The unraveling of Amsterdam’s unitary rental system

The Netherlands has traditionally been considered an iconic ‘unitary’ rental housing market in which social and private sectors directly compete. More recently however, this unitary market has been undermined by changes in the status of housing associations, the privatization of social housing stock and the promotion of home ownership. It has subsequently been suggested that the Netherlands is drifting toward a ‘dualist’ system in which social and private sectors are critically unequal. This paper takes on this claim, providing, on the one hand, palpable evidence of the waning influence of the unitary housing system in the Netherlands and, on the other, a deeper examination of processes of dualisation as well as the outcomes. We focus on Amsterdam, where housing privatization has been most intense. We specifically draw on a geospatial analysis of changing tenure distributions at the neighbourhood level as well as a household analysis of the shifting profile of tenants and home owners to show how the unitary rental market, which helped establish Amsterdam as an iconic ‘just city’, has been unraveling. We demonstrate the relevance of the unitary/dualist model to understanding contemporary urban processes, especially those featuring social and economic polarization.

Related papers:

title: Threats to the Dutch Unitary Rental Market
abstract: Social rental housing has once again captured a strong position on the Dutch political agenda. This has happened especially since the European Commission sent a letter to the Dutch government indicating that the Dutch social rental sector was not considered EU-proof from the viewpoint of the European Union's competition policy. The letter coincided with criticisms from Dutch politicians that housing associations had not been performing well enough for some time, given their abundant resources. However, in an international context, the Dutch social rental sector is often regarded as a good system for providing affordable housing to those who need it, without the sector being marginalized and stigmatized. Jim Kemeny has classified this market as one in which the social rental sector in due course competes with the private rental sector on equal or almost equal terms as a unitary rental market. The starting point of this paper is whether the achievement of a unitary rental sector is threatened by the EU's competition policy. It will also discuss two other possible threats to the future of the Dutch unitary rental market: the threat to take surplus capital away from housing associations and have government decide on what to invest; and the attractiveness of home-ownership to households. We conclude that the character of the Dutch unitary rental sector is indeed under threat, although mostly by stealth.

title: Revolution in Social Housing in the Netherlands: Possible Effects of New Housing Policies
abstract: The social rented sector in the Netherlands has always had a very special status. Unlike many other countries, in the Netherlands this sector has never been regarded as a segment exclusively for low-income households. Consequently, neighbourhoods with large numbers of social rented dwellings have never been areas for low-income households only. Since about 1990, however, the proportion of low-income households in social rented housing has increased, while high-income households can be found more and more in the owner-occupied sector. At least for the 1990s, housing policies can be seen as partially responsible for this change. In this contribution, we argue that new housing policies in the Netherlands will probably have the effect of increasing the share of low-income households in social housing even more. This holds for the policy of urban restructuring, initiated in 1997, as well as for the newest plans of the State Secretary of Housing that were launched in his Housing Memorandum at the end of the year 2000. If the proposed housing policy is implemented in the near future, we doubt whether the status of social housing in the Netherlands will continue to be so different from that of other EU countries.

title: The just city
abstract: Justice has always been a major topic within political philosophy, but scholars in the behavioural sciences have largely avoided normative statements. After the urban uprisings of the 1960s and 1970s, however, leftist scholars adopted a critical approach that, while not specifying a concept of justice, injected a moral dimension into their work. Within urban studies, the argument of Henri Lefebvre, who defined space as a social construction and who maintained that all groups should have a ‘right to the city’, became particularly influential. During the 1990s, scholars began to be more explicit about the concept of justice. Three main approaches to urban justice were developed: (1) communicative rationality; (2) recognition of diversity; (3) the just city/spatial justice. Differences between the communicative and just city approaches revolved around emphasis on democracy versus equity, process versus outcome. I argue that democracy, diversity, and equity are the three governing principles for urban justice but also recognize the tension among them. Although structural transformation cannot be achieved at the municipal level, a change in the rhetoric around urban policy from a focus on competitiveness to a discourse about justice can improve the quality of life for urban residents.

