Urban Studies, Vol. 33, N o.

8, 1499 1521, 1996

Reconstructing Citizenship, the Re-scaling of the

State and the New Authoritarianism: Closing the
Belgian M ines

Erik Swyngedouw

[Paper received in nal form , February 1996]

Sum m ary. T he paper exp lores the con tested re-con guration of the position of the nation al state
as a resu lt of the rew orking of the scales of govern ance. It is argu ed that the intricate relation ship
betw een recen t changes in the `scalin g of the nation al state and the form ation of new and
differen tly `scaled institu tion al form s takes place in and throu gh processes of urban/region al
restru cturing as part of an effort to `prod uce glob ally com petitive spaces. The rise of `glocal
form s of govern ance is paralleled by the form ation of new elite coalitio ns on the one hand and
the system atic exclu sion or further disem powerm ent of politicall y and/or econ omically alread y
w eak er social grou ps on the other. Such exclu sive hom ogen isation of region al spaces erod es
diversity and differenc e in highly oppressive ways. The glocal `entrep reneurial or `Schumpete-
rian w ork fare state becom es an `authoritaria n state. This new `post-F ord ist (?) form of
govern ance is unstab le and re-en forces fragm entation and tension in civil society. This, in turn,
not only jeop ardises the poten tial success of the restru cturing drive, but underm ines social
coh esion in an alread y fractu red and fragm ented region al social fabric. This thesis w ill be
exp lored and docu m ented throu gh the analysis of the political econ om y of urban-regional
socio-ec onom ic restru cturing that parallele d the recen t closu re of Belgiu m s ve rem aining coal
pits in the north -eastern Provin ce of Lim burg.

1. Regional Restructuring as State

Restructuring
This paper explores the intricate relationship
betw een recent changes in the role and the
positio n of the national state and the form a-
tion of new and differently `scaled institu-
tional form s on the one hand and regiona l
restructuring processes on the othe r. It will
discuss the ways in which the drive to pro-
duce com petitive regiona l spaces in an in-
creasingly globalising and intensely
com petitive world econom y coinc ides with a
more prom inent position of both local and
supra-national state form s or sites of gove r-
nance. This `re-scaling of the state and the
rise of `glocal form s of governance (Sw yn-
gedouw , 1992, 1996) takes place through the
formation of new elite coalition s on the one
hand and the systematic exclusion or further
disem pow erment of politically and/or eco-
nom ically already weaker social groups on
the other. Such exclusive hom ogenisation of
regional spaces erodes diversity and differ-
ence in highly oppressive ways. The glocal

Erik Swyngedouw is in the School of Geography, Mans eld Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK. Fax: 01865-271929.
E-mail: Erik.Swyngedouw@ GEOG.OX.AC.UK. The author would like to thank Stefan Bil, Louis Albrechts, Piet Saey and Walter
Delannoy for their assistance, views, comments and support for the research reported here. He, of course, alone remains responsible
for the remaining errors and the views discussed in this contribution.

0042-0980/96/081499-23 $6.00 1996 The Editors of Urban Studies

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

1500
`entrepreneurial (Harvey, 1989) or `Schum-
peterian workfare state (Jessop, 1993,
1994a ; Peck and Jones, 1994) becom es an
`authoritarian state.
This thesis will be explored and docu-
mented through the analysis of the politica l
econom y of urban-regional socio-economic
restructuring that paralleled the recent clos-
ure of Belgium s ve remaining coal pits in
the north-eastern Provinc e of Lim burg (see
Figure 1). In conjunc tion with the closure,
the national state launched a major pro-
gramme to assist the social and economic
`reconve rsion of the coal region and to min-
im ise the adverse effects of the restructuring.
The princ ipal reconversion project centres
around the creation of a `spectacular festive
entertainment and shoppin g centre concen-
trated in a newly planned Exopolis (Soja,
1992) on the form er coal elds. It will be
argued that this reconversion effort an-
nounc ed a clear break with traditional post-
war form s of urban-regional policy-making
and re-orientates the institutiona l framework
in funda mentally new, although deeply con-
tested, ways. Indeed, what is happening in
Lim burg is not only a process of profoun d
econom ic restructuring, but also, and perhaps
forem ost, an experim ent to re-organise the
politica l-institu tional framework of planning
and policy-making in general. It is our claim,
therefore, that the `reconversion in Lim burg
is a double reconversion in the sense that it is
simultaneously socio-econom ic and institu-
tional. It concerns not only a restructuring of
the socio-econom ic base of the region, but
announc es also an im portant re-organisation
of the institutional basis of polic y making as
well as the type of urban governance.
The story of Lim burg is by no means
unique in a Europe an conte xt. Througho ut
Europe, from Sweden to Greece and from the
UK to the Baltic states, `gloc alising tenden-
cies of the state apparatus have been
identi ed (Jessop, 1993, 1994b; Morgan and
Roberts, 1993; Amin and Thrift, 1994;
Collinge and M arsh, 1995; Jones and Keat-
ing, 1995; B renner, 1996). The re-scaling of
the state is part and parcel of a wider and
more global restructuring of the politica l
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
econom ic geogra phy of accum ulation in the
direction of what is inva riably labelled as
post-Fo rdism , exible accum ulation or post-
industrialisation. However, much of the bur-
geoning literature in this eld tends to focus
on industrial, technologic al and/or organisa-
tional changes (for a review, see Amin and
Thrift, 1992; Amin, 1994). W e seek to argue
and docum ent that the re-organisation of the
post-w ar developm ent model and the hesi-
tant, highly contested and still undecided re-
structuring is accom panied by quite
im portant and powerful institutional changes
(Swynge douw , 1989).
Although the thesis of state re-scaling has
been advanc ed by a num ber of authors (M ou-
laert et al., 1988; Sw yngedo uw, 1992, 1996;
Jessop, 1994b; Peck, 1994; Peck and Tickell,
1992; Tickell and Peck, 1992; Esser and
Hirsch, 1989; Hooghe , 1995), the actual
mechanisms through which this process takes
place remain vague and under theorised. W e
maintain that urban/regiona l restructuring
processes, among others, provide the lever-
age for the national state to initia te such
re-scaling. Even in traditionally social-dem o-
cratic politic al regim es, such as Belgium , the
tension betw een rising scal and monetary
problem s at the level of the national state
com bine d with the urgent need to revive
ailing urban and regional econom ies in the
context of mounting globa l competition, the
erosion of democratic control and decision-
making procedures is seen as a way to re-
store the socio-econom ic basis for
com petitive economic grow th. Needless to
say, these processes do not unfold in an
unconte sted manner. At each mom ent, a var-
iety of groups within civil society mount
attacks on this increasing `gloc al authoritari-
anism , while the power of others becom e
consolidated and is often re-enforced. In
short, the relationship betw een state and civil
society becom es more tense and rift with all
manner of con ict as the gap betw een the
state and som e strata within civil society
widens. These exclusiona ry practices, in
turn, silence a grow ing num ber of people ,
result in a fragm ented urban-regional social
fabric and underm ine the possibility of con-
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP 1501

Figure 1. The location of the Province of Limburg.

structing a `hegem onic vision (Zukin, 1996).
In addition, as the state or other form s of
governance becom e increasingly authori-
tarian, the exclude d target extra-state objec-
tives to voic e their discontent or to launch
actions and strategies of conte station (M ayer,
1989, 1993). The rise of the `glocal state,
therefore, is accom panied by new form s of
social movem ents and new sorts of voicing
and mediating social con ict. Finally, the
elite control over the new scales of gove r-
nance results in strategies which turn the

