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In 2015, Amsterdam implemented a centralised primary school admissions policy, constraining school choice after a long history of highly autonomous schools and free parental choice which has resulted, in part, in the city's segregated schooling environment. Introduced out of concerns of inequality for parents and disorganisation by schools, this policy implemented a uniform choosing procedure and a distance-based priority mechanism. Drawing on interviews with school directors and municipal education officials, this paper examines how schools seek to maintain their legitimacy in a highly segregated school choice environment undergoing constrained change. The Amsterdam case serves as a unique example of local education officials confronting the well-documented negative effects of school choice through policies controlling school choice in an era of global school choice expansion.

Recent discussions in science, politics and society offer starting points for rethinking the approach to the wicked problem of educational inequality. In our paper, we want to do this by reviewing research, policy and practice in primary education in the Netherlands. Our reflections are first focused on the state of the art in research and the complex educational system from a theoretical perspective (section 2); next we focus on examples of how educational inequality and segregation in policy and practice are addressed in the Netherlands (section 3). Finally, we discuss the new methodological approaches that should be complemented with a new philosophical perspective on segregation and inequality in public policy (section 4). We develop new perspectives using the Netherlands as a specific case study, expecting our perspectives have a more general meaning and might also be useful in the fight against educational inequality and segregation elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impacts of the transition to parenthood on the relationship between (from a Bourdieusian perspective) habitus and field in social reproduction. The paper is based on a longitudinal study of white middle-class gentrifier households in Amsterdam before and after childbirth. The study reveals the disruptive (as well as re-configurative) impact of parenthood as transition, even for this relatively privileged group (in terms of legitimated habitus and spatial discretion and mobility). Our findings strongly suggest the highly gendered nature of this transition, and also reveal the significance of spatial dimensions of this gendered experience – from embodiment all the way through to changing relationships in urban space. These impacts suggest parenthood as a distinct 'field' of social struggle and emphasise the significance of gender and spatial experience in understanding habitus-field relations, alongside the more acknowledged temporalities of social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the consequences of female rural-urban migration with respect to their education, career, and relationship and family formation in the Netherlands. The study is based on four birth cohorts of Dutch women born in 1970-1973 in rural areas, comparing those who had migrated to urban areas before the age of 25 with those who had remained behind. Outcomes were measured at age 42. The data were derived from administrative registers available at Statistics Netherlands. The results show that female migration to cities served to increase women's resources: they were more often university educated and had better paid jobs, in line with the idea of cities as socioeconomic escalators. The city also functioned as a relationship market with a relative abundance of men with resources. Both lower and university educated city women were more likely to be in a relationship with a highly educated man compared to their rural peers. However, lower educated women had an increased probability of being single at age 42 when they lived in cities at age 25. This was not the case for university educated women. In conclusion, for lower educated women urban migration may entail risks as well as benefits, especially with respect to family formation. University educated women on the other hand benefited both in terms of their own socioeconomic outcomes and in terms of their partners' resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, Amsterdam implemented a centralised primary school admissions policy, constraining school choice after a long history of highly autonomous schools and free parental choice which has resulted, in part, in the city's segregated schooling environment. Introduced out of concerns of inequality for parents and disorganisation by schools, this policy implemented a uniform choosing procedure and a distance-based priority mechanism. Drawing on interviews with school directors and municipal education officials, this paper examines how schools seek to maintain their legitimacy in a highly segregated school choice environment undergoing constrained change. The Amsterdam case serves as a unique example of local education officials confronting the well-documented negative effects of school choice through policies controlling school choice in an era of global school choice expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an advanced analysis of individual longitudinal register data of school careers of four cohorts of children in Amsterdam, this article suggests that school advice is highly differentiated between children of different migrant and socioeconomic backgrounds. Moreover, apart from these individual characteristics, we demonstrate that the socioeconomic composition of neighbourhoods and schools is important for understanding differences in school advice. The analysis shows that neighbourhood and school socioeconomic disadvantage negatively affects the school advice of children with highly educated parents, while socioeconomic advantage positively affects all children and especially children of lower- and intermediate-educated parents. The positive neighbourhood effects are, however, mediated by primary school context. We suggest that while most of the educational inequalities may be explained by individual characteristics, residential and school segregation intensify these inequalities, especially through the beneficial effects of neighbourhood and school advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many postindustrial cities in the Global North, increasing families seem to choose to stay