title: From Public Housing to the Social Market: Rental Policy Strategies in Comparative Perspective
abstract: Jim Kemeny develops a conceptual framework to present a critical study of comparative rental markets. The framework centres around the concept of the process of maturation of cost rental housing and two policies for handling this which have been adopted by industrial societies. These are, firstly, the Anglo-Saxon "dualist" system, seen in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and secondly, the Germanic "unitary market" system, seen in Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. Using a comparative approach based around international case studies, Jim Kemeny shows how each system stems from different power structures, is governed by different policy strategies, and is informed by different ideological views of how markets operate. Offering a radical critique of the orthodox view, it is argued that the time is now right for English-speaking nations to abandon state control over cost renting but allow to it to compete directly with profit renting, as in the "unitary market" model. International in scope, this volume should be of interest to researchers in housing, sociology and related fields.

title: Two Types of Rental System? An Exploratory Empirical Test of Kemeny's Rental System Typology
abstract: The organisation of the rental market varies from country to country. Kemeny draws a distinction between societies with an integrated rental system (relatively minor differences between the non-profit and the profit rental sectors) and societies with a dualist rental system (relatively major differences between the non-profit and the profit rental sectors). In this exploratory paper, Kemeny's typology is tested against data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The tentative conclusion is that integrated rental systems and dualist rental systems do indeed exist, but there are signs of increasing convergence between the two.

title: Managing Social Rental Housing in the EU: A Comparative Study
abstract: countries have witnessed a decline in the provision of social housing. Overall, there has been a trend towards housing becoming more market oriented, competitive and opened up to economic pressures. Supply subsidies to social housing have been replaced or complemented in a number of countries by demand-side subsidies through housing benefits and vouchers. In this context, social housing organisations across the European Union (EU) are facing a paradoxical challenge: while they are expected to fulfil a ‘social mission’ (i.e. provide access to decent housing to people who cannot afford it in the market), the steep reduction in subsidies and in public investment in housing are putting increasing pressure on these organisations to become more ‘market-oriented’ or ‘business-like’ as a way to become self-financing. This paper aims to shed light on these developments on the basis of the findings of a comparative study on the management of social rental housing organisations across the European Union. The study looks at how ‘social’ and ‘commercial’ objectives are reflected in strategy formulation, the key challenges faced by organisations, and the specific responses and innovative management approaches being put in place to deal with these challenges. In this paper we present and discuss findings from the study. In the relative absence of theory in this field, the analysis of findings uses a set of management concepts specifically crafted for the study of management models of social rental housing in Europe. The study is the first ever comparative European research of the management systems, values, visions and strategies of organisations that own and manage properties in the social rental sector.

title: Is the landlord levy a threat to the rented housing sector? The case of the Netherlands
abstract: In 2010 a working party made up of Dutch civil servants suggested a tool known as the ‘National Residential Property Tax’ with the aim of strengthening the public budget. Initially, this was intended as a tenure-neutral tax for both the owner-occupier and the rented sector. However, in the 2012 Coalition Agreement between the conservatives (VVD) and the social democrats (PvdA) it was narrowed down to a levy for landlords of properties with regulated rents – and thus ended up as a specific tax largely targeted at housing associations. On the one hand, the new government was offering housing association opportunities for annual rent increases above the rate of inflation but, on the other hand, it was getting ready to cream off the extra revenue to alleviate its own budgetary problems. By 2017 this new levy will have risen to 1.7 billion euros annually. This paper explains the background to this unique Dutch housing policy instrument and presents an ex ante evaluation of the impact of the landlord levy on housing associations, commercial real estate investors and tenants. It will also offer some conclusions and policy recommendations for housing policy in the Netherlands, which could be relevant for other European countries as well.

