Author: Zef Hemel
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Peak Trade
Read in NRC Handelsblad of 28 April 2016: Again two newspaper articles worth reading: one of Frank Boll (28 April), on capitalism triumphant, the other of Maarten Schinkel (4 May), on the future of global trade. Boll, founder of Ecofis, wrote in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad on how capitalism liberated migrants from the countryside…
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The wrong conclusion
Read in De Volkskrant of 13 February 2016: Two newspaper articles. The first one on water shortages in the world. Arjen Hoekstra, professor Watermanagement at Wageningen University, thinks at least 4 billion people in the world are suffering from water shortages during at least one month a year. That’s far more than expected. Almost half…
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East Asia’s rapid urban growth
Read in East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape (2016) of the World Bank: Should be front page news: with its 42 million inhabitants, Pearl River Delta is the largest city in the world, larger even than Tokyo. Urbanisation in East Asia in general is growing very fast. According to the World Bank the total urban…
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Country in a Clusterclimax
Read in De Volkskrant of 28 May 2016: Strange map in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant last week. Almost hilarious if not depressing. The map showed all the latest campusses in the Netherlands with their special brands: technopolis, bio science, healthcare, IT, geomatics, green chemistry, water, sensortechnology, energy, services, food, horti science, space, knowledge.…
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Philadelphia Blues
Read in NRC Handelsblad on 24 May 2016: Pia de Jong is a Dutch columnist living in Princeton, New Jersey. Her weekly writings in NRC Handelsblad are on events happening in her personal and family life. Every Tuesday I read them. Last week she wrote about her recent visit to Philadelphia. I loved this…
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Window dressing
Heard in the People’s Industry Palace in Amsterdam on 30 May 2016: The EU is in a crisis. And it’s a big one. Something went wrong. Remember, for many years Europe has been a sex object in the world. These times are gone. What happened? Mr. Jan Zielonka, professor of European Policy and Society,…
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Cities Becoming a Luxury Good
Read on Bloomberg.com of 24 May 2016: In ‘Urban Living Becomes a Luxury Good’ of 24 May, Justin Fox of Bloomberg described how after the financial crisis Americans are flooding the city centres of the biggest cities. The suburbs are still there, but something fundamental has changed. Increase in employment in downtown areas of…
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De omelet is gebakken
Gehoord in de OBA op 23 mei 2016: Volgens hoogleraar Frank Vandenbroucke (foto: Rob Stevens) is een sterk sociaal beleid op Europees niveau pure noodzaak. Zo’n sociaal beleid kan niet vanuit Brussel bewerkstelligd worden en zeker niet met een Big Bang worden ingevoerd, maar zal op alle niveaus, van steden, regio’s, natiestaten en EU, stap…
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Back-to-the-city movement
Read in ‘The New York Nobody Knows’ (2013) of William Helmreich: On 12 May 2016 Richard Florida wrote an article in Citylab on a new report of the NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy on gentrification in the Big Apple. The researchers divided 55 New York City neighborhoods into three categories: gentrifying,…
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Metropolitan governance issues
Read in Brookings.com of 29 April 2016: foto: Lex Banning This week, some ninety students Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam will finalize their course on Cities in Transition by passing their exams. Six weeks long they have studied urban transitions in Moscow, Istanbul, Seoul, Toronto, and Amsterdam, all related to globalisation ànd regionalisation.…