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9 - Beyond the middle classes: Neighbourhood choice and satisfaction in the hyper-diverse contexts
- Edited by Stijn Oosterlynck, Universiteit Antwerpen, Gert Verschraegen, Universiteit Antwerpen, Ronald van Kempen, Universiteit Utrecht
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- Book:
- Divercities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 19 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 December 2018, pp 187-210
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Cities have always attracted diverse groups of people, as they offer work, education, housing, social contacts, facilities and services. However, scholars have recently argued that cities are becoming even more diverse, in terms not only of ethnicity but also of, for example, activity patterns, attitudes and perceptions, and lifestyles (Vertovec, 2007, 2010; Tasan-Kok et al, 2013). In Western European cities, the neighbourhoods that are most diverse are often relatively deprived (Wessendorf, 2014). Low-income groups are thought to be ‘trapped’ in their neighbourhoods in terms of their residential careers, and their neighbourhoods are associated with crime, vandalism and low-quality housing, public spaces and education (Dekker et al, 2011; van der Meer and Tolsma, 2014). Therefore, these areas are often portrayed in public and political debates as undesirable places in which to live. The negative understandings are reflected in the multitude of sociospatial policy interventions for these areas in Western Europe, for example, to promote the influx of higher-income groups and increase social cohesion and social mobility.
Nonetheless, few scholars or professionals have examined what attracts people to diverse and deprived urban areas and how perceptions of local diversities play a role in this respect. Those who have done so have mostly focused on perceptions of ethno-cultural diversity, particularly among the middle classes. Since the 1990s, studies on social mix, gentrification and the creative class have demonstrated how an appreciation of, for instance, ethnic, lifestyle, gender and sexual diversity has attracted the middle classes to cities or kept them there (Lees, 2000, 2008; Butler and Robson, 2003; Florida, 2003; Hamnett, 2003). The picture has emerged that middle classes choose diversity (Atkinson, 2006; Karsten, 2007), whereas the lower classes are more often trapped in diverse neighbourhoods. Yet the importance of diversity for neighbourhood choice and satisfaction has hardly been studied among non-middle-class residents.
This chapter fills these research and policy gaps by presenting a qualitative study on neighbourhood choice and satisfaction among residents of different social classes in highly diverse neighbourhoods in Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands). An in-depth approach was adopted to gain insight into how perceptions of neighbourhood diversity had shaped residents’ decisions to move to these neighbourhoods, and how the diversity affects their experiences of their neighbourhoods.