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

1502
future of the region into an im age of their
own interests (Harvey, 1987; Philo and
Kearns, 1994). The outc ome, then, further
erodes urban-regional cohesion and produc es
a new space which include s the few and
exclude s the many.
In sum, the exploration of the socio-econ-
om ic reconversion of Lim burg s form er coal
elds allow s us to docum ent and substantiate
these claims. W e also maintain that it is
exactly through the production of such new
spaces that the above processes becom e man-
ifest and concrete. But before we embark on
analysing the political econom y of Lim-
burg s regiona l restructuring, we shall rst
further explore the wider context of our the-
sis about the politica l and spatial re-scaling
of the state.
2. Re-scaling the State
In the grow ing literature on the disputed
developm ent of `post-Fordist form s of so-
cio-econom ic organisation, relatively little
attention has been paid to the state, its role
and the effects of recent state restructuring.
Yet, it is evide nt that whatever form of re-
structuring takes place, the state is inevitably
deeply caught up in this restructuring pro-
cess. The state form is, in fact, central to
regulation theory, 1 which maintains that
changes in the form of the econom y are
always paralleled by changes in the form of
the state (Delorm e and Andre, 1983; Lipietz,
1985b; Boyer, 1986). W hile French regu-
lation theory is indebted to state theorists like
Poulantzas (1968), Aglietta (1976) and De
Brunhoff (1978) (see also Lipietz, 1985a,
1989), the theorisation of the `post-Fordist
state remains limited. W ith Jessop (1992,
1993), it is agreed that the state has to be
brough t back to centre-stage in attempts to
theorise and understand the form (s) of post-
Fordist developm ent. In addition , and per-
haps more im portantly, it is exactly through
the state (at whatever scale) that the position
and role of the citizen and her/his relation-
ship with society is de ned, instituti onalised
and, on occasion, conte sted and challenged.
The politics of post-Fo rdism , therefore, need
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
to be de ned in relationship to these new
state form s. Particularly if we are concerned
with formulating emancipatory polic ies and
strategies, the state or other form s of gove r-
nance remain key arenas for challenging pro-
cesses of exclusion and disem pow erment.
Our objective, therefore, is to bring the
state back to a more central stage in attempts
to theorise profoun d social transformations
of the kind we have seen over the past dec-
ade or so. Socio-econom ic urban/regional re-
structuring illustrates and embodies these
changes. I maintain that the analysis of ur-
ban/regional restructuring is not only a
means of excavating the restructuring of the
state apparatus, but perhaps more im por-
tantly, the form of urban/regiona l restructur-
ing becom es, among othe r strategies, the way
through which this re-organisation of the
state is achieved. As Lefebvre (1976, 1978)
has argued on a num ber of occasions, the
state (at whatever scale local, national, in-
ternational) is always spatially organised as
its interventions are profoun dly spatial strate-
gies to regulate social and physic al relations.
Spatialised interventions are, consequently,
one of the strategies where state tactics to
control and mediate social relations among
individu als, classes, class fractions and social
groups in the context of the maelstrom of
perpetual shifts in the globa l econom y are
played out. The scale of gove rnance, then,
becom es an integral part of these tactics and
strategies to mediate and control tension and
social con ict. The re-scaling of the state and
the production of new articulations between
scales of governance, in turn, rede nes and
reworks the relationship betw een state and
civil society or betw een state power and the
citizen (Swyngedo uw , 1996).
One of the remarkable institutional-politi-
cal (as well as econom ic see Cooke et al.
1992) tendencies over the past decade or so
has been the simultaneous internationalisation
and decentralisation/devolution of key policy/
regulatory/econom ic issues (see Sw ynge-
douw , 1992, 1996). As Jessop argues:
The national state is now subject to
a series of changes which result in its
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
`hollow ing out . This involve s two contra-
dictory trends. For, whilst the nation-state
still remains politic ally signi cant and
even retains much of its national sover-
eignty , its capacities to project its
pow er even within its ow n national bor-
ders are decisively weakened both by the
shift tow ards internationa lised, exible
(but also regionalised) produc tion systems
and by the grow ing risks emanating from
the global environm ent. This loss of auton-
omy creates in turn both the need for
supra-national co-ordination and the space
for subnationa l resurgence. Thus we nd
that the powers of nation-states are being
lim ited through a com plex displacement of
pow ers upward, dow nward and outw ard.
(Jessop, 1994b, p. 24)
Consequently, the level of the national state,
which used to be the pivotal scale for nego-
tiating and im plementing (urban and re-
gional) developm ent policy as well as
regulating a host of socio-econom ic and even
cultural tensions and relations during the
post-w ar period, is not only profou ndly
rede ned, but its discretionary pow ers have
been eroded (Albrechts and Sw yngedo uw,
1989a ). In short, the denationa lisation of pol-
icy-m aking has altered the in uence and di-
minished the relative im porta nce of the
national institutional level. This can be ex-
empli ed by the Europe anisation of im port-
ant regional, social and econom ic policy
initia tives and programmes and a devolution
of state power to decentralised local or re-
gional institutions, often new ly created. This
new international/local (`glocal ) state
con guration parallels im portant changes in
the nature and organisational structure of
these `local institutional frameworks. Be-
low , we shall show how the reconversion
effort in Lim burg elucidates this institutiona l
restructuring. In particular, we shall argue
that this econom ic and institutiona l restruc-
turing is characterised by a signi cant demo-
cratic de cit, not only at the already
well-docum ented level of the European
Union, but also, and very signi cantly, at the
level of the newly created `local institutions.
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1503
Ironic ally, while the creation of local institu-
tions is often defended and legitim ated on the
basis of their assum ed pote ntiality to enhance
dem ocratic control from locally rooted or-
ganisations, the evide nce, certainly from Bel-
gian Lim burg, sugge sts the opposite; that is,
a tendenc y tow ard a loss of democratic con-
trol and tow ard a political-institutiona l basis
functioning through a very small, usually
elite, basis (Saunders, 1985). In addition, the
privatisation of governance (the displace-
ment of state pow er outw ards) increases the
control and power of (inter)national or re-
giona l busine ss elites which take centre stage
in prom oting a `booste rist entrepreneurial
developm ent vision (Cox and Mair, 1989,
1991).
The re-scaling of the state, therefore, does
not suggest a dim inishing role of the state
apparatus. In fact, as we shall docum ent in a
mom ent, these new global/local institutions,
in close co-ope ration with priva te capital,
launch the redevelopment largely on the ba-
sis of public funds and state capital (Peck,
1995; Peck and Tickell, 1995). However, the
pow er and control over this social capital are
increasingly diverted to a small elite which
shapes the urban/regiona l fabric in its ow n
im age and fashion and de nes the very con-
tent of the restructuring process. The `hol-
lowed out state is characterised, therefore,
with a decidedly undem ocratic and double
authoritarian touch, both at the supra-na-
tional and local (urban/regional) level. In
short, the production of `post-F ordist spaces
is paralleled by disturbing politica l transfor-
mations and a rede ned citizenship.
These new instituti onal form s are rift with
all manner of con icts and tensions. First,
this double re-articulation of the scalings of
the state is highly conte sted, particularly by
those who becom e marginalised in or ex-
cluded from these new institut ions. Secondly,
the new alliances that are forged and their
need to af rm their legitim acy accentuates
the need from the part of the boosters to try
to create a hegem ony of vision (Zukin ,
1996), particularly through the spectaculari-
sation of both developm ent perspectives and
political program mes which takes away the
1504
focus from the substantive on-the-ground
transformations of the urban-regional socio-
econom ic fabric. This is particularly urgent
as channelling capital into speculative real-
estate-based proje cts and infrastructure tends
to provide a more secure accum ulation base
in the long run as other investm ents becom e
subject to increasingly global com petition
(see Harvey, 1978). As Brenner (1996, p. 5)
suggests (pace Lefebvre, 1991), a central
role of state pow er is to mediate the tension
betw een the territorialisation of surplus-
value realisation in the seconda ry circuit of
landed property and the deterritorialisation
through the increasing globalisation of the
world-e conom y in the primary circuit of
capital circulation . Produc ing, controlling
and surveilling social and physical spaces are
central to this mediating process. As the ten-
sions intensify with accelerating globalisa-
tion, more authorita rian or strong form s of
governance becom e increasingly important
to allow the new elites to mine land rents
through channelling capital into the built en-
vironm ent, while simultaneously producing a
relative crisis-free and cohesive civic order.
Reconve rsion, then, becom es synony mous
with real estate speculation and the pro-
duction of a new built environm ent rather
than with the provision of jobs. Of course,
new social movements (som etimes in al-
liance with the politica lly and socio-econom -
ically exclude d) challenge the new elite
programmes and question the legitim acy of
the institutional framework from which they
are excluded (M ayer, 1994). Such strategies
of resistance can take a variety of form s,
ranging from the rise of deeply anti-state
form s of anti-politics which feed the elec-
toral support for extreme right-w ing politica l
parties to active conte station of the develop-
ment vision by all sorts of groups, from
discontented since excluded local busi-
ness people to the green movement and im-
migrant groups .
These issues will be substantiated through
the story of the reconve rsion of the coal
mining region. First, we shall pay attention to
the politica l-institu tional structure that char-
acterised Belgium s post-w ar `Fordist 2 vari-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
ant and its dem ocratic functioning. W e shall
then discuss the institutiona l restructuring
that accom panies the reconversion effort and
document how the ambiguous reconversion
of the area is as much aim ed at implementing
new politic al-institutional arrangements as at
providing jobs. Finally, we shall indic ate
how this framework turned the reconve r-
sion s agship proje ct from an employm ent-
generating initia tive to a spectacular(ly)
speculative real-estate developm ent project.
3. Closin g the M ines
In 1986, the Belgian government announ ced
