in on the city of Amsterdam, this article offers a case study of the popularity of Jane Jacobs to investigate the production of space for post-Fordist gender notions – genderfication – and to ask the question what new forms of exclusions are the result of this perhaps less sexist city (when compared to the modernist patriarchal ideal that Jacobs rallied against). In addition, it posits that the genderfication-project may help to overcome inequalities along gender lines; it underlines those along class lines.The massive increases in women’s labour participation and the return of families with children to the city are often overlooked in understanding contemporary views on urban planning, despite decades of feminist urban theory. This article proposes to understand what is termed the ‘urban gender revolution’ through looking closely at the celebration of Jane Jacobs as the planning hero of the day. Zooming in on the city of Amsterdam, this article offers a case study of the popularity of Jane Jacobs to investigate the production of space for post-Fordist gender notions – genderfication – and to ask the question what new forms of exclusions are the result of this perhaps less sexist city (when compared to the modernist patriarchal ideal that Jacobs rallied against). In addition, it posits that the genderfication-project may help to overcome inequalities along gender lines; it underlines those along class lines.

The Aesthetics of Work-Readiness: Aesthetic Judgements and Pedagogies for Conditional Welfare and Post-Fordist Labour Markets:

Recent legislation in the Netherlands takes conditional welfare to a new level. Local welfare offices can now give benefit sanctions to welfare clients that ‘obstruct employment’ by their appearance. Through a qualitative and ethnographic study of aesthetic evaluation practices in Dutch welfare offices it is argued that: (1) an everyday aesthetic labour is pivotal in post-Fordist labour markets; (2) in times of precarization, this is so for unemployed as well as formally employed populations; (3) welfare clients are expected to give an aesthetic performance of work-readiness and adaptability; and (4) case managers use aesthetics as a pedagogy to achieve this readiness and adaptability. Aesthetic labour, it is then argued, is best conceptualized as a continuous, everyday, backstage labour for labour: a daily calibration for work contexts in flux.

Pedagogies of optimism: Teaching to ‘look forward’ in activating welfare programmes in the Netherlands:

In the context of the Dutch welfare state, precarisation entails particular pedagogies: citizens are taught how to feel about being insecure through the techniques of (1) accepting; (2) controlling; and (3) imagining. Welfare activation thus focuses on teaching citizens to accept their precarious position, to embrace it and to prepare for its continuation while remaining optimistic about its discontinuation. Perhaps cruelly, then, the state teaches citizens to develop optimism towards certain imagined futures while at the same time acknowledging the unattainability of these futures. Importantly, case managers in Dutch welfare offices are often precarious themselves too, making the affective labour they perform both difficult and essential for themselves. Contemporary activation and workfare programmes are therefore best understood as characterised by insecurity and precarisation on both the receiving and the providing end of state–citizen encounters.

Imagineering: Social Engineering Through Gendered Mythmaking

This chapter outlines the symbolic dimensions of the genderfication project. As cities today are widely considered to be products, the urban experience is commodified into marketable symbolic items by urban entrepreneurs. This chapter investigates forms of place marketing and looks into gender as a repertoire for contemporary imagineering. The 2008 festival “La City” in Rotterdam is analysed as an attempt to introduce a new symbolic economy: one that is to accompany a service-based and post-Fordist economy and labour market. This analysis shows how the city uses femininity as a marketing strategy to “cleanse” Rotterdam of its working-class mythology as well as construing a hegemonic gender identity capable of excluding precarious groups.

Planning: Attracting Women and Children as New Urbanites

This chapter goes deeper into cases of urban planning in which women, children and families are targeted as desired new inhabitants. It builds on two empirical cases to further unpack the concept of genderfication. First, it investigates how in contemporary state-led gentrification policies women and families currently are considered gentrification pioneers. The chapter zooms in on Rotterdam’s urban planning programme for the “child-friendly city”, in which current urban dwellings are replaced by new, larger and more expensive “family-friendly homes” as a strategy for urban regeneration. Second, it investigates the Rotterdam urban planning programme for the “City Lounge”: plans for an urban public space that is especially designed for middle-class consumption and leisure. This public leisure space is targeted at middle-class urbanites and explicitly meant to stimulate a consumption-based economy that is to replace the Fordist economy of previous decades. Both planning strategies aim at producing space for affluent populations that adhere to gender equal norms and are here thus considered as strategies of genderfication.

Social Policy: Targeting Women in Urban Policies – Producing Subject Positions

This chapter considers the next generation of urbanites as one entry point for entrepreneurial urban strategies. It investigates the way in which cities aiming to redefine themselves imagine future populations and how in these efforts they design social policies that explicitly and particularly target women as mothers. It develops the concept of urban regeneration: efforts to regenerate the city by either investing in the children (the next generation) of the current population or replacing the current population of children by a new generation of better-suited children. Based on an ethnographic case study of parenting guidance policy practices, this chapter shows how a ritual-like practice of communication and reflection produces subject positions in parenting guidance that very much resemble what is expected of employees in the post-Fordist and arguably more feminine labour market.