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The Covid-19 crisis has had a deep impact on the way we work. For a few months, a large part of the Belgian population tried full-time teleworking, often for the first time. Seen initially as a way of limiting contact, teleworking has gradually taken root, becoming more common where it was already practised and extending to new positions and sectors not previously concerned. With this widespread implementation, major societal impacts are to be expected, particularly in Brussels, where teleworking is most widespread. It is important to anticipate them, to prepare for them and to adapt to them as best as possible. