Pascal De Decker

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Faculty of Architecture

The social construction of rurality remains a collective fantasy of a safe, green, ethnically homogeneous environment. This fantasy, called "the rural idyll," still dominates the way in which people give meaning to their lives, the lives of others, and the places where they live. This idyll is based on an interrelated urban/ethnic diverse versus ru...

We nemen in dit hoofdstuk een gepolariseerde streek onder de loep. In de Denderstreek (figuur 1), waar een anti-migrantenpartij heel wat stemmen haalt en waar tegelijkertijd meer mensen met een migratieachtergrond er hun thuis willen maken, komen twee suburbane dromen samen. In deze bijdrage presenteren we de eerste resultaten van onze zoektocht na...

As for other international contexts, in Flanders, small and medium-sized cities and towns are becoming increasingly important gateways for newcomers (Vandekerckhove et al. 2022). Flemish Integration policies aim to ensure autonomous and equal participation, and accessibility of all facilities and services. However, this research shows that these go...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Work from home (WFH) received much public attention. Imposing such a measure was feasible in the context of labour markets' flexibilisation, which has reshaped urban live-work relationships. However, the pandemic's effects on those relationships have rarely been explored in housing and planning studies. This paper draw...

The Covid-19 pandemic and related stay-at-home measures have genuinely impacted how and where we live and work in cities. Work from home was made compulsory for the workers able to do so. Imposing such a measure was made possible following a long process of labour markets’ flexibilization. The latter has contributed to reshaping live-work relations...

Flanders (Belgium) is ageing at a rapid pace. Elderly people will continue to live at home in large numbers, partly because this is encouraged by the government. However, many homes are not adapted to reduced mobility. For example, it is not possible to circulate with a wheelchair. But also the living environment poses challenges for the elderly. F...

De Europese Commissie stelt als doel om tegen 2050 een ‘net land take’ van 0 hectare per dag te hebben (European Commission, 2012). Vlaanderen heeft de ambitie geformuleerd om dit doel al in 2040 te halen. Omdat in Vlaanderen het ruimtebeslag nog ongeveer 12 voetbalvelden per dag bedraagt (Loris & Vandaele, 2012), is een drastische ombuiging nodig....

This paper examines the impact of institutional frameworks on ontologies of ‘live-work mix’, i.e., the renewed intertwining of residential and economic uses in urban developments. We aim to understand how local housing and planning regimes influence the nature of live-work mix by comparing three contrasting institutional frameworks (Amsterdam, Brus...

It is known that migration is primarily an urban phenomenon and so is the settlement of refugees in their host country. However, national figures and various international studies have shown how migrants increasingly expand their housing search towards smaller, medium-sized, and suburban gateways. In Belgium, unlike neighbouring countries like Fran...

Flanders (Belgium) is aging at high speed. In 2060, almost one in three (32 percent) will be older than 60. The number of people aged 80 and over will increase from more than 400,000 today to nearly 800,000 in 2060. This demographic change can be witnessed throughout the entire region, yet older people are overrepresented in rural areas. A large ma...

Given the increasing number of people seeking refuge in Belgium and across Europe more broadly, it is essential that governments assume responsibility for the integration of refugees into society. An essential aspect of this process is the provision of a durable path from shelter to housing. Choosing a place of residence, and the success in obtaini...

Dit onderzoek had als doel om het bestaan van discriminatie op en de toegankelijkheid en de betaalbaarheid van de private huurwoningmarkt in Mechelen te onderzoeken. We maakten hiervoor gebruik van een combinatie van technieken. In het eerste deel van het rapport werden de toegang tot de huurmarkt en de keuze van een huurder vanuit een juridische b...

This chapter investigates what makes cities resourceful for arriving migration flows. It is argued that the logic of socio-spatial specialization in cities, as first described by urban sociologists of the Chicago School (but wrongly attributed to ecological forces), can provide cities with resources to deal with migration. The authors focus on urba...

Being recognised as the predominant urban pattern of the twenty-first century, suburbanisation is a global phenomenon that is characteristically regionalised: time- and site-specific factors and conditions differently shape its emergence in different locations. Post-suburbia and suburban governance are two analytical perspectives that are used to a...

People living in an institution will leave this residential context one day and have to proceed to a stable independent way of living. This transition is not without difficulties as it turns out this socially vulnerable group runs an increased risk of becoming homeless. Research in Flanders (Belgium) has shown that a considerable share of the homel...

Ons onderzoek naar vergrijzing op het platteland, in opdracht van de Vlaamse Landmaatschappij, wijst uit dat mensen amper anticiperen op ‘de oude dag’. Veel ouderen kiezen voor een status quo: ze willen zo lang mogelijk in de huidige woning blijven, zelfs wanneer er problemen opduiken. Vanwaar die terughoudendheid om na te denken over het ouder wor...

Flanders (Belgium) is ageing at high speed. The number of people aged over 80 will increase further from more than 400,000 today to nearly 800,000 in 2060. This demographic change can be witnessed in the entire region, yet older people are overrepresented in non-urban areas. A large majority of the elderly is 'ageing in place' due to a lack of alte...

Belgium experienced two waves of 'innovative housing initiatives' in recent years. The first one, which occurred during the 1970s and 1980s, contributed to enshrining the right to housing in its legal system. A second wave is currently taking place. In some ways these two waves of initiatives are similar; for instance, both aim to create decent liv...

Contrary to other regional cities in Flanders, Belgium, the city of Genk is confronted with a negative migration balance for young adults (aged 20-29). A majorities of leavers move to neighboring municipalities. This suburbanization cannot be explained by merely looking at classical motives such as housing prices, type of dwelling (detached house)...

