Spatial injustice in Rotterdam: past and present practices of racial violence inflicted upon certain racialized bodies through the built environment.

Abstract

This thesis goes into the many ways spatial boundaries are created to secure neighborhoods through state-led practices of exclusion aimed at certain racialized bodies. The lasting spatial structures of privilege and advantage have established a climate where certain racialized “others” are consigned to different physical and metaphorical spaces than those who are seen as belonging. It has become clear that the idea that certain bodies are naturally entitled to certain spaces, and others are not, is very persistent in the Netherlands. In Rotterdam different practices such as spreading policies in the 1970’s and 1980’s and present-day practices such as the Rotterdamwet and state-led processes of gentrification are examples of this continuation of exclusion.