Roles of local sectors in the Netherlands' urban regeneration in efforts to promote "civic gospel" : a public goods perspective

Abstract

In the Netherlands urban construction and development has gone through a progressive process starting from the post-War era all the way to the 21st Century. The focuses have taken physical, economic, social and environmental aspects into consideration and Dutch cities witnessed urban policies addressing urban reconstruction, urban renewal, urban revitalization and regeneration. Prominent urban renewal policies including Urban Renewal Funds, ISV along with Big City Policy all indicate the trend of decentralization from the state to local municipalities and a new power structure between participants at the local level. Further as was observed, urban renewal process in the past decade has been facing obstacles. This dissertation aims at examining local sectors’ roles in the process of urban renewal and urban regeneration in the Netherlands, the trends of reforms and ramifications of their responsibilities, and governance strategies when decentralized administration is becoming the norm under Neo-liberal urban development era. Cases studies from the city of Amsterdam will serve as base stones demonstrating steering of direction of urban construction strategies with emphasis of urban renewal and regeneration, and the shifts of governments’ roles. Apart from that, municipalities’ roles will be examined by their actions along with the policies and the mechanism of cooperation with different social stakes in making projects happen. By understanding the cooperation mechanism and local endeavor indicated by municipalities, semi-public entities and public initiatives, the dissertation will proceed in discussing how different parties contributed in achieving public good in the ending sections. Literature review will project the development scope of urban renewal strategies in the Netherlands from post-war era till today. By synthesizing documents generalizing development patterns and critics about achievements and insufficiencies of urban renewal projects, it is possible to draw out emphasis and local characteristics of urban renewal strategies in the Netherlands. During the process of policy adjustments, national and local government changed their roles in urban governance in terms of financial supports and supervision. Local governments are key leaders in the administrative and cooperative mechanism. More partnership and cooperation happening in the local level with both public and private sector are the focus to be revealed through cases studies. Finally it comes discussions about achievements and insufficiencies with the Netherlands’ experience with evaluations of achievements in terms of public goods.

As this is a dissertation in aim at synthesizing policy instruments and in situ local practices, methods and methodologies from both inductive and deductive modes will be applied, covering methods of archival studies, field studies, cases studies, surveys and interviews and methodologies of content analysis, ethnographic methodology and discourse analysis. In the parts of implication and conclusion, governance structure will be discussed with observation of the new trend after 2000. Roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders will be revealed following with discussions of features of Dutch urban renewal. Achievements of urban renewal policies and projects will be evaluated and recommendations from cases studies will be presented in the last part.