Nick Schuermans

Public space, public art and public pedagogy

a Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Division of Geography, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Heverlee (Leuven), 3001, Belgium b Education, Culture and Society Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Andreas Vesaliusstraat, Leuven, 3000, Belgium Full reference: Nick Schuermans, Maarten P.J. Loopmans & Joke Vandenabeele (2012): Public space, public art and public pedagogy, Social & Cultural Geography, 13:7, 675-682

Fear of crime as a political weapon: explaining the rise of extreme right politics in the Flemish countryside

In this article, we discuss the recent success of extreme right politicians in the Flemish countryside. Because the Vlaams Belang, the dominant extreme right-wing party in Flanders, plays to racist attitudes and everyday fears, we study the interrelations between the rise of the extreme right, racism and a spatialized and racialized culture of fear. Based on a multi-level analysis of spatial variations of racism and a qualitative analysis of focus group interviews on fear of crime, we suggest that a rural or suburban vote for the extreme right Vlaams Belang has to be understood as a protest vote against the racialization and the insecurity of the central cities and as an anticipatory vote that has to stop the imagined infection of the ‘white’ and ‘safe’ countryside with urban ‘diseases’ like crime and foreigners.

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.

No region without individual catalysts? Exploring region formation processes in Flanders (Belgium)

This paper focuses on the process of region formation and its interrelation with agency and regional identity. The region formation processes of two regions in Flanders (Belgium) were analysed, using a framework assessing the institutionalisation of regions. Based on semi-structured interviews and policy documents, the analysis confirmed the usefulness of the concept of institutionalisation to understand and visualise the evolution and ongoing dynamics of region formation processes. The analysis reveals the importance of the dynamic and interactive character of the different aspects of the framework of institutionalisation. The region formation processes in the two regions also indicate the importance of individual catalysts, people who stimulate synergies between the different aspects of the process, resulting in the (re)production of the region and its identity. Regional attachment or ‘regional identity’ was indispensable in the actions of these catalysts and the region formation processes.

‘Happiness Hefei’: public art and rural–urban citizenship struggles in transitional China

On 8–9 May 2010, a deprived chengzhongcun (urban village) in the city of Hefei hosted a session of the Second Hefei Contemporary Art Biennale. In this article, we focus on the artistic practices and the online and offline discussions that they evoked. Drawing upon literature on citizenship, public art, public space and public pedagogy, we analyse the exhibition and its social and political potentialities. Looking at a case study in a country where fear of an aggressive crackdown is part and parcel of the psychology of urban protest, we reflect upon the pedagogical potential of public art in the struggle for equal rights to housing, education and urban space. By paying special attention to the geographical and the pedagogical dimensions of this extraordinary event, we demonstrate that public art can play a role in Chinese citizenship struggles.

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?