Yannis Tzaninis

European peripheries and suburbs are generally seen by scholars and policy experts as part of a polycentric urban-regional network. This conceptually 'cityist' and methodologically 'urbano-centric' narrative often neglects the dynamics that may emanate from and within the periphery itself instead of cities alone. This paper engages with the history, possibilities, and transformative potential of European urban peripheries in their own right. It does this by employing the idea of 'post-suburbia'. On the one hand, the concept of 'post-suburbia' is relatively open and flexible, thus helpful in disclosing novel peripheral conditions and contexts. On the other hand, it captures the relevant places and dynamics of metropolitan integration and the consolidation of regional networks in metropolitan space. First, the paper demonstrates how post-World War II European suburbanization has culminated in diverse, uneven post-suburban landscapes in the urban regions of Milan and Amsterdam, and specifically in Pioltello and Almere respectively. Second, the paper shows the nuances of socio-spatial transformations that have emerged in these two suburban peripheries, as an outcome of suburbanization. This twofold reflection enables post-suburbia as a valuable perspective that can unpack the diversities and complexities of urban regions under constant transformation by accounting for processes of diversification resulting in suburban 'blendscapes'.

Despite a global commitment to guarantee access to and participation in high-quality education for all, the acceptance of marginalised pupils into mainstream education and changing policies and practices to support the aim are still contested challenges. This article discusses how inclusive education policy is understood and applied by pedagogues at the micro level in three different countries, Iceland, Finland and the Netherlands, focusing on tensions. A qualitative thematic analysis of 22 interviews with teachers, tutors and school directors reveals that an inclusive policy frame does not prevent pedagogues from favouring a normative ‘centre’. Pupils’ local language competence becomes crucial for in-/exclusion. In addition, we find more emphasis on inclusive actions at the micro level as a response to exclusive policies and settings. This comparative study highlights the interplay among policies, practices and pedagogues’ beliefs and attitudes and how they affect one another in striving to achieve inclusive aims.

Cosmopolitanism has been, and largely still is, understood as
a phenomenon exclusive to the city, while the periphery is traditionally
identified with lack of diversity. Meanwhile, cosmopolitanism
is broadly assumed to be an attitude primarily represented by
liberal elites. This paper challenges these binary conceptions by
focusing on the existence of cosmopolitanism together with
(migrant) youth precarity in (post)suburbia. Based on research in
a post-suburban New Town in the Netherlands, the paper looks
beyond the bias of strictly “city” perspectives on cosmopolitanism,
and investigates the experiences of young migrants who find
themselves in a (post)suburban environment. The case is Almere,
30km east of Amsterdam, a place that has rapidly diversified in the
past two decades. Based on interviews with young migrants who
moved recently to Almere, the paper focuses on their experiences
and everyday struggles. The analysis ultimately alludes to postsuburban
cosmopolitanisms, coupled with potentially precarious
circumstances.

Cosmopolitanism is commonly understood as a phenomenon exclusive to the city, while the suburbs are primarily identified with provincialism. Based on my research in Almere, I problematize this dichotomy and discuss the existence of cosmopolitanism in suburbia. In the paper I look beyond the bias of strictly city perspectives when discussing cosmopolitanism, and I investigate the repertoires of internationally mobile persons who find themselves in a suburban environment. The case is Almere, a Dutch new town 30km east of Amsterdam, a place that is rapidly diversifying but also demographically stagnating. In the paper I analyze interviews with international migrants who moved to Almere within the past few years, and I focus on their mobility, experiences and aspirations, alluding ultimately to anti-urban cosmopolitan repertoires.

Abstract:
This paper addresses the suburbanization process diachronically, comparing the aspirations of old and new movers to the suburban new town of Almere in the Netherlands. First, a survey of 295 inhabitants was conducted, regarding their motives in moving to the town from its beginning in 1976. Subsequently, in-depth interviews were completed with twelve 'pioneers' who moved to Almere up to 1984 and twelve who have moved there since 2000. The paper analyses place-making processes in suburban spaces, the aspirations when moving and the lived experiences in suburban vis-à-vis urban environments. Ideas about pioneering, communitarianism and utopias have shifted towards pragmatic and individualistic aspirations based on employment opportunities and better housing space-to-price rates, reflecting the shift from the Western prosperity of the 1960s–1970s to the current precariousness of neoliberal, inter-city competition.

Urban political ecology (UPE) has been conceptually influential and empirically robust, however the field has mainly focused on the way cities are metabolically linked and networked with resource flows and ecological processes. Currently, in the face of climate change challenges, scholars working on UPE are taking the field in new directions: from expanding the field of enquiry to include more than human actors, to shifting the geographical focus to overlooked peripheries, the Global South or the suburbs. Although cities are framed by the New Urban Agenda, adopted by the UN Habitat 2016, as central actors, the very ontological status of cities is also questioned, with important implications for UPE. We argue that in order to answer these emerging questions we need renewed, qualified, conceptually robust and empirically substantiated research that does not come from already privileged vintage points or geographical locations. This book launches an inquiry into a UPE better informed by situated knowledges; an embodied UPE, that puts equal attention to the role of more than -human ontologies and processes of capital accumulation. The book aims to extend UPE analysis to new places and perspectives. As discussions regarding the environment are now dominated by policy makers, planners and politicians, it is more crucial than ever, we argue to maintain a critical engagement with mainstream policy and academic debates.

Cities and suburbs are on the brink of a new era. Decades-long suburbanisation of the affluent and the socially mobile has almost ceased as we knew it. In its place there is now city gentrification and suburban diversification, upsetting linear understandings of mobilities on the metropolitan level. In his dissertation Yannis Tzaninis addresses the puzzle of contemporary production of (sub)urban space by investigating the former suburban new town Almere, a space and place caught in a vortex of global change. Through the analysis of municipal statistics, and by conducting a survey and interviews with current and former residents of Almere, he analyses people’s mobilities, experiences and aspirations. He finds that placemaking processes are fluid and adapt to wider social changes, while households are pushed and pulled depending on material resources, aspirations and city branding. In conclusion he uncovers the character and future of suburbia, advancing our understanding of urban growth, placemaking and mobility.