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. © 2014 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.