its intentio n to close Belgium s remaining
coal mines within a decade. From the begin-
ning of this century, coal-mining had been
the central, and until after the 1945, the only
industrial sector of any signi cance in the
Flem ish Province of Lim burg. The coal
mines accounted for nearly two-third s of to-
tal industrial employm ent. Between 1930 and
1950, coal-mine employm ent grew rapidly
from 20 600 to 40 775. The industry was
dom inated by W alloon capital, both in terms
of investm ent capital ows and destination of
coal production. Intra-regional forward or
backw ard linkages were few, lim iting the
multiplier effects of the coal-mining sector to
secondary income effects which generated a
num ber of service and nal consumption-
oriented activitie s, but failed to establish a
regional capitalist-entrepreneurial tradition in
the region (see Sw ynge douw , 1990a). Labour
con icts and struggles in coal-m ining, fol-
lowing the lead of their W alloon colleagues,
com bine d with national-sector bargaining
systems, resulted nevertheless in relatively
high wages for the miners (although system-
atically below those in W alloon coal-mining
centres). During the early 1950s already, the
coal sector show ed the rst signs of stag-
nation and crisis; the expansion of employ-
ment stopped and even began to contract.
Foreign capital, notably Ford and Philips,
moved in during this period to establish large
branch plants. In the late 1960s, the rst
mines were closed unde r heavy protest and
violent state repression (resulting in tw o
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
deaths in 1968). Throug hout the 1970s, the
state pum ped billions of francs into the ailing
industry. By the tim e the closure was an-
nounc ed, 17 000 miners were still employed
in the sector, while the whole region was
suffering from highe r than average unem-
ploym ent. New job creation through foreign
direct inve stment which had revamped the
region s econom ic base and had, until then,
replaced redundant mining jobs and absorbed
new labour entrants (often wom en) (Van Den
Bulcke, 1983) had virtually dried up by the
early 1980s and de-indu strialisation, de-lo-
calisation and a rampant erosion of the socio-
econom ic viability rampaged through the
region.
Together with the closure, the national state
(which at the time was transforming itself
rapidly into a federal form) decided to initiate
the most gigantic project of urban and re-
gional development ever undertaken in Bel-
gium (Van Den Panhuyzen, 1989). The state
earmarked 100b Belgian francs (2.2b) for the
restructuring of the region. These funds were
destined to nance (i) the closure (mainly
redundancy payments) of the coal pits and
(ii) to support and co- nance investment in
the socio-economic and spatial `reconversion
and restructuring of the region. That meant
that each Belgian, old and young, contributed
18 000 Bfr (400) to nance the redevelop-
ment. In addition, the European Commission
topped this up with a few hundred million
pounds worth of subsidies and soft loans (see
below). The rst three mines were closed
between September 1987 and March 1988.
The last two were nally ceremoniously
closed on 1 January 1993 (Baeten, 1991).
The of cial reconversion policy was out-
lined in the widely publicised and of cial
`Future Contract for Lim burg (Vlaamse
Gemeenschap, 1987). The main objective
was to generate employm ent in an attempt to
bring Lim burg s unemploym ent levels down
to the national average within a decade. This
im plied the creation of 10 000 new jobs.
Implicitly, the plan aimed at the production
of a new region, based on erasing the old
physical landscape, the socio-cultural fabric
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1505
and the mental image of the region and the
construction of a new urban/regional land-
scape. These obje ctives would be pursue d
through three interrelated aspects and im ple-
mented by a host of existing and new ly
created institutions and organisations.
The rst aspect concerned the `social guid-
ance of those directly involve d, i.e. the for-
mer miners (Struyv en, 1988). The main
purpose of this was to diffuse and channel
pote ntial social unrest via the monetisation of
the social, econom ic and psychological loss
on the one hand (every miner receives a
generous package including a `golden pen-
sion and a lump sum of up to 20 000) and
the creation of a new skill structure through
educational and training programmes. It also
appeased the miner s unions and assured
their cooperation in the restructuring drive .
Secondly, a new labour pro le was pre-
sented in line with the assum ed im age of
future employm ent dem and in a post-ind us-
trial society which was, quite unproblemati-
cally, presented as Lim burg s new destiny.
This econom ic reconversion was based on
attracting and suppor ting alternative indus-
trial and service investm ents in a region
which nevertheless continu ed to de-industri-
alise at a rapid rate. Europea n, national and
local initia tives, toge ther with local and na-
tional econom ic elites and som e, but aston-
ishingly little, international capital, com bine d
around a few, rather small, investm ent
projects (B aeten, 1990, 1991).
The sublim ation of the past and the cel-
ebration of the `new Limburg reached its
apotheosis in the third com pone nt of the
reconve rsion process i.e. the construc tion
of one large-scale tourist and recreation-
based project, initially announ ced as the Eu-
ropean Recreation Centre, later renamed as
the Educational and Recreational Centre
(ERC) (Loeckx, 1991). This project should
becom e the linchpin of the reconversion and
provide an estimated 4000 jobs in ways simi-
lar to what multina tiona l inve stments in Lim -
burg had achieved during the 1950s and
1960s.
For the of cially appointed `re-conver-
1506
sion manager , Thyl Gheyselinck, head-
hunted from Shell s Portuguese headquar-
ters, the ERC became the visually
attractively presented smokescreen placed
between the reality of the restructuring pro-
cess and the local population. At the same
time, a mythological image was created of a
future high-tech cyberculture and a free-
time-based space which simultaneously rep-
resents and would supposedly create a
high-income-based leisure society (Lash
and Urry, 1994; Urry, 1990). An estimated
$350m was spent on the creation of the
myth via newly recruited consultancy and
planning agencies, academic co-option,
publicity campaigns and the like. In 1992,
after Gheyselinck had left to replicate his
Belgian adventure by taking the lead over
coal-restructuring in the Czech Republic, a
new slimmed-down version of the project
was presented, this time launched and pack-
aged as the `FENIX -project. The mytho-
logical bird rising from its ashes became the
metaphor for the anchor piece of the recon-
version, which was this time rede ned as a
commercial property development scheme.
However, until this very day, the project has
still not left the drawing boards and despite
years of negotiations, promises and re-or-
ganisations very little has happened and
very few, if any, of the objectives of the
`Future Contract have been achieved. The
coal pits are closed, but the reconversion of
the area has not even started in any
signi cant way. Yet, the process had re-
sulted in a rather profound re-organisation
of the relationship between the state and
socio-economic restructuring.
4. Reconverting the E conom y, Reconvert-
ing the State
4.1 The Contradictory Face of
Fordism
The pivot of the post-w ar developm ent
model in Belgium centred around the emerg-
ence and consolidation of a nationally or-
ganised model of social consultation,
negotiation and paci cation between the `so-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
cial partners (the unions, the employe rs, the
self-employed and the farmers, often to-
gether with the state) and the deepening of a
redistribu tiona l welfare state system. The
central(ised) national state became the pre-
eminent scale of regula tion and arena for
social struggle and negotiation. Local form s
of negotia tion had existed for some tim e
before the war, but they became consolid ated
and integrated at the national level after 1945
(Vandenbroucke, 1981).
Even by 1944, the social partners had out-
lined the contour s of such a nationa l `Social
Pact . In 1954 and again in 1958, the Belgian
national unions and the employe r s organis-
ation re-af rmed these nationa l corporatist
principles and agreed a joint national declar-
ation that com mitted them to maintain social
peace. They recognise d each other s legit-
im ate interests, accepted the im porta nce of
perm anent negotia tions to reconcile points of
view and agreed to decide the organisation of
labour and othe r social relations around the
table rather than on the street (Brepoels,
1977; Frantzen, 1989; Piaser, 1986). Based
on a solida ristic and corporatist ideolog y,
social life in all its aspects became organised
in national organisations, with nationa l nego-
tiating pow ers and institutionalised in na-
tional forums for dispute settlement. This
`Fordist state form paralleled a relative so-
cial peace and a quite remarkable econom ic
grow th through the decisive insertion of the
national econom y in the new capitalist world
order. The cost of appeasing the various so-
cial groups was quite high and became incor-
porated in a `Keynesian state budge ting
system. State spending did not just signal
attempts to pursue a dem and-led macroeco-
nom ic policy but also re ected the cost of
maintaining social peace by partially satisfy-
ing the claim s of various social groups
against the threat of discontent, strikes or
Belgian
revolt. Maintainin g social peace was a costly
process, mediated in and through the central
state.
Democratic representation in, control over
and accounta bility of these key polic y-m ak-
ing arenas did not always pass by the directly
elected parliam entary institutions; unions ,
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
employers and farmers organisations and
the like were equally, if not more, important
institutions in terms of representation and
power-sharing. They did, nevertheless,
represent the overwhelm ing majority of the
people. National interest organisations repre-
sented civil society and were the medium
through which the relationship between state
and civil society was mediated and negoti-
ated. In addition, the position of the citizen
vis-a -vis the state operated via membership
in these organisations that regulated life from
cradle to grave. All bargaining institutions
were nationally organised and existing or
new ly established institutions would have a
carefully balanced mix of representatives
from each of the key social groups on their
boards (Slom p and Van Mierlo, 1984). The
politica l, social and ideolog ical power rela-
tionships (religious/non-religious ; capital/
labour; W alloon/Flemish) were kept in som e
sort of fragile, unstable and perpetually ques-
tioned balance and incorpo rated in the politi-
cal and institutional framework of the state
apparatus. Rarely would the government take
initia tives that had not been im plicitly or
explic itly condon ed and sanctioned by these
`social partners . This strategy also held for
advisory bodie s, public housing com panies,
health and unem ploym ent insurance
schemes, state-owned com panies, etc.
(Huyse, 1980; Dancet, 1985, 1986; Van De
Putte , 1987).
Evidently, regional policy instrum ents and
regiona l bodies (such as various sorts of
developm ent corpora tions, local housing as-
