Anti-urbanism in Flanders: the political and social consequences of a spatial class struggle strategy

Class struggle resulted in a anti-urban feeling in Flanders. The industrial revolution first developed in Wallonia and industrialisation came much later in Flanders. The bourgeoisie and the Church could anticipate rising secularisation and socialism in Flanders by keeping the workers away from the cities through specific housing and mobility policies. This explains the traditional Christian political hegemony in Flanders, with socialist and liberal cracks mainly in the cities. In the second part of the paper the geography of the last parliamentary elections is considered. In the light of anti-... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Kesteloot, Christian
De Maesschalck, Filip
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
Verlag/Hrsg.: National Committee of Geography of Belgium
Schlagwörter: anti-urbanisme / géographie politique / Flandre / anti-urbanism / political geography / Flanders
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26695111
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://belgeo.revues.org/15346

Class struggle resulted in a anti-urban feeling in Flanders. The industrial revolution first developed in Wallonia and industrialisation came much later in Flanders. The bourgeoisie and the Church could anticipate rising secularisation and socialism in Flanders by keeping the workers away from the cities through specific housing and mobility policies. This explains the traditional Christian political hegemony in Flanders, with socialist and liberal cracks mainly in the cities. In the second part of the paper the geography of the last parliamentary elections is considered. In the light of anti-urbanism, the elections produced important spatial shifts. The Christian party is replaced by the Liberals in the core of Flanders. In the cities, the Socialists are in decline, in favour of the greens and the extreme-right, the latter being also increasingly successful in the suburban fringe and the non-urban areas. In the last part, it is argued that the regressive cultural effects of anti-urbanism, but also the struggle against extreme-right, impose that urban policies should be put higher on the Flemish political agenda. ; La lutte des classes a produit un sentiment anti-urbain profond en Flandre. La révolution industrielle s’est d’abord manifestée en Wallonie et l’industrialisation de la Flandre est plus tardive. La bourgeoisie et l’Église ont pu anticiper la montée de la sécularisation et du socialisme en maintenant les ouvriers hors des villes par les politiques du logement et de la mobilité. Cela explique l’hégémonie politique traditionnelle des Chrétiens en Flandre avec quelques failles socialistes ou libérales, surtout dans les villes. La seconde partie de l’article considère la géographie des dernières élections parlementaires. A la lumière de l’anti-urbanisme, ces élections présentent des changements spatiaux importants. Au cœur de la Flandre, les libéraux ont remplacé les chrétiens. Dans les villes les socialistes perdent en faveur des verts et de l’extrême-droite qui gagne aussi dans les franges urbaines et ...