Relevance, Gentrification and the Development of a New Hegemony on Urban Policies in Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract

This paper applies a state-theoretical perspective to a historical analysis of gentrification and urban policies in Antwerp, Belgium. Before 1970, the city experienced a period of modernist hegemony, with urban development policies characterised by slum clearing, peripheral high-rise social housing construction and inner-city office development. After moving through a period of non-hegemony with intense debate and struggle about urban development, the city now appears to be experiencing another period of hegemony in urban policy of which state support for gentrification has become the centrepiece. A historical state-theoretical approach shows how this move has been the consequence of local institutionalisation and political conflicts following the collapse of modernism, and provides insight into the opportunities available for critical observers of gentrification to enhance policy relevance.