sociations and the like) were extensions of
and re ected the national pow er relations
rather than representing local form s of gover-
nance. For exam ple, both the Social and
Econom ic Councils as well as the Provincial
Development Corpora tions, which were the
main instrum ents for urban/regional develop-
ment, were nationally organised and mir-
rored the national power relations and
national polic y initiativ es (Albrechts and
Sw ynge douw , 1989b).
This was a corporatist, consensus-based
model that became hegem onic (rather reluc-
tantly in W allonia and more openly wel-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1507
com ed in Flanders) from the early 1960s
onw ards, particularly after the failure of the
attempted national general strike of 1960/61
which dem anded far-reaching structural
change in the direction of a more radical
state socialism (M andel, 1963). In contrast to
their W alloon counterparts, how ever, the
Flem ish working class opted for social
com prom ise and a corporatist Fordist politics
(Quevit, 1979), while the internally allied
`progressive Flemish elites chose the road of
negotiation and appeasement rather than the
more overt form s of class struggle which had
characterised the strategies of the W alloon
working class and the politic s of the now-ail-
ing `traditiona l W alloon bourge oisie. One of
the main contradictions in this model was the
inevitable tension betw een the permanent
need of priva te capital to restructure, re-or-
ganise and rationalise in the conte xt of
changing com petitive condition s on the one
hand and these regulatory bodie s which de-
manded greater participation, negotia tion,
regula tion and control on the other. During
periods of grow th, this institutional frame-
work operated quite successfully as the
bene ts could be shared, albeit in highly
uneven ways, by all partners. W hen crisis hit,
how ever, the structure of perm anent consul-
tation and bargaining came under heavy
pressure. As early as the mid 1970s, the
institutiona l framework had begun to give
way as priva te capital began to press for and
im plem ent funda mental changes in corpo-
rate, technolog ical and labour organisation.
Privatisation, deregulation, a more confron-
tational course with a weakened labour
movement, diminished consultation and
bargaining accom panied a tendency tow ard a
more entrepreneurial stance (Swyngedouw ,
1989). At the same tim e, the continuin g ap-
peasing efforts of the state had ballooned
state spending. Total public expenditure rose
from 30.3 per cent of GDP in 1960 to 54.3
per cent in 1980 and 51.2 per cent in 1991
(Hooghe, 1995, p. 137). Com bined with in-
creasingly adverse econom ic conditions,
national public debt rose to the highest level
in the European Union, reaching 160 per cent
of GNP in the early 1990s and was still at a
1508
form idable 135 per cent in 1995. In 1992,
32.6 per cent of all state revenues returned to
the public and the banks in the form of
interest paym ents on the outstanding public
debt. The budget de cit not only minim ised
room for manoeuvre and intervention at the
national level, but became a stum bling block
to furthe r Europe an integration (in particular
monetary integration); a process which has
the unconte sted suppor t of all mainstream
parties.
The nationa l state became increasingly
caught up in these contradictions. Reworking
its role and position became im perative to
maintain som e sort of cohesion. However,
the resistance against these moves, the con-
tinuing and deeply entrenched power of
unions, the social-dem ocratic organisation of
the state apparatus and the corpora tist struc-
ture of most regulatory bodie s necessitated a
less than overt attack on these national or-
ganisations and institutions. During the
1980s and early 1990s, successive govern-
ments (which were either centre-left or cen-
tre-right coalitions) launche d on a path of
com petitive streamlining of the state appar-
atus. It was necessary to tread a ne line
betw een maintaining a fragile social peace,
accelerating the pace of restructuring and
reducing state spending. The re-scaling of
institutional forms, com bine d with the
emergence of a host of new institutions,
organised along fundam entally new lines,
perm itted a more rapid institut iona l restruc-
turing; a side-stepping of `traditional power
lines and negotiation forum s; and a rather
swift erosion of the traditional nationa l
Fordist-based bargaining mechanism s.
This process im plicitly challenged the
choreography and the relationship s of power.
Altering the spatial scale of gove rnance (the
`hollow ing out of the state) and the develop-
ment of a parallel circuit of state or quasi-
state instituti ons became part of a strategy to
alter social power lines without resorting to
overt struggle and outrigh t overt dism antling
of the `Fordist bargaining system (as in the
UK, for exam ple). The emergence of new
local and supra-national forms of governance
announc ed a creeping process of marginalis-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
ing workers and other social organisations
and to forge a new , albeit conte sted and
internally fractured, alliance between a
slim med-dow n (entrepreneurial) state and
`glocal business elites. The grow ing im port-
ance of local `maverick elites (Peck and
Tickell, 1995) also illustra ted the shift from a
predom inantly internationa l and production-
oriented elite which had shaped the region s
industrialisation in the post-w ar period to a
new focus on local elites (in alliance with
internationa l nancial capital), particularly
after the conside rable slow -dow n in new in-
ternational direct investm ent ow s from the
early 1980s onwards (Sw yngedo uw, 1990b;
M oula ert and Sw ynge douw , 1991). At the
same tim e, it permitted the state to pull out of
ballooning nancial com mitments and to en-
gage in budge tary reform s and cutbacks. It
was in the midst of this political-econom ic
turm oil that the closure of the mines and the
reconve rsion of the region was initiate d, a
process that itself would assist in this very
re-scaling and hollow ing-out process.
4.2 The Uncertain Institutional Restructur-
ing
The efforts to re-structure the Lim burg
space-econom y and to produce a new com -
petitive urban/regiona l fabric were ac-
com panied by the establishm ent of a host of
new political-institutiona l frameworks, while
existing ones were abolished, reorganised,
bypa ssed or rede ned. One of the most strik-
ing characteristics of this recon guration is
the grow ing im portance of institutional form s
that are exclusively local or regional. Indeed,
the new ly established institutions are quite
remarkable and indicate a dram atic shift
com pared with earlier nationally organised
forms (Albrechts and Swyngedo uw , 1989b) .
A whole array of new local institutions, or-
ganisations, programmes, working parties,
networks, partnerships and the like were es-
tablished, each of which, in turn, connected
to other organisations, econom ic and politi-
cal instituti ons. This virtually uncontrolled
proliferation, particularly after 1982 when it
became apparent that the coal mines would
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
eventua lly have to give way, resulted in a
general condition of competition within and
betw een these organisations, actors and lo-
calities. It would take too long to reconstruc t
in this context the com plete and im mensely
com plex new institut iona l structure. M ore-
over, most often, the structure, objectives and
available means remain rather obscure. In
what follow s, we shall concentrate on those
institutions which muster greatest control and
power over the available nancial means.
A simpli ed (!?) scheme of the reconver-
sion structure and the most relevant inter-in-
stitutio nal conne ctions is sum marised in
Figure 2 (Studie centrum W illy Claes, 1988).
The `Future Contra ct 19871996 , which in-
corporates an `Integrated Action Plan Lim-
burg , served as a well-inte ntioned but empty
(in terms of nancial means) shell that at-
tempted to coordin ate the various existing
and new ly planned econom ic and social,
public and private initiatives. On the right are
the key nanciers and their institut iona l ba-
sis, on the left are the Regiona l Development
Corporation with its plannin g, service and
advisory functions (but without any
nancing) and the `Kempische Steenkoolm ij-
nen N.V. , a publicly ow ned but quasi-au-
tonom ously functioning com pany, headed by
the reconve rsion-m anager, Thyl Gheyselinck
(until 1991). The `Kempische Steenkoolm ij-
nen N.V. (later rebaptised as `M ijnen N.V. )
was the rump of the now fully state-owned
mining com pany. In 1967, the `Kempische
Steenkoolm ijnen (KS) were form ed after the
fusion of all ve Lim burg mines. At the tim e,
the state took over the loss-m aking coal ex-
ploitation while the previous private owners
remained in control of all real estate and
other pro table aspects. In 1987, the `KS
became fully state owned and headed by
supermanager Gheyselinck (Vandekerck-
hove, 1993). The prim e objectives of this
new `KS would be closing the mines and
initia ting the socio-econom ic reconversion of
the region. Gheyselinck had negotiated full
autonom y when he accepted the job. This
autonom ous power over 2.2b of public
money is unique in the history of public
policy in Belgium . The state had clearly ac-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1509
cepted this unprec edented control by the re-
conversion manager because it allow ed the
`priva tisation of the politica lly highly con-
troversial and sensitive issue of the mine
closures and permitted initiatin g a reconve r-
sion without having to engage in dif cult,
lengthy and highly tense negotiations with
the traditiona l `social partners . It would also
put a nal ceiling on state funding of the coal
sector and alleviate the mounting scal crisis
of the state. Most im portantly, as KS had
been given full control over the allocated
reconve rsion fund, the pow er over these pub-
lic means was devolve d dow nw ards to local
institutions and outw ards to a quasi-private
organisation.
The top part of Figure 2 shows the highe r-
scale institutional levels which oversee the
reconve rsion process and which, in the end,
nance the project (without having or, rather,
desiring to have, any direct in uence on the
actual process). At the bottom , som e of the
most im porta nt but by no means all local
or regional advisory counc ils, working par-
ties, coordin ation com mittees and othe r con-
version-related initia tives are listed. Below ,
we shall focus on the key actors and
nanciers of the reconve rsion process. The
plethora of organisations also contributed to
unde rmining democratic control as only true
inside rs could nd their way in the maze of
institutiona l netw orks, nancing organisa-
tions and consultancy bodies. The people of
Lim burg and the form er coal-miners stood
aside and watched in bew ildering astonish-
ment how the future of their life-space was
being re-created.
5. A New `Glocal Authoritarianism 3
In 1982, ALINVEST I, a public holding
com pany, was set up to channel money into
the ailing (Flemish) coal-mine region as a
com pensation for and as part of a political
com prom ise in the framework of the national
plan (and nancing) to restructure the W al-
loon steel industry. The stockholde rs of AL-
INVEST I were respectively the National
Investm ent Com pany (public ly ow ned) and
ALZ (a Lim burg-based private steel com -
1510 ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W

