From the Introduction by Talja Blokland :
This ‘virtual’ issue of IJURR brings together thirteen articles on Dutch cities, published in print in the journal since 2001 or published online (in ‘EarlyView’) and awaiting publication in print. This set of articles explores some of the ways in which Dutch cities are distinctive, especially in terms of the design, struggles over, and effects of urban policy. The collection is intended to enable scholars who are not specialists on the Netherlands to use Dutch cases to contribute to theorizing the interconnections between state, public policy and public participation. Here, Dutch cities have a particularly strong tradition. As this introduction argues, the articles provide essential insights into the workings and shortcomings of Dutch (although primarily Amsterdam) urban policies, and clearly show how the instrumental rationality of such policies have come to prevail, while substantial rational discussions - or urban politics rather than urban policy - have become of relatively minor importance. This, in combination with a focus on urban policy rather than urbanism in current Dutch urban studies, leave some of the remarkable developments within the fully urbanized Dutch society - in particular the current growth in various forms of exclusionary practices, including those based on race and ethnicity - relatively open for an important new research agenda.