title: Demise of the Dutch social housing tradition: impact of budget cuts and political changes
abstract: At the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, the Dutch housing associations were in the position to perform a kind of anti-cyclical housing production that could save, at least partially, the total housing production in the Netherlands. In this contribution, we give insight into the way the housing associations managed to fulfil this specific task and more in general if the associations managed to strengthen their position since the economic crisis. After presenting the development and the main characteristics of the Dutch social rented sector, we give an overview of the general economy of the Netherlands since 2008, which suffers from the global credit crunch, followed by the debt crisis and the Euro crisis. Because of the strong international relations and the big size of the Dutch banking sector, the Netherlands appears to be very vulnerable for international financial problems. In the aftermath of the credit crunch, the Dutch government decided to give priority to a sound public budget and announced in 2010 and 2012 huge budget cuts. The rented sector was already faced with drastic reforms and huge budget cuts by the start of the Rutte I Cabinet in 2010. These policies are described and analysed. The increased impopularity of housing associations explains that these social housing providers were extremely hit by additional budget cuts. For the housing associations, the situation is threatening. The Rutte I and Rutte II Cabinets seem not to be aware of the rich tradition of the Dutch social housing sector and want to reduce the size of the social rented sector (now: 31 %) substantially. This contribution argues that there is the danger now that the austerity measures of the current government (Rutte II) will lead to the demise of the Dutch social housing tradition, although the housing associations could be a part of the solution for alleviating the current problems on the housing and construction market.

title: A Monstrous Hybrid: The Political Economy of Housing in Early Twenty-first Century Sweden
abstract: In the leftist Western political imagination, Sweden continues, for many, to represent a vision of a ‘better’, more egalitarian political-economic model than the neoliberal capitalism that has come to dominate the Anglo-American world in particular; and its housing system is widely regarded as an integral component of this alternative, social-democratic model. The present paper argues that this envisioning of the political economy of Swedish housing is thoroughly outdated. Yet it insists, equally, that the competing envisioning of Swedish housing advanced by prominent scholars within Sweden – of a radically (neo)liberalised domestic housing system – is not accurate either. Rather, Swedish housing in the early twenty-first century constitutes a complex hybrid of legacy regulated elements on the one hand and neoliberalised elements on the other. Recognising this hybridity is essential, the paper submits, to understanding the nature and source of the most pressing issues facing the Swedish housing sector today. The system's hybridity, moreover, is ‘monstrous’ – following Jane Jacobs's coining of the term – in the sense that those issues reveal the pivotal role currently played by the Swedish housing system in the creation, reproduction and intensification of socio-economic inequality.

title: Market-based housing reforms and the ‘right to the city’: the variegated experiences of New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo
abstract: Market-based reforms have played important parts in restructuring urban housing sectors in recent decades and have increasingly marginalised or excluded lower income groups, especially in the so-called ‘global cities’ where market pressures have been strongest. While accounts of housing policy and market transformations in cities are not uncommon, existing studies demonstrate a strong North American bias. Moreover, comparative analyses have so far been rare. In this paper, neoliberal transformations in housing practices and conditions are examined in three highly differentiated and contrasting cities from three different continents: New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo. The analysis demonstrates remarkable variegation in the manifestation of neoliberalisation of housing as well as considerable path dependency in terms of housing policies, practices and market restructuring. What becomes evident is that both symbolic and de facto erosion of the ‘right to the city’ for low-income residents, while a relatively ubiquitous outcome of housing marketisation, is strongly mediated by local housing practices, structural constraints and policy legacies and regimes.