The fall of the Berlin wall is often regarded as the marking point for a global hegemony of neo-liberal capitalism (Fukuyama, 1992). The choice for, and debate on, other / different types of societies are no longer on the intellectual or cultural agenda. If one might have thought that the credit crunch or the financial Tsunami that has hit the glob...

We are living in a time of rapid demographic changes. These changes do not only have a great impact on the use of space in our society, but also challenge the way we have been organizing and structuring our space in the past decades. As a reaction, international research centres and governmental bodies are urging the nation states and local communi...

In this paper we look at the position of social renting in Flanders after the GFC. It is argued that the GFC has hardly affected the production levels of social rental dwellings. On the contrary levels remain higher than before the GFC. Starting from that, we briefly illustrate what the current debates in social rental housing are. © 2017, Academy...

De Belgische kust vergrijst sterk. Dat komt onder meer doordat een belangrijke groep (bijna-) gepensioneerden zich aan de kust vestigt. De vraag stelt zich of die pensioenmigranten bij hun verhuizing nagedacht hebben over de mogelijke impact van het ouder worden op hun woonsituatie. SumResearch, de onderzoeksgroep HaUS van de Faculteit Architectuur...

We evaluate to what extent the financialization of housing is associated with changing inequalities in housing outcomes for low-income owners and private renters, using data for two time points (1995 and 2012) for 11–13 western European countries. We find that in countries with a more commodified housing regime, low-income respondents experience mo...

Governments all over the world try to influence in one way or another the residential mobility of their citizens. On the one hand they try to increase the residential mobility of their citizens because of an ageing population or because of political or macroeconomic growth strategies. On the other hand ecological and or social considerations are ra...

Tijdens het Grote Woononderzoek 2013 werden in Vlaanderen 10.000 gezinnen uitgebreid geïnterviewd over o.a. hun uitgaven voor wonen, de wijze van financiering, woonwensen en woongeschiedenis. Bovendien werden 5.000 woningen ook grondig gescreend volgens een methodiek gebaseerd op de kwaliteitsnormen van de Vlaamse overheid. Dit boek bundelt de voor...

Formally, Belgium has a constitutional right to housing, but in reality access to housing is largely dependent on someone’s labour market position. Citizens are hence individually held responsible for their housing need. In the absence of an adequate central government response to problematic access to qualitative and affordable housing for low inc...

This article analyses the housing and homeless pathways of (ex)homeless persons in the coastal city of Ostend. After a short review of the literature on the causes and meaning of the vulnerability of homeless persons, we describe how our case study with (former) homeless persons in Ostend was organised. We deal with some methodological issues and t...

While policy makers in different parts of the world are worried about the supposedly negative consequences of spatial concentrations of ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged people, researchers continue the debate about the desirability and feasibility of social mix. In this article, we add to this literature by focusing on the often neglected, bu...

On the private rental market, various social groups are still confronted with prejudice and discrimination. Previous research in different countries, using paired testing and housing audits has convincingly revealed the unequal access to good quality housing due to discriminatory practices during the intake procedure. Yet, these methods do not shed...

The private rental housing market is a field where various social groups are still confronted with prejudice and discrimination. Using methods such as paired testing and housing audits, previous research in Belgium has shown the unequal access to (qualitative) housing and the existence of discriminatory practices. In this paper we argue that to ful...

Discriminatie is een oud zeer en blijft actueel in onze samenleving. De woningmarkt is één van de maatschappelijke velden waar dit probleem zich stelt. Onderzoek naar discriminatie op de huurmarkt is veelal gefocust op het perspectief van de huurder: wie wordt hoe vaak gediscrimineerd? In opdracht van het Centrum voor Gelijke Kansen en Racismebestr...

People living in an institution will leave this residential context one day and have to proceed to a stable independent way of living. This transition is not without difficulties as it turns out this socially vulnerable group runs an increased risk of becoming homeless. Research in Flanders (Belgium) has shown that a considerable share of the homel...

The Belgium planning office estimates that the Belgian population older than 60 years will rise from approximately 3,043,000 in 2010 to 4,693,000 in 2050, or an increase with more than 50% (table 1). It is also estimated that the number of dependent elderly (60+) will more than double over that period: from 143,000 to 237,000 (Van Damme, 2010). Tog...

Self-provided housing can be defined as the organisation of the building of a home by the household that intends to occupy it. This can also, but does not always, involve the householder directly participating in the building of a house for their own use. While this type of provision has been somewhat neglected in housing research in developed soci...

Between 1995 and 1999 the Flemish government succeeded in approving pieces of legislation intended to counter the spatial developments that had characterised the preceding periods, namely suburbanisation and urban decay. It passed a law to combat vacancy and slum housing (1995), a law to invest in social urban renewal (1996), a housing law (1997),...

In this article, using policy documents and both qualitative and quantitative data sources, we evaluate the extent to which the Belgian welfare system conforms to trends towards asset-based welfare involving the promotion of home-ownership as an alternative to social security provision. We conclude that, following the explicit and ongoing sponsorsh...

Belgium's housing policy has always been instrumental in the pillarisation process. As a consequence, two competing historical models have existed: first, a model promoted by the socialist pillar based on social rental housing in urban settings; second, the model put forward by the hegemonic Catholic party, emphasising the promotion of homeownershi...

De ruimtelijke oppervlakte van Vlaanderen is beperkt. Wonen en bouwen zijn daarom aan een aantal bepalingen en beperkingen onderworpen. Daarom werd in 1997 het eerste Vlaamse strategisch ruimtelijke beleidsplan, het RSV1 – Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen, goedgekeurd. Daarin werden de gewenste ruimtelijke ontwikkelingen voor een termijn van tie...