In the Netherlands, state actors and housing associations ambitiously pursue a project of state-led gentrification in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The state induces housing associations and seduces private developers to invest in the construction of middleclass, owner-occupied housing in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods with many low-cost social rented dwellings. Researchers refer to this form of government intervention as`urban restructuring' (Kleinhans, 2003; MVROM, 1997;2000;van Kempen and Priemus, 1999). Even though Dutch housing policy is subject to constant revision, it is clear that, over the next two decades, hundreds of neighbourhoods will experience such restructuring. First of all, this means that the share of social rented housing in the neighbourhoods designated for restructuring will decline from around 62% in the year 2000 to 45% in the year 2010. National and local state agencies, together with housing associations, are responsible for urban restructuring that aims to improve the economic appeal as well as the`liveability' of designated neighbourhoods (see Tunstall, 2003). In the discourse about this policy, a`liveable neighbourhood' refers to à balanced' neighbourhood with a low level of crime and a sizeable share of middleclass households. It does not refer to a neighbourhood where government agencies develop policies to ameliorate the social conditions of the most disadvantaged groups.Restructuring policy attempts to promote gentrification in even the most disadvantaged and peripheral boroughs of Dutch cities. As we will show, however, conventional explanations of gentrification do not fully explain the scope, scale, and form of the processes involved. In the absence of profit motives or significant consumer demand, why do Dutch state actors and housing associations promote gentrification? Our response will focus on the institutional networks that promote it and on the discourse

Sexuality features prominently in European debates on multiculturalism and in Orientalist discourses on Islam. This article argues that representations of gay emancipation are mobilized to shape narratives in which Muslims are framed as non-modern subjects, a development that can best be understood in relation to the ‘culturalization of citizenship’ and the rise of Islamophobia in Europe. We focus on the Netherlands where the entanglement of gay rights discourses with anti-Muslim politics and representations is especially salient. The thorough-going secularization of Dutch society, transformations in the realms of sex and morality since the ‘long 1960s’ and the ‘normalization’ of gay identities since the 1980s have made sexuality a malleable discourse in the framing of ‘modernity’ against ‘tradition’. This development is highly problematic, but also offers possibilities for new alliances and solidarities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) politics and sexual and cultural citizenship.

Abstract. We present a number of concepts and hypotheses concerning the impact of the political opportunity structure on the mobilisation pattern of new social movements in Western Europe. The hypotheses refer to the general level of mobilisation in a given country, the general forms and strategies of action employed, the system level at which mobilisation is typically oriented and the development of the level of mobilisation across time. The hypotheses are tested in a comparative analysis of France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The analysis reveals countryspecific variations in the mobilisation patterns of new social movements, which are largely in line with the theoretical expectations and serve to confirm the relevance of the political process approach for the study of social movements.

This paper discusses the relevance of American literature on `revanchist urbanism' for understanding the policies of the populist government that ruled Rotterdam between 2002 and 2006. It is suggested that revanchist urbanism in the European context in general and in the case of Rotterdam in particular takes on a different form from that in the US. Moreover, a wholesale displacement of social-democratic policies by revanchist policies is not observed. Many policy measures which formed part-and-parcel of a social-democratic urban project—anti-segregation policies and policies to promote social cohesion—are redefined and reconfigured by populist parties so that they can be incorporated into more revanchist strategies. In this sense, the differences between social democratic and revanchist governance are large with respect to symbolism but small and gradual when it comes to actual policy measures.

The recent trend towards selective immigration policies is based on the racialization of certain categories of migrants into irretrievably unassimilable Others. In Europe, this trend has materialized largely through the application of integration requirements to the immigration of foreigners, the so-called "civic integration turn". Based on an analysis of parliamentary debates about civic integration policies in the Netherlands, this paper asks which migrants are considered likely or unlikely to integrate based on which presumed characteristics. We find that Dutch civic integration policies aim at barring "migrants with poor prospects". In sharp contrast with a long history of Dutch social policies, politicians deny state responsibility for migrants' emancipation based on a discursive racialization of these migrants as unassimilable. While class has hitherto been largely ignored in the literature on migration and the politics of belonging, we show that class, intersecting with culture and gender, is key in this process of racialization.

In this article, we examine how experiential knowledge is used in areas such as mental health care and youth policy and how it relates to the dominant form of knowledge that underpins these policy areas, 'expert knowledge'. Experiential knowledge is sometimes considered a resource that helps people in vulnerable situations respond to uncertain futures. Although frequently undervalued, experiential knowledge is involved in multifaceted responses to situations imbued with uncertainty. In this article, we examine the nature of experiential knowledge as a resource and develop a typology of experiential knowledge drawing on existing studies. Experiential knowledge is not merely 'lay beliefs and fallacies' that holders of expert knowledge should be aware of so that they can better implement topdown strategies; it reflects lived experiences that are difficult for outsiders to capture. In the Netherlands, the rise of lived experience as a resource for intervention was born through the critique of the hegemonic power of 'expert knowledge' and as policymakers recognised the potential contribution of 'experiential experts' in shaping responses to situations characterised by high uncertainty. In such situations policymakers can draw on insights into the experience of usually silent stakeholders: people deemed at risk. In this article, we also highlight tensions related to these particular multifaceted responses, suggesting that experiential knowledge is viewed with ambivalence by some other stakeholders.

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