Figure 2. The institutio nal organisa tion of the reconve rsion of Lim burg, 1988.
Source: Studiecen trum W illy Claes (1988).

pany). ALINVEST received 1 bn Bfr (25m)
from the state. In 1984, ALINVEST II was
set up to com pensate for a similar venture in
W allonia . The stockholders of this second
investm ent com pany were ALINVEST I (33
per cent), the Flemish Investm ent Com pany
(27 per cent) (public com pany) and about 10
of Lim burg s largest private com panies
(BBTK/ABVV, 1988). The objectives of
both ALINVESTs were the diversi cation
and consolidation of the econom ic base of
the Provinc e. Their Boards are overw helm -
ingly `manned (quite literally) by represen-
tatives of the participating com panies. In the

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
end, most of their nancial means were used
to assist the restructuring of rms in
dif culties by means of taking non-voting
shares in the capital of these com panies.
ALINVEST I and II, mostly state-funded,
invested in a total of 31 local com panies;
tw o-thirds were existing ones and only one-
third of the available capital was invested in
new com panies.
In 1986, then, after the government had
announc ed the pendin g closure of the mines,
a superm anager was placed in the director
seat of the `Kempische Steenkoolm ijnen
N.V. (KS). He (Thyl Gheyselinck) sug-
gested the acceleration of the closure cam-
paign in order to reserve as many nancial
resources as possible for reconversion and
diversi cation purposes. Subsequently,
`Kempische Steenkoolm ijnen was to set-up
four subsidiaries and participate (60 per cent)
in a newly set up investm ent company (Lim-
burg Investment Company). All of the sub-
sidiaries were to participate in the various
aspects of the mine closures and the recon-
version. KS prepared a master plan for the
physical and socio-econom ic restructuring of
the mine sites. Gheyselinck launched the
visionary idea of replacing mining activity
with a gigantic and spectacular European
recreation centre. A sizeable part of the re-
conversion capital would be earmarked for
the im plem entation of the project (see be-
low ).
The individu al and rather authorita rian
`maverick managerial style of Gheyselinck
and his colleagues, quie tly accepted and ar-
guably suppor ted by the nationa l politica l
elites, did not allow for or tolerate much
politica l control or participation of the social
partners, the regional developm ent corpor-
ation, the social developm ent corpora tion or
any of the regiona l social movem ents
(greens, immigrants), which had becom e
more vocal in recent years. Only regiona l
entrepreneurs or associated individ uals were
put on the various key boards. In this way,
2.2bn worth of public funds were handed
over to local entrepreneurs and managers
without any guarantee (other than that the
mines would be closed). The other reconver-
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1511
sion institutions, such as the Lim burg Invest-
ment Com pany, were equally exclusive ly
controlled by managers, local entrepreneurs
and representatives of locally implanted glo-
bal corporations such as, for example, Philips
N.V .
Such private and elite com position of the
newly established institutions using public
funds was unprecedented in the post-w ar his-
tory of public intervention in the econom y. It
signi ed a remarkable, but silent, subtle and,
at the tim e, uncontested break with previ-
ously held principles of social paci cation by
means of collective bargaining and nego-
tiation by all social partners and their politi-
cal representatives on which the post-w ar
social consensus-based policy-making had
rested.
On 29 April 1987, the `Future Contract
was signed by the provincial authorities, the
Flemish and national governments; and by
the European Commission on 29 June 1987.
It was not a contract in the legal sense of the
word, but rather a declaration of intent to
diminish unemployment and to create jobs.
A series of comprehensive initiatives,
nanced by the four scales of governance
involved (European, national, Flemish, KS),
was announced. The Regional Development
Corporation of the Province, de jure the
institution that should oversee the reconver-
sion, was in practice side-stepped. In 1987,
the Regional Development Corporation pre-
sented its `Integrated Action Plan 1987
1991 , which was incorporated in the
`Future Contract , but largely remained a
hollow shell full of ideas and good inten-
tions, but without much substantial contri-
bution.
In the framework of the `Future Contra ct ,
another 550m was received, mainly from
Europe an sources. The participation of the
Europe an Structural Funds is estim ated at
9.4bn Bfr, another 5.3.b is provide d by the
ECC S (European Com munity for Coal and
Steel), REC HAR and other special European
progra mmes. The Europea n Investm ent
Bank, nally, earmarked over 1bn in the
form of soft loans for investm ent initiativ es.
1512 ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W

Table 1. Sum mary of the estim ated nancial m eans (and their sources ) earm arked for
the restructu ring and reconver sion of the Province of Lim burg, 198291 (in B fr bn;
45 Bfr 5 1)

Type of Financial Assistanc e

Source Subsidy Participat ions Loans

European Social Fund 3.8

European R egional Fund 3.4
European O rientatio n and
G uarantee Fund 2.2
ECC S 2.4 4
European Investm ent Bank 50
REC HA R 1.3
O ther European sources 1.6
A LINV EST I 0.8
A LINV EST II 1.3
LIM (Limburg Investm ent C o.) 5
N ational subsidy to coal mines betw een 91 and 98
O ther (nationa l state) 6.4

Notes: Other (nationa l state) concern s estim ated support provide d in the context of
national developm ent grants.S om e of the m entioned sources (such as the A LINV ESTs
and LIM ) received nancial m eans from the Flem ish governm ent. A num ber of double
counts are inevitab le in the tangle of cross-pa rticipatio ns and cross-in vestm ents (for
exam ple, som e of LIM s nances com e from the `Kempische Steenkoo lm ijnen ). The
table does not list the totality of public support, but only the regional ly speci c
contribu tions. National program mes such as tax deductio ns for reconver sion com panies
com e on top of the above support.
Source: Baeten (1990, p. 8).

The remainde r of the total sum com es from
the nationa l and regional gove rnm ents and
from private sources. A summary of the
available nancial means for the reconver-
sion and their sources is provide d in Table 1.
In terms of control and authority over the
available means, we can identify a double
scaling. On the one hand, there is the direct
contributions from the Europea n Community
and its special funds and, on the other, an
increasing control over the available funds
by non-ele cted quangos such as KS and its
`subsidiaries like LIM . A massive amount of
public funds was transferred without much
accountability in terms of inve stment deci-
sions. None of the elected bodie s or im plic-
itly democratic institutions has much
authority over the funds or participates in the
form ulation of strategic and othe r issues.
M anagement is largely priva tised and ex-
clude s key social groups (unions ; ecologists,
who are very strong in the area; minorities,
who represent 25 per cent of the popula tion
in the coal-m ine areas; and others). Even the
Regional Development Corporation is not di-
rectly involve d in decisions about the use of
public funds. The reconversion of Lim burg
meant a restructuring for and by capital and,
in particular, for and by established elites
from the region s few core com panies, but
using predom inantly public funds. At the
othe r side of the equation, the European
Com munity became an active partner in the
reconve rsion process. Europea n funds, con-
trolled by an elite bureaucratic stratum that
escapes the control of the Europea n Parlia-
ment, were com bined with the local levels of
gove rnance that steered the process. It
con rms Hooghe s assertion that
EC institut ions som etimes bypa ss national
and regional state institutions, and work
directly with othe r public authorities or
private actors, such as mixed private

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
public investm ent corpora tions. (Hooghe,
1995, p. 164)
This unique institut iona l restructuring dele-
gated power to `local non-ele cted bodies
which side-stepped and underlined consensus
form ation based on `Fordist tri-partite col-
lective bargaining procedures. This decentra-
lisation and regiona lisation of developm ent
policie s and initiativ es paralleled a hollow -
ing-out of democratic rules and an erosion of
public participation in key developm ent is-
sues. M ore im portantly, the exclusion of
groups with a nevertheless signi cant popu-
lar basis led to a continuous contestation of
decisions and prevented the developm ent of
a `hegemonic vision which could suppor t
and infuse the form ation of a regional devel-
opm ent coalition. In fact, the highly exclus-
ive decision-m aking system produced severe
con icts and tensions among regional social
groups , producing an im age of confusio n,
rivalries and con icts which, in turn, would
be detrim ental to the attraction of additional
external private capital investm ents.
6. Exop olis and the Politics of Spectacular
Redevelopm ent
6.1 Produc ing FENIX
Perhaps most im porta ntly, the com bination
of local elite control and the alliances they
forged in a context of uncertain economic
condition s and none or very little local or
international capital for productive invest-
ments resulted in a gradual material and dis-
cursive transformation of the reconversion
proje ct from one initially aimed prim ordially
at generating jobs (ERC) to a strategy that
centred around the production of land rent
and speculative developm ent inve stments
(FENIX). The business elites, in alliance
with internationa l developm ent capital,
turne d the form er carbon-based colonisation
into the mining of newly produced land rent
through the built environm ent and the pro-
duction of a new `festive urban space. If
things go as planned, FEN IX will be devel-
oped on 525 ha on one of the closed mine
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1513
sites outside the tow n of Genk in central
Lim burg. FEN IX intends to becom e a tourist,
recreational and com mercial proje ct combin-
ing a 150 000 sq m `festive shoppin g centre
with sports infrastructure, water-based rec-
reation (in- and outdoor), golf terrains, a
couple of theme markets and residential ac-
com modation (see Figure 3). In addition, a
new freeway needs to be built to conne ct the
centre to the existing network and the old
railroad needs to be operationa lised again.
An existing social housing com plex had to
give way for the com mercial venture. Total
inve stment cost is still unclear, but `Kempis-
che Steenkoolm ijnen estimated the cost at
20bn Bfr (450m ), half of which should
com e from private inve stors. The feasibility
study is based on a minim al scenario of 7m
visitors a year and a maximum of 20m a
year.
The origin of the proje ct dates back to
1986. At the tim e, the Disney corpora tion
was scouting for a location for its European
project and representatives of the Flemish
gove rnm ent visited Orlando twice (in 1986
and 1987) to lobby Disney to conside r Lim -
burg as a possible location for their Euro-
project (Vandekerckhove, 1993). W hen these
attempts failed, Thyl Gheyselinck suggested
some kind of surroga te i.e. an educationa l,
recreational and cultural proje ct or European
Recreation Centre (ERC). In the original pro-
posal, 1800 ha of form er mine sites would be
earmarked for educationa l, cultural and rec-
reational purpos es. In 1989, the Flemish
gove rnm ent endorsed the project and `Kemp-
ische Steenkoolm ijnen earmarked 8bn Bfr
for the proje ct (180m ). The remainder of
the cost should be covered by other (priva te)
partners and/or loans. The state would take
charge of the necessary peripheral infrastruc-
ture. The commercial/shoppin g part of the
project was only added towards the end of
Gheyselinck s involve ment in KS when it
became clear that the nancial feasibility was
dependent on additional private investm ents
and real-estate developm ent. In the conte xt
of this requirem ent, the ERC part of the
project was shrunk in favour of more com -
mercially oriented activities. In 1991, Sta-
1514 ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP 1515