in the city rather than move to the suburbs. This might imply that residential preferences of young families shift from suburban to more urban. In this paper, the moving behaviour of young families in the four largest cities in the Netherlands is analysed. The moving behaviour is measured with register data and analysed with the Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition technique and with logistic regression techniques. The results show that young families broken down by residential biography and income have very different moving behaviours in their choice for staying in the city or moving to the region around the city. The changes in the outmigration of young families from the city to the region are not necessarily related to changing residential preferences, but more related to changes in the composition within the group of young families. The growth of higher‐income families in cities seem to be primarily explained by the changing composition of city dwellers before family formation and not so much by a more urban orientation in their moving behaviour. Changes in moving patterns through time and the differences between the four cities seem to be related to the differences in the urban economy and housing supply. Especially in Amsterdam, the lack of larger family home drives young families to the suburbs. When cities and suburban regions want to be attractive for young families, the size of the available dwellings is the most important aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Dutch inner-cities, like Amsterdam, 'cargo bikes' have become a popular mode of transport for urban families. Remarkably, the cargo bike has become a highly contested object in both public space and public discourse. This paper uses the cargo bike as a lens to discuss the transformations of urban space from the perspective of class and gender. Based on a qualitative content analysis of national newspapers it argues that the cargo bike has become a symbol of the interdependence of specific residential, employment, consumption and mobility practices. Cargo-bike drivers are portrayed as 'yuppies' or 'elitist', related to their class position; and described in terms of specific gender roles: cargo-bike mothers are described as career-focused mothers who are assertive and self-confident, while cargo-bike dads are portrayed as 'soft' yet also emancipated. These labels attest to the different expectations and normativities around being a 'good' mother or father, particularly within the context of urban space. This paper concludes that the cargo bike is a symbol of the way in which middle-class mothers and fathers challenge and negotiate these dominant norms around parenthood, who are thereby remaking the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Economic restructuring and changing demographic and migration patterns have significantly altered the population compositions of urban regions. Whereas there is evidence that employees in various sectors of the economy have different residential preferences, there exists much less insight into the social geography of various class fractions at the level of urban regions. The aims of this paper are (1) to describe the spatial orientations of various employment groups in the largest urban regions in the Netherlands and (2) to understand the extent to which spatial orientations towards various residential urban and suburban milieus can be explained by belonging to a specific class fraction. We draw on individual‐level register data for the whole population of urban regions, applying a multidimensional and detailed perspective on social class that takes into account both economic and cultural capital. We demonstrate a strong urban orientation among the cultural classes, who are often working in the new economies—irrespective of their income status—and an over‐representation in suburban areas of more economically orientated class fractions. Despite the differences in terms of economic structure of the researched urban regions, these variegated residential orientations are remarkably consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the changing culinary geography of the Netherlands applying GIS methods. The changing location of Michelin star‐rated restaurants in the period 1986–2016 is put into a context of the changing relations between urban centres and their suburbs as well as the Randstad and the rest of the country. This paper suggests that the changing culinary geography of the Netherlands is related to the re‐emergence of larger cities, particularly of Amsterdam, associated with the rise of an urban middle class epitomised by processes of gentrification. High end award‐winning restaurants are argued to be a useful lens to study the symbolic geography of place, which integrates economic and symbolic perspectives on spatial change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is common understanding that gentrifi ers and new middle classes more generally share an urban orientation and may share a 'metropolitan habitus'. The urban geography of Western metropolises and the formation and reproduction of specifi c middle-class groups are intrinsically connected. The specifi c urban habitus of these new middle classes, however, is challenged by events in the life course. When urban middle classes settle down and have children, many suburbanise. Using two waves of longitudinal data from a representative sample of middle-class couples expecting their fi rst child, this study investigates the residential practices of middle classes that live in the central areas of Amsterdam when they become fi rst-time parents. Building on prior work on urban middle classes, inspired by the theoretical concepts of Bourdieu, through a multilevel analysis, this study seeks to understand how various orientations of capital infl uence the decision whether to stay in the city or move to suburban areas. Controlling for a range of individual and neighbourhood variables, this study demonstrates that couples with high economic capital and relatively low cultural capital have a higher propensity to move out of the central city, whereas couples with high cultural capital and low economic capital have a smaller chance of suburbanising. Furthermore, this study confi rms that the degree of social and economic connectedness through social networks and work in the city also play an important part in determining the propensity to move out of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]