title: A Union of Home Owners
abstract: In 1945 home ownership was a minority tenure in each of what are now the 25 countries of the European Union. By 2003, home ownership was the majority tenure in every country except Germany. However, the exact enumeration of home owners in each country, and hence comparison between countries is sometimes difficult largely due to the absence of any systematically collected and fully harmonized set of data across the countries. For one thing, surveys of the housing stock by tenure have not been carried out at regular periods in each country. In addition, definitions of what constitutes home ownership differ from country to country. For example, Stephens argues that, because it is a tradable asset, Swedish co-operative housing could be thought of as a form of home ownership, a definition that would raise the overall home ownership level in that country to around 60 per cent (Stephens, 2003). Yet, even without that, the home ownership rate across the 15 pre-2004 member states had by 2003 reached 63.5 per cent, and in the ten, newer member states 66.7 per cent, as shown in Table 1a and 1b. In total, there are in the order of 136 million European home owning households in the EU25. Moreover, if Germany which has almost a fifth of the entire EU housing stock and the proportionately smallest home ownership sector, is excluded from the calculations the overall EU proportion in home ownership increases from 63.9 per cent to 68.4 per cent. In the light of this evidence it may be appropriate to refer to a Union of Home owners. This Union of Home owners is the key starting point for the collection of articles published in this themed edition of the European Journal of Housing Policy. Interest in the growth of home ownership across first the 15 individual EU countries and now the further ten accession countries is increasingly well developed but the emphasis has typically focused either on understanding the formulation and implementation of housing policy or the structure and operation of the housing and mortgage markets. This themed edition has a different and distinctive focus in that its concern is largely with some key implications of the growth of home ownership, predominately as

title: Commodifying danish housing commons
abstract: Housing was a backbone of the Danish welfare state, but this has been profoundly challenged by the past decades of neoliberal housing politics. In this article we outline the rise of the Danish model of association‐based housing on the edge of the market economy (and the state). From this, we demonstrate how homes in private cooperatives through political interventions in the context of a booming real estate market have plunged into the market economy and been transformed into private commodities in all but name, and we investigate how non‐profit housing associations frontally and stealthily are attacked through neoliberal reforms. This carries the seeds for socio‐spatial polarization and may eventually open the gate for commodification – and thus the dismantling of the little that is left of a socially just housing sector. Yet, while the association‐based model was an accessary to the commodification of cooperative housing, it can possibly be an accomplice in sustaining non‐profit housing as a housing commons.

title: Selling the Welfare State: The Privatisation of Public Housing
abstract: 1.  Privatisation and Housing 2. Council Housing - Historical Roots and Contemporary Issues 3. The Political Debate 4. Welfare Housing for Marginal Groups? 5. Financial and Electoral Aspects of Housing Privatisation 6. The Spatial and Social Pattern of Council House Sales 7. The Polarised City 8. Contextualising the Sale of Council Housing 9. Radical Centralism and Local Resistance 10. Rights to Buy and Beyond 11. Selling Whose Welfare? - Polarisation and Privatisation

title: Ending Security of Tenure for Social Renters: Transitioning to ‘Ambulance Service’ Social Housing?
abstract: Drawing on international comparative research, this paper examines recent policy moves to withdraw security of tenure in social housing in England and Australia. We contend that there are theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that tenure security is crucial both to social housing tenants themselves and to conceptualisations of the sector. Starting from this premise we analyse the underlying rationale(s) for phasing out open-ended social tenancies. First, we consider the ‘welfare dependency’ argument and the claim that ‘conditionality’ mechanisms will incentivise social renters to (re)engage with the labour market. Second, we interrogate the, arguably more influential, rationale which stresses equity considerations in ensuring that scarce social housing resources are targeted to those in greatest need. We conclude by reflecting on the implementation prospects for this high-level policy reform, arguing that individual social landlords' motivations will be crucial in shaping the practical impacts of the new regime.

title: Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality
abstract: Ghetto, Banlieue, Favela et Caetera: Tools for Rethinking Urban Marginality.  AN OLD PROBLEM IN A NEW WORLD?. 1. The Return of the Repressed: Riots, 'Race,' and Dualization in Three Advanced Societies. I. FROM COMMUNAL GHETTO TO HYPERGHETTO. 2. The State and Fate of the Dark Ghetto at Century's Close. 3. The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in 'Bronzeville'. 4.  A High-Insecurity Ward in Chicago. II. BLACK BELT, RED BELT. 5. From Conflation to Comparison:  From the Core of Chicago to the Margins of Paris. 7.  Violence, Isolation, and the State. III.- LOOKING AHEAD: URBAN MARGINALITY IN THE 21st CENTURY. 8. The Rise of Advanced Marginality: Specifications and Implications. 9. Logics of Urban Polarization from Below.  Theory, History, and Politics in Urban Analysis

