The Gansstraat demonstration: The location of the islamic migrant other at a spacial contesting performance.

Abstract

Anti-AZC protest performances communicate a rejection of an (potential) AZC within a particular geographical area. It is the case, however, that these performances cover more than a territorial struggle. With the use of spatial theory the Gansstraat demonstration, a collaboration between a local anti-AZC movement and a national political party based on anti-migration sentiments, is understood as a contestation where the perceived spatial homogeneity is threatened by a change of representation to the particular locality of Sterrenwijk in Utrecht.

It appears that a perception of the migrant other contributes to a desire to secure the territorial boundaries of a social homogeneity, particularly as multiple anti-AZC protests are performed in Islamophobic rhetoric. This is also the case with the Gansstraat demonstration.