Figure 3. FEN IX : representing a spectacular festive ex opolis.

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

1516
dium , a British group which had developed
the Shef eld M eadow hall shoppin g centre,
declared its willingne ss to participate in the
proje ct provide d the commercial part would
becom e the central focus of the park. Healey,
chairm an of the Stadium groups , writes in his
letter of intent the follow ing:
A greater concern from our part is that we
believe that the share of projected invest-
ments in recreation, shoppin g, restaurants
and bars is unacceptably low and this
threatens the overall pro tability of the
project. M oreover, we wish to be
satis ed that the core of the proje ct pro-
vide s for a minim um of 15 hectares for
recreation and an equal surface for shop-
ping, restaurants and bars. (Healey, fac-
simile of declaration of intent, translated
and cited in Vandekerckhove, 1993, pp.
160163
This silent and creeping transition from ERC
to FEN IX, from planning jobs to creating
land rent, and the substantial changes that
had taken place demand a serious change in
the zoning and land-use plannin g of the site.
Originally, KS had applied for 1800 ha to be
used for recreationa l purpos es but without an
explic itly com mercial part. The zoning plan
needed to be changed. In fact, one of the
subsidiaries of KS was contracted by the
plannin g authorities to change the plan. In
the end, the change in land use was ap-
proved, despite massive opposition of the
green movem ent and small shop-o wners in
the neighbouring tow ns of Hasselt and Genk
who see their survival threatened by this
planned massive expansion of com mercial
capacity in the region. However, at the stroke
of a pen, land rents increased from an aver-
age of 2 per sq m to 12 per sq m. This
alone will generate a windfa ll pro t to the
developers of approxim ately 500m . Al-
though the com mercial success of the project
is conte sted, the developers are well covered
given the new intrinsic value of the land.
Table 2 sum marises the com pone nts and
nancial ows of the total FENIX project
and captures how the `glocal alliance of
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
developers com bined with massive state
support and in search of pro t through urban-
isation channels the available capital into
construction, tourist and com mercial activi-
ties. The reconversion for jobs became a
quest for pro table land developm ent.
6.2 The Conte sted Re-scaling of the State
The new institutional and quasi-state form s
that were engendered by the reconversion
process are, of course, internally not as ho-
mogeneous as they have here been portra yed.
The decision-m aking procedures have been
rift with internal and external con ict and the
unfolding of the process of restructuring em-
bodie s multiple relations of pow er, conte sta-
tion and the making and breaking of
continuously shifting, unstable and fragile
alliances. Of course, KS was and still re-
mains one of the key players, although inter-
nal con ict and scepticism over the course of
action unde rmined the origina lly sought co-
hesion and hegem ony of vision. In particular,
the creeping rede nition of the central recon-
version proje ct from a service-based scheme
to a real-estate proje ct was internally ques-
tioned by successive leading gures (Sw yn-
gedouw and Bil, 1993). Both socialist and
Catholic unions are in favour of the scheme,
while employers federations equally support
the proje ct. The green movem ent, the moder-
ate nationa lists (which have been in uential
in the area since their active participation in
the miners strikes of the 1960s and the
self-employed (a powerful lobby organis-
ation representing local petty capital) remain
hostile to the FEN IX proje ct. In terms of
political party suppor t, there are serious in-
ternal con icts within the tw o main group-
ings, i.e. socialists and Catholics. W hile at
the national level, they both suppor t and
prom ote the project (despite internal
con ict), the picture at the local level is more
com plex with shifting allegiances and am-
biguous alliances.
The confrontations of vision are situated
mainly on the ruptures between big capital/
big labour/state versus petty (local) capital/
ecologists on the one hand and betw een an
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP 1517

Table 2. Overall structure of the FENIX project ( 5 45 Bfr)

Financial contribu tion Total cost

(in m illion (in million
Part of project Develope rs Bfr) B Fr)

Residenti al recreatio n Construct ion com panies a 765 4500

1 Aquapark FENIX N V 735
G olf terrain Develope r (Intersp ortif) b 25 75
FENIX N V 25
G arden centre Develope r (Florina) b 30 130
FENIX N V 10
Recreatio nal village Develope r (A lken-M aes) b 80 365
FENIX N V 20
Com mercial centre Develope r (STA DIUM ) c 1600 6700
Support infrastru cture STATE 1950 1950
(mainly roads) FENIX N V 800 (loan)

Total investm ent:

State 2 740
Private develop ers 2 500
L oans (B anks) 7 510
Total 12 750
Indirect investm ents 4 070
a
BA-Invest: consorti um of local construc tion com panies (V aessen, Kumpen, V an Roey, Ibens).
b
Interspo rtif and Inter orina are local com panies; A lken-M aes is a regional ly implanted m ajor beer
brew ery and subsidia ry of the French food m ultinatio nal Danone.
c
British-ba sed internati onal develop m ent com pany (am ong others of M eadow hall in Shef eld and
in Oberhaus en, Germ any).
Source : H et Belang van Lim burg, 11 A pril 1995.

econom istic versus a post-m aterialist vision
on the other. The resulting socio-political
cleavages forge unholy alliances between
petty local capital and the environm ental
movem ent on the one hand and the state/or-
ganised labour/international capital on the
other. Not surprisingly, such manoeuvring
which reshuf es traditional power lines dis-
orientates and excludes large segments of the
rest of civil society, which becom e increas-
ingly alienated from the autoc ratic and extra-
parliam entary system of decision-making. At
the same tim e, this re-working of alliances
and cleavages in civil society, which in many
ways interrupt, conte st and break through the
traditional `Fordist social ruptures and com-
prom ises, also accelerated and suppor ted the
re-scaling of the state. The movem ent of
policie s outw ards and dow nwards became
part of a strategy to deal with these new
forms of con ict while legitim ising contin-
ued state involve ment in urban/regional re-
structuring processes.
7. Conclusion: Power, State and Scale
The painful process to restructure the Bel-
gian coal-m ining region has thus far had very
little im pact in terms of newly created jobs
and additional investm ent. However, the pro-
cess has been quite successful in terms of:
(1) altering the institutional basis of key de-
cision-making procedures tow ard a more
authoritarian and exclusive system;
(2) eroding the power of the national and
regiona l state and the re-scaling of key
decision-m aking to a com bination of
non-ele cted local institutions and Eu-
ropean Union initiativ es;

