Leeming K & Shakur T GBER Vol. 3 No. 3 pp 61 – 72 Welcoming Difference or Wily Dispersal? Emerging Problems of Urban Regeneration in the Multiply Deprived Area of Bijlmermeer (Amsterdam) Karen Leeming and Tasleem Shakur Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Lancashire, UK * Abstract Within the European Union there are a number of different approaches taken when tackling the regeneration of areas with multiple deprivation. This paper examines some of the effects that the urban restructuring approach used in the Netherlands has had on some of the residents of a large housing estate on the outskirts of Amsterdam known as Bijlmermeer or the Bijlmer. Within this area of multiple social and economic disadvantages, black and ethnic groups form the majority of the population. This paper is based on observations obtained from semi-structured interviews and discussions with local residents, project officials and relevant academics, and a number of Human Geography field trips to the area. Some of the early findings suggest that the transformation of this area from a failed Utopian vision into a thriving and successful multi-cultural built-environment is based on dispersing some of the most socially and economically excluded residents from the area via demolition, renovation and rebuild programmes. This in turn supports the work of other researchers in suggesting that the theory of urban restructuring has been adopted as a policy not to promote social cohesion but as a policy to prevent ethnic resistance. Introduction Many contemporary European urban policy initiatives recognise that their needs to be a consolidated, area based approach when tackling the regeneration of regions with multiple deprivation. However, within the individual countries of the European Union the differing social and economic histories, the structure of local and national governments and the composition of the urban fabric mean that interpretations of how this approach is achieved can be diametrically opposite. Within the UK the avowed focus of the regeneration of areas with multiple deprivation is the preservation of communities and engagement of these existing residents within the planning and implementation of urban renewal initiatives (Ginsberg, 1999; Social Exclusion Unit, 1998; 2001). Conversely, within the Netherlands, there is a belief that the approach adopted by countries such as the UK maintains a high proportion of low-income households within areas of multiple deprivation that in turn leads to physical and social monotony and low social cohesion. To counteract this, the focus of Dutch housing policy since 1997 has been urban restructuring (Priemus, 1998). This policy diversifies the housing stock within areas of multiple deprivation in order to encourage social mix and to decrease the numbers of low-income housing. The reasoning behind the policy is that new inhabitants who are wealthier than existing residents will act as a social and economic catalyst and will demolish the homogeneity generated by an economy overwhelmingly based on low income (van Beckhoven & van Kempen, 2003). This paper examines how urban restructuring has impacted upon a large area of multiple deprivation on the outskirts of Amsterdam and some of the effects it has had on existing residents 1 . _________________________ * K Leeming: Research Fellow, Centre for Local Policy Studies. T Shakur: Director of ICDES, Edgehill College, Lancashire, UK. Emails: leemingk@edgehill.ac.uk & shakurt@edgehill.ac.uk 61