title: Should Policy Makers Strive for Neighborhood Social Mix? An Analysis of the Western European Evidence Base
abstract: The paper presents an analytical framework for elucidating the equity and social efficiency criteria that might be used to justify a housing policy aiming for a substantial mix of neighborhood residents by income, ethnicity and/or immigrant status. This framework permits the classification of multivariate statistical studies comprising the Western European evidence base and shows the importance of distinguishing intra- and extra-neighborhood processes when evaluating evidence related to the efficiency criterion. Evaluation of the evidence base in light of this framework reveals that it sufficiently supports a mixing policy aimed at avoiding concentrations of disadvantaged individuals if, and only if, policy makers emphasize equity grounds (i.e. improving the well-being of the disadvantaged absolutely). The evidence base does not support a mixing policy on efficiency grounds, regardless of whether intra-neighborhood social interactions or extra-neighborhood stigmatization/resource restrictions are presumed to be the primary causal mechanism for neighborhood effects.

title: Living in concentrated poverty
abstract: The social consequences of concentrated poverty are a recurring theme in urban policy and have received much attention in academic research in the form of neighborhood efffect studies. This dissertation explores the ways in which living in a disadvantaged neighborhood negatively affects residents' labour market participation and long term socio-economic prospects. By way of a case study in the Netherlands, the research focuses on explanations for neighbourhood effects relating to the population composition of low-income neighborhoods. These include neighborhood-based processes of social isolation, negative socialization, social disorganization and mechanisms relating to the formal social infrastructure.

title: Segregation, gentrification, and residualisation: from public housing to market-driven housing allocation in inner city Stockholm
abstract: From the 1930s and into the 1990s, public housing in Sweden was a key element in the Social Democrats’ ambition to construct a housing system that would secure high-quality, affordable housing for all. The Liberal–Conservative national government of the early 1990s initiated important changes to housing policy in Sweden and allowed for local decision-making concerning tenure conversion, the conversion of public rental housing into market-based (cooperative) housing. Stockholm city decided early on to invite public housing residents to buy their dwellings, under the condition that at least half of the residents living in a particular property were in favour of buying. In this paper we ask two questions: in what way did the subsequent and substantial tenure conversions change the population mix of affected neighbourhoods? Second, have tenure conversions in inner city Stockholm contributed to increasing levels of segregation in the city of Stockholm? We hypothesise that inner city Stockholm has further gentrified and that non-converted public housing properties, predominantly found in the suburban parts of the city, experience residualisation (households have become poorer in relative terms). In short, we expect and also document increasing levels of socio-economic segregation as the result of this right-to-buy policy.

title: Social housing in Europe
abstract: Social housing has been an important part in Europe’s housing provision for many decades both in terms of investment in new build and regeneration but also in providing adequate affordable housing for a wide range of European citizens. This role has been seen to be under threat especially since the 1980s as public expenditure pressures have grown, liberalisation and privatisation have become more important and alternative tenures have become more readily  This paper draws out some of the most important trends in the scale of social housing in countries across Europe; clarifies who lives in the sector and under what terms and conditions, and then discusses some of the drivers behind these trends and implications for the future provision of social  In particular it addresses the extent to which social housing contributes to ensuring that households can access adequate standard accommodation at a price they can afford in different contexts within the European Union. It also looks to the challenges faced by the sector and its role in the future.

title: Social Segregation, Housing Tenure and Social Change in Dutch Cities in the Late 1980s
abstract: Contemporary debates about social polarisation and divided cities emphasise common influences on social and economic change in cities. The development of a global economy and of global influences on both market systems and on public policy regimes encourages an expectation that there is a convergence in processes and policies affecting cities and a convergence in outcomes—in terms of increasingly similar patterns of polarisation and division. This paper considers data from Britain and the Netherlands relating to changes in the housing sector and to social segregation and indicates that emerging patterns are very different. Socio-tenurial polarisation and social segregation are not as marked in the Netherlands as in Britain and are not changing as fast. The discussion arising from these data suggests that concern with globalisation and common influences on change should be balanced with a recognition of the importance of other factors in determining the pattern and pace of change in cities. Within this it is important to recognise not just differences in housing finance and policy but the degree of social and income inequality and the wider functioning of the welfare state.