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015

1518
(3) accelerating the systematic social, econ-
om ic, cultural and political exclusion of
already politica lly weaker socio-econ-
om ic groups; and
(4) enabling the transform ation of the key
reconversion project from an employ-
ment-generating activity through invest-
ment in the productive sphere to a
real-estate developm ent project in a
newly constructed spectacular Exopolis .
The reconversion project is, thus, a spec-
tacular development in the double sense of:
(i) the visionary construction of a new urban
landscape and speculative commercial de-
velopment; and (ii), the embodiment of a
process of rekindling the state apparatus in
new, re-scaled, increasingly authoritarian
and highly exclusive institutional forms.
The continuing contestation of the project,
the marginalisation of important social
groups and actors and their exclusion from
the decision-making procedures contribute
to fractional ghts, mounting rivalries and
the absence of a territorial `hegemonic vi-
sion about the future development of the
region (CITEC, nd; De Rynck and De
Rynck, 1993). The absence of such a
growth coalition , in turn, undermines terri-
torial cohesion, discourages external invest-
ment and slows down the whole process.
Indeed, from the launch of the FENIX proj-
ect, new political and social alliances, often
unlikely partners, have emerged which chal-
lenged the imposed plans. The green move-
ment in alliance with local small capitals
(who see their position threatened by the
imposition of a large-scale commercial de-
velopment project) have mounted a system-
atic attack against the project. Political
representatives of the self-employed have
successfully underlined the position of
`Kempische Steenkoolmijnen and suc-
ceeded in establishing a parliamentary com-
mission of inquiry into the use of public
funds by KS. Although nothing happened,
this move prompted the Flemish govern-
ment to redraw the institutional framework
of the reconversion institutions without,
however, changing the composition of e lite
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
groups on the various boards of manage-
ment. The green movement continues with
varying degrees of success and failure to
protest against the project through legal ac-
tions, lobbying and a variety of other strate-
gies. E lite local entrepreneurs, in alliance
with the state, international development
companies and the local labour movement
continue to defend the project and desper-
ately attempt to manoeuvre around the
obstacles mounted by the opposition move-
ment. In sum, new social movements and
alliances are forged, while others break
down and are recon gured. The relationship
between these new forms of governance and
the rest of civil society becomes increas-
ingly tense and is characterised by internal
fractures, power struggles and growing frag-
mentation.
This re-scaling of spatial levels of gove r-
nance leads to multiply articulated, but in-
creasingly authoritarian, state apparatuses
and a parallel marginalisation and recon-
struction of the `citizen . These changes are
legitim ated and pushed through on the basis
of the need to develop com petitive places in
a context of intensifying inter-place com pe-
tition. `Traditional state form s are deemed
inadequate to facilitate or to enable the cre-
ation of com petitive regions. These form s of
marginalisation of the less powerful, com -
bine d with entrepreneurial form s of regional
redevelopm ent, point at a weakening of
dem ocratic control over key decision-m aking
procedures and activities. The citizen s state
is replaced by a technocratic-managerial-en-
trepreneurial state form at scales different
from the traditiona l national stage. A series
of parallel (to the state) institutions were
establishe d which can be the precursors of
new form s of gove rnance that may increas-
ingly displace the `Fordist state. Disconte nt,
then, is increasingly voiced and channelled
through extra-parliamentary and often frag-
mented form s of conte station and widens the
gap between state and civil society. This
threatens regional social cohesion and pre-
vents the developm ent of what Zukin (1996)
calls `a hegem ony of vision , a broadly sup-
ported and internally coherent developm ent
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
view . The re-scaling of the state through
urban-regiona l restructuring becom es hereby
an integral part of the shifting balance of
power in the direction of a new `glocal
business elite.
Notes
1. The term `Fordism was coined after G ram -
sci (1928/ 1971), one of the central theoreti -
cians of the state and civil society. He saw
`Fordism as a the com bination of highly
contradi ctory, internall y con icting and con-
tinuousl y conteste d political -econom ic pro-
cesses in which restructu ring, re-scalin g and
rede ning scales of pow er, authorit y and
state regulatio n w ere central (strateg ic) ele-
m ents.
2. `Fordism is used here as a shorthan d for the
highly variegat ed, continuo usly changing ,
dynam ic and often conteste d m ode of econ-
omic develop ment and form of interven tion-
ist national state form ation that structur ed
and characte rised most political -econom ic
regim es in western Europe during the post-
w ar period (see M oulaert and Swyngedou w,
1989).
3. U nless otherw ise acknow ledged, the data
and inform ation for this and the follow ing
section cam e from the follow ing sources:
internal docum ents of the national and
Flem ish state, the civil service, K S, lobby
groups, unions and political parties;
new spaper clipping s;
consulta ncy and plannin g reports;
docum ents from the Province of Lim burg
and from KS, and
interview s with KS, unions and other local
organisa tions.
References
A GLIETT A , M . (1976) R egulation et Crise du Cap-
italism e: l Experience des Etats-U nis. Paris:
Calm an-L evi.
A LBREC HTS , L. and S W YNG EDO UW , E. (1989a) The
challeng es for regional policy under a exible
regim e of accum ulation, in: L. A LB RECHTS , F.
M OULA ER T , P. R O BERTS and E. S W YN GEDO UW
(Eds) Regional Policy at the Crossroa ds: Eu-
ropean Perspecti ves, pp. 6789. London: Jes-
sica Kingsley.
A LBREC HTS , L. and S W YN GEDO UW , E. (1989b) Re-
gionale Planning en Ontw ikkeling : Exponent en
van M aatschap pelijke Ontw ikkeling , Ruim -
telijke Planning , 23, II.A .2.b., pp. alb1alb40.
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1519
A M IN , A . (Ed.) (1994) Post-F ordism : A Reader .
O xford: Blackw ell.
A M IN , A . and T HR IFT , N. (1992) N eo-M arshallia n
nodes in global netw orks, Internat ional Journal
of Urban and Regional Research , 16, pp. 571
587.
A M IN , A. and T H RIFT , N. (Eds) (1994) Globaliza ti-
on, Institutio ns and Regional Developm ent in
Europe. Oxford: O xford University Press.
B AE TEN , G . (1990) Tew erkstelli ngseffec ten van
het Reconver siebeleid in Lim burg: Een E valu-
atie. Sem inarie Projectev aluatie , Instituu t voor
Stedebou w en Ruim telijke Ordening ,
K atholiek e Universite it, Leuven. (m imeo-
graph).
B AE TEN , G. (1991) Van Steenkool naar Iets A n-
ders: Een A nalyse van de Limburgse
Econom ische Herstructu rering, Planologi sch
N ieuws , 11, pp. 147157.
BBTK /AB VV (1988) Schaken met Jobs: De Re-
convers ie in Lim burg , H asselt: Them akongre s
B .B .T.K .Limburg 1988.
B OY ER , R . (1986) La Theorie de la R egulation :
U ne A nalyse Critique . Paris: La D ecouvert e.
B R ENN ER , N. (1996) State territoria l restructu ring
and the producti on of spatial scale: urban and
regional planning in the FR G, 19601989,
Political Geograph y. (forthco m ing).
B R EPO ELS , J. (1977) W at zoudt G e Zonder het
W erkvolk Zijn, 1831 1966 . Leuven: K ritak.
CITEC (nd) R uim te voor Lim burg, Startnota
R TIM 2, 2 Delen en B ijlagen, H asselt.
C OL LIN GE , C. and M A RSH , A. (1995) Restructin g
the regiona l state. Paper presente d at the 10th
U rban Change and Con ict C onferenc e, R oyal
H ollow ay C ollege, University of London, 57
Septem ber. (m im eograph ).
C OO KE , P., M O ULA ERT , F., S WY NG EDOU W , E. and
W E IN STEIN , O. (1992) Tow ards G lobal Local-
ization: The Computing and C om municatio ns
Industri es in Britain and France . London: UC L
Press.
C OX , K . and M AIR , A . (1989) U rban grow th m a-
chines and the politics of local econom ic devel-
opm ent, Internati onal Journal of U rban and
Regional Research , 13, pp. 137146.
C OX , K . and M AIR , A . (1991) From localise d
social structur es to localities as agents,
Environm ent and Planning A , 23, pp. 197213.
D A NC ET , G. (1985) D e N aoorloge Loonar-
beidsve rhouding en in Belgie , in: P OLEK AR (Ed.)
H et Laborator ium van de Crisis, pp. 4262.
Leuven: Kritak.
D A NC ET , G. (1986) C ontractu alisation salariale et
com petitivite de la synergie au con it: La
B elgique, in: R . B O YER (Ed.) La Flexibilite
du Travail en Europe, pp. 105129. Paris: La
D ecouverte .
D E B R UN HOF F , S. (1978) The State, Capital and
Econom ic P olicy. London: Verso.
1520 ER IK SW Y NG EDO U W
D ELOR M E , R . and A ND R E, C. (1983) L Etat et
l Econom ie. Paris: Le Seuil.
D E R YNC K , F. and D E R YN CK , S. (1993) Procese-
valuatie van de Reconver sie in Lim burg .