title: Public Housing for Whom? Experiences in an Era of Mature Neo-Liberalism: The Netherlands and Amsterdam
abstract: Public housing in the Netherlands is rapidly changing. While it used to be an example of how government intervention could successfully contribute to create descent housing for all, and while public housing was seen as the instrument to get rid of inhumane housing conditions, currently the sector is moving into another position. The sector is still large and of high quality, but its function is significantly changing. In this paper, a brief history of Dutch and Amsterdam public housing is presented, as well as an interpretation of the main forces behind its development. These descriptions are seen as essential ingredients for understanding the rise and current decline of the sector. An empirical analysis shows for whom the sector is functioning and what the directions of change are. The sector is not only declining but also residualising. Its position in the housing market is getting weaker, while the sector increasingly functions for lower-level socio-economic categories only.

title: Social Housing and Illegal State Aid: The Agreement between European Commission and Dutch Government
abstract: The size of the Dutch social housing sector, with a 32 per cent share of the housing stock, has prompted concerns over the ‘level playing field’ of competition between social and commercial housing providers. In 2007, this concern culminated in a complaint from the Dutch Association of Institutional Investors (IVBN) to the European Commission, with particular reference to the distorting effects of state aid to housing associations. In December 2009 the European Commission published its decision about the conditions for state aid to Dutch housing associations. The Commission agrees with the proposal of the Dutch government that housing associations allocate at least 90 per cent of their social rental dwellings to households with an income of less than EUR 33,000, if they want to remain eligible for state aid for these activities. Furthermore, housing associations may invest in real estate for public purposes. With its decision, the Commission ends a long period of uncertainty and contributes to creating a level playing field on the Dutch housing market. Nevertheless, the Commission's decision also hampers policies to increase tenure diversification and social mix in Dutch neighbourhoods.

title: Promoting home ownership in a social‐rented city: policies, practices and pitfalls
abstract: Amsterdam's housing market is dominated by the social‐rented sector. It comprises 56 per cent of the total housing stock, while home ownership comprises only 19 per cent, lower than anywhere else in the Netherlands, and among the lowest in the world. Central government policy is currently seeking to increase the share of home ownership in the Netherlands from 53 per cent (2001) to 65 per cent in 2010. This paper will summarise recent national and local (Amsterdam) housing policy developments, focusing on the recent practice of selling social housing in Amsterdam. Unlike the Right to Buy scheme in Britain, the Netherlands employs an ‘offer to buy’ strategy. Sales, however, have been disappointing so far. Two factors were found to be crucial in this regard: (1) the sluggish change in ‘policy mentality’ and bureaucracy and (2) the high prices in the home ownership market. By way of conclusion, the paper reflects on the desirability of shifting the tenure structure from tenancy to ownership and on the risks that an (over‐) emphasis on home ownership may bring.

title: Social Rented Housing in Western Europe: Developments and Expectations
abstract: What lies ahead for the social rented sector in western Europe? Do countries differ merely in degree, or do differences between countries offer grounds on which to sketch divergent scenarios for the future? This paper treats these questions in light of the work of Harloe and Kemeny. Based on the development of the policy context and the size and the character of the social rented sector in six west European countries, three plausible scenarios will be presented. The first (residual dual market) scenario is comparable to Harloe's residual model and Kemeny's dual market model. The second (residual unitary market) scenario starts with Kemeny's unitary market model but develops in the direction of the first (residual dual market) scenario. The third (unitary rental market) scenario combines social responsibilities with a market approach to housing provision.

title: Amsterdam in Crisis: How the (Local) State Buffers and Suffers
abstract: The Dutch institutional configuration is unique in its hybrid character. The specific mixture of a strong welfare state and an Anglo-American-oriented economy, which is even more pronounced in the case of Amsterdam, creates a buffering capacity. However, this capacity is expected to be insufficient to absorb the entire impact of the current financial and economic crises. The Amsterdam economy, segments of the housing market and urban development in general will be hard hit by the crises. The state will be reasserting itself, but will soon suffer from a lack of investment capital.

title: Housing Liberalisation and Gentrification: The Social Effects of Tenure Conversions in Amsterdam
abstract: Privatisation and liberalisation of the housing market are often used as governmental strategies for engineering the social composition of urban neighbourhoods. Drawing on longitudinal register data, this study reports findings from the highly-regulated housing context of Amsterdam. Through regression modelling and GIS analyses, we demonstrate that tenure conversions from rent to owner-occupancy are not just bringing about changes in social-class composition, but also affect the ethnic and demographic compositions. Moreover, conversions from rent to ownership have highly spatially-specific effects. Our evidence suggests that tenure conversions may contribute to gentrification in the inner-city of Amsterdam, while conversions in post-war neighbourhoods do not lead to a social upgrading and may even facilitate downgrading. Furthermore, trends in the converted section of the housing market are not just mirroring income developments but also seem to reflect trends in ethnic segregation and demographic trends such as a renewed interest among families to live in the inner-city.

title: An in memoriam for the just city of Amsterdam
abstract: This paper shows how the just city of Amsterdam came to live, celebrates its achievements and mourns its death. The paper suggests that an equitable distribution of scarce resources and democratic engagement are essential preconditions for the realization of a just city. Social movements of Amsterdam struggled hard to make their city just and they had considerable success. However, in the late 1980s, social movements lost their momentum and, in the late 1990s, neoliberal ideologies increasingly pervaded municipal policies. Whereas urban renewal was previously used to universalize housing access and optimize democratic engagement, it is now used to recommodify the housing stock, to differentiate residents into different consumer categories and to disperse lower income households. Part of the reason that these policies meet so little opposition is that the gains of past social struggles are used to compensate the most direct victims of privatization and demolition. Future generations of Amsterdammers, however, will not enjoy a just city.

title: Neoliberalization, housing institutions and variegated gentrification: how the ‘third wave’ broke in Amsterdam
abstract: Neil Smith argues that in the last two decades gentrification has become a generalized global urban phenomenon. His theory is at a high level of abstraction, as it links urban gentrification to globalization, financial capitalism and neoliberalization. With these global processes, all cities have experienced ‘third wave’ gentrification. The theory, however, leaves little room for variegations of gentrification, apart from characterizing geographical differences as idiosyncrasies or as minor variations. This downplays the role of intervening mechanisms that impinge upon the pursuit and social outcomes of gentrification. This article aims to amend abstract theory by looking at Amsterdam from a historical institutional perspective. In Amsterdam, gentrification was particularly made possible by a process of neoliberalization within the housing system. However, as institutional change is incremental and based on layering and conversion, many older institutional arrangements remain in place. These arrangements tend to slow gentrification and assuage social consequences. Nevertheless, neoliberal modifications to the housing system have been accelerating the pursuit of gentrification. Current policies will very likely lead to exclusionary displacement.

title: Wither the ‘Undivided City'? An Assessment of State‐Sponsored Gentrification in Amsterdam
abstract: Like many other governments, the Dutch government has simultaneously pursued the contradictory goals of liberalising the housing market and countering the concentration of low-income groups. This paper discusses how the tension between promoting market forces and countering segregation has played out, using Amsterdam as a case study. The findings suggest that the policy may have mitigated but did not prevent a deepening division between the city's increasingly privileged core and its periphery. This is at least in part because social mixing was pursued also in neighbourhoods already prone to gentrification.

title: Strategic Asset Management in the Social Rented Sector: Approaches of Dutch and English Housing Associations
abstract: In England and the Netherlands, in response to changes in housing policy and the market, there is widespread enthusiasm for asset management in the social rented sector. A key issue in both countries is the development of a strategic approach towards the formulation of asset management plans. The paper examines this issue in relation to the current practice of housing associations in both countries. Drawing on case studies in England and the Netherlands, it is concluded that in both countries practice varies widely between housing associations. Some of the approaches adopted by front-runners can be seen as models for other associations yet to develop a strategic approach towards asset management. Lessons can also be learnt across national boundaries, though necessarily mediated by differences between the two housing systems.

title: Housing for the poor in a neo-liberalising just city: Still affordable, but increasingly inaccessible
abstract: With a comparably high degree of de-commodification in the urban housing market, Amsterdam has been long considered a prime example of a ‘European city’ and a ‘just city’. This paper looks at how the city's housing tenure sectors have changed since the 1990s due to neo-liberalisation processes and specifies effects for housing conditions of the poor. It highlights how restructuring has been driven by policy changes at different scales, and analyses the effects of reform on issues of accessibility and affordability. We identify a gap between insiders and outsiders, with affordability for the poor inside the system not yet deteriorating, but accessibility for poor outsiders emerging as a key problem. In the conclusion we speculate on future developments of the Amsterdam housing market and relate our findings to debates about the ‘European city’ and the ‘just city’.

title: Is Gentrification a Useful Paradigm to Analyse Social Changes in the Paris Metropolis?
abstract: The category of gentrification has only recently began to be used for the study of French cities. The process through which working-class neighbourhoods became areas of upper-middle-class residence was earlier discussed as embourgeoisement, largely referred to as state intervention and seen as the effect of the permanent preference for central locations of higher categories. The detailed empirical examination of the Paris metropolis shows that such changes have indeed been occurring steadily over the last decades, but that the largest number of neighbourhoods experiencing that change of social profile are to be found in the first ring of banlieues and not in the central city. The analysis of the social profile of gentrifiers shows that it differs substantially between areas. Three main types of processes are identified: the first is the expansion of upper-class areas into adjacent working-class neighbourhoods, with an influx mainly of private-sector professionals, managers, and engineers; the second is upward social mobility of working-class areas, spatially and socially distinct from upper-class ones; and the third, which is found in a minority of cases only, resembles more the dominant model of gentrification, with a substantial contribution of professionals in public, scientific, media, and artistic occupations.

title: Measuring Gentrification and Displacement in Greater London
abstract: The use of aggregate data to understand the linkages between gentrification and displacement has been considered problematic because of a lack of refinement or closeness to the nature of these processes as well as lacking the ability to 'track' displacees. This paper presents the results of pioneering work designed to overcome these problems by combining cross-sectional census data with spatially re-aggregated longitudinal census data (the Longitudinal Study). Using established approaches to measure gentrification, via proxy measures, and devising others for its potential displacees, the work demonstrates a displacement effect clustered around gentrified wards. Attempts are made to quantify flows of displacement relative to city-wide changes over the decade. The paper concludes that, although replacement and displacement are difficult to distinguish, displacement appears prevalent for certain groups and this requires further research initiatives to explore a process that is socially and psychologically harmful.

title: Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement
abstract: Peter Marcuse's contributions to the study of gentrification and displacement are immense, not just when measured in theoretical development, but in analytical rigour, methodological influence, cross‐disciplinary relevance and intellectual–political commitment to social justice. However, his contributions have been conveniently missed in the disturbing 21st‐century scholarly, journalistic, policy and planning rescripting of gentrification as a collective urban good. This paper charts and exposes the politics of knowledge production on this pivotal urban process by critically engaging with recent arguments that celebrate gentrification and/or deny displacement. I explain that these arguments not only strip gentrification of its historical meaning as the neighbourhood expression of class inequality; they are also analytically defective when considered alongside Marcuse's conceptual clarity on the various forms of displacement in gentrifying neighbourhoods. Understanding and absorbing Marcuse's crucial arguments could help critical urbanists breach the defensive wall of mainstream urban studies, and reinstate a sense of social justice in gentrification research.