Leuven: V ervolm akingsc entrum voor O ver-
heidsbel eid en Bestuur, K atholiek e U niver-
siteit.
E SSER , J. and H IR SCH , J. (1989) The crisis of
Fordism and the dim ensions of a `post-F ordist
regional and urban structure , Internat ional
Journal of U rban and Regional Research , 13,
pp. 417436.
F R AN TZEN , D . (1989) Groei en Crisis in het Na-
Oorlogse Kapitalism e. Antw erpen: Kluw er.
G RA M SCI , A. (1928/ 1971) Prison Notebook s. New
York: Internat ional Publisher s.
H AR VEY , D. (1978) The urban process under capi-
talism : a fram ework for analysis , Internat ional
Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 2,
pp. 101131.
H AR VEY , D . (1987) Flexible accum ulation through
urbaniza tion: re ections on `post-m odernism
in the Am erican city, Antipode , 19, pp. 260
286.
H AR VEY , D. (1989) From m anageria lism to en-
treprene uralism : the transfor m ation in urban
governa nce in late capitalis m, Geograph iska
Annaler Series B, 71B , pp. 318.
H OOG HE , L. (1995) Belgian federali sm and the
European C om munity, in: B. J ON ES and M .
K EA TIN G (Eds) The European U nion and the
Regions , pp. 134165. O xford: Clarendon
Press.
H UYS E , L. (1980) De G ew apende V rede . Leuven:
Kritak.
J ESSOP , B. (1992) Fordism and post-F ordism : cri-
tique and reform ulation, in: A. J. S C O TT and M .
J. S TO RPER (Eds) Pathw ays to Regional ism and
Industria l D evelopm ent, pp. 4365. London:
Routledge .
J ESSOP , B . (1993) Tow ards a Schum petarian
workfare state? Prelim inary rem arks on post-
Fordist political econom y, Studies in Political
Econom y, 40, pp. 739.
J ESSOP , B. (1994a) Post-F ordism and the state, in:
A. A M IN (Ed.) P ost-F ordism : A Reader, pp.
251279. O xford: B lackw ell.
J ESSOP , B. (1994b) The transitio n to post-Fo rdism
and the shum peterian workfare state, in: R.
B UR R OW S and B. L OA DER (Eds) Tow ards a
Post-F ordist W elfare State? , pp. 1337. Lon-
don: R outledge .
J ONES , B . and K EA TING , M . (Eds) (1995) The
European Union and the R egions . O xford:
Clarendon Press.
L A SH , S. and U R RY , J. (1994) Econom ies of Signs
and Space. London: Sage.
L EF EB VR E , H. (1976) De l Etat: Les Contradic -
tions de l Etat Moderne . Paris: Union G eneral
d E ditions.
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
L EFEBV RE , H. (1978) De l Etat: l Etat dans le
M onde M oderne . Paris: Union General
d Editions.
L EFEBV RE , H. (1991) The Productio n of Space .
O xford: Blackw ell.
L IPIETZ , A. (1985a) Le national et le regional:
quelle autonom ie face a la crise capitalis te
m ondiale, C EPREM AP Couvertur e Rouge .
(Paris), No. 8521.
L IPIETZ , A . (1985b) R e exions autour d une fable:
pour un statut M arxiste des concept s de regu-
lation et d accum ulation, CEPR EMA P C ouver-
ture Rouge. (Paris), N o. 8530.
L IPIETZ , A. (1989) D e l Althusser ianism e a la
`Theorie de la Regulation , CEPREM AP Cou-
verture Rouge (Paris), No. 8920.
L OEC KX , A . (1991) In Leegte Spreken: Het ERC
Project te W atersche i, Planologi sch Nieuw s,
11, pp. 132146.
M AN DEL , E. (1963) The dialectic of class and
region in Belgium , New Left Review , 20, pp.
531.
M AY ER , M . (1989) Restructu ring and oppositi on
in W est Germ an cities, in: J. F EAG IN and M . P.
S M ITH (Eds) The Capitalist City: Global Re-
structur ing and Comm unity Politics , pp. 343
363. Oxford: B lackw ell.
M AY ER , M . (1993) The career of urban social
m ovem ents in W est Germ any, in: R. F ISHER ET
AL . (E ds) Mobilizin g the Com munity: Local
Politics in the Era of the Global City, London:
Sage.
M AY ER , M . (1994) Post-F ordist city politics, in:
A . A M IN (E d.) Post-F ordism : A Reader , pp.
316337. Oxford: Blackw ell.
M OR GA N , K . and R OB ER TS , E. (1993) The dem o-
cratic de cit: A G uide to Q uangola nd. Papers
in Planning Research No. 144, Departm ent of
C ity and R egional Planning, U niversity of
W ales, Cardiff.
M OU LAER T , F. and S W Y NGED OUW , E . (1989) A
regulati on approac h to the geograp hy of the
exible producti on system , Environm ent and
Planning D , 7, pp. 327345.
M OU LAER T , F. and S W YN GEDO UW , E. (1991) Re-
gional develop ment and the geograp hy of the
exible producti on system : theoreti cal argu-
m ents and em pirical evidence , in: U . H ILP ER T
(Ed.) Regional Innovati on and Decentral is-
ation: High-tech Industry and Regional Policy ,
pp. 239265. London: Routledge .
M OU LAER T , F., S W YN GEDO UW , E. and W ILS ON , P.
(1988) Spatial response s to Fordist and post-
Fordist accum ulation and regulatio n, Papers of
the Regional Science Associatio n, 64, pp. 11
23.
P EC K , J. (1994) Regulatin g labour: the social regu-
lation and reprodu ction of local labour m arkets,
in: A . A M IN and N . T H RIFT (Eds) Globaliza tion,
 REC ON STRUCTIN G CITIZEN SH IP
Institutio ns and Regional D evelopm ent in Eu-
rope , pp. 147176. Oxford: O xford University
Press.
P EC K , J. (1995) M oving and shaking: busines s
elites, state localism and urban privatism ,
Progress in H uman Geograph y, 19, pp. 1646.
P EC K , J. and J ON ES , M . (1994) Training and E nter-
prise Councils: Schum peterian workfare state
or what?, Environm ent and Planning A , 27, pp.
13611396.
P EC K , J. and T ICK ELL , A. (1992) Local m odes of
social regulatio n? Regulatio n theory, Thatch-
erism and uneven develop ment, Geoforum , 23,
pp. 347364.
P EC K , J. and T IC KEL L , A. (1994) Searching for a
new institutio nal x: the after-Fordist crisis and
the globallocal disorder , in: A. A M IN (Ed.)
Post-F ordism : A Reader , pp. 280315. O xford:
Blackw ell.
P EC K , J. and T ICK ELL , A . (1995) Business goes
local dissectin g the busines s agenda in
M ancheste r, Internat ional Journal of U rban
and Regional Research , 19, pp 5578.
P HILO , C. and K EA RN S , G . (Eds) (1994) Selling
Places . O xford: Pergam on Press.
P IAS ER , A . (1986) Les M ouvem ents Longs du Cap-
italism e Belge . Bruxelles : Editions V ie Ouvri-
e re.
P OU LAN TZAS , N. (1968) Pouvoir Politique et
Classes Sociales I & II. Paris: M aspero.
Q UEVIT , M . (1979) Les Causes du Declin W allon .
Bruxelles : Ed. Vie O uvrie re.
S AU ND ERS , P. (1985) The forgotten dim ension of
centrallocal relations : theorisi ng the `regiona l
state , Environm ent and Planning C , 22, pp.
133145.
S LO M P , H . and V AN M IER LO , T. (1984) Arbe-
idsverho udingen in Belgie . A ntw erpen: H et
Spectrum .
S OJA , E. (1992) Inside exopolis : scenes from
Orange C ounty, in: M . S OR KIN (Ed.) Variation s
on a Them e Park: The New American City and
the End of Public Space, pp. 94122. New
York: The N oonday Press.
S TR UY VEN , L. (1988) Prospecti ef Arbeidsm arkton-
derzoek Lim burg, Deelrapp ort III: O pleiding
als Arbeidsm arktinstr ument. Hoger Instituut
voor de A rbeid, Katholiek e Universite it, Leu-
ven.
S TU DIEC ENTR UM W ILLY C LAES (1988) Recon-
versie: Stand van Zaken. H asselt: Studiecen -
trum W illy Claes.
S W YN GEDO UW , E . (1989) The heart of the place:
the resurrec tion of locality in a age of
Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNIV OF ILLINOIS URBANA on February 17, 2015
1521
hypersp ace, Geograph iska Annaler , 7lB, pp.
3142.
S W YNG EDOU W , E. (1990a) A `regulati on in-
terpreta tion of spatial change and innovati on: a
B elgian exam ple, in: P. N IJKAM P (Ed.) Susta-
inability of U rban System s: A C ross-N ational
Evolution ary Analysis of Urban Innovati on, pp.
247286. Aldershot : Avebury.
S W YNG EDOU W , E. (1990b) L espace, le Fordism e
et le Lim bourg, C ontradic tions , 58/59, pp.
115151.
S W YNG EDOU W , E. (1992) The m amm on quest:
`glocali zation , interspa tial com petition and the
m onetary order: the construc tion of new scales,
in: M . D UN FORD and G. K A FK ALAS (Eds) Cities
and Regions in the N ew Europe, pp. 3967.
London: B elhaven Press.
S W YNG EDOU W , E. (1996) Neither global nor local:
`glocali sation and the politics of scale, in: K .
C OX (Ed.) The Global and the Local: M aking
the C onnectio ns. N ew Y ork/London: Guilford/
Longm an. (forthco ming).
S W YNG EDOU W , E. and B IL , S. (1993) R uim te
m aken voor FEN IX: Van Pretpark naar Specu-
latiefest ival, P lanologi sch Nieuw s, 13, pp. 286
297.
T ICK ELL , A. and P EC K , J. (1992) A ccum ulation,
regulati on and the geograp hies of post-
Fordism : m issing links in regulatio nist re-
search, Progress in Human Geograph y, 16, pp.
190218.
U R R Y , J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage.
V A NDEK ER CK HOV E , I. (1993) The M iljarden van
K S. Antw erpen: C OD A.
V A NDEN BRO UC KE , F. (1981) Van C risis tot Crisis .
Leuven: Kritak.
V A N D EN B ULC KE , D. (1983) Buitenlan dse Directe
Invester ingen in de L im burgse Industri e, Eco-
nom ie in Lim burg , 4, pp. 2035.
V A N D EN P ANH UYZ EN , W . (1989) De Financie le
H istoriek van de Kempense Steenko olm ijnen,
Econom isch en Sociaal Tijdschrif t, 1, pp. 83
94.
V A N D E P UTTE , R . (1987) Sociale G eschiede nis
van Belgie 1944 1985. Tielt: Lannoo.
V LA AM SE G EM EEN SCHAP (1987) Toekom stcontra ct
voor Limburg . B russels.
Z UK IN , S. (1996) Cultural strategie s of econom ic
develop m ent and the hegem ony of vision, in:
A . M ER RIFIELD and E . S W YNG EDOU W (Eds) The
U rbanizat ion of Injustice . L ondon: Lawrence &
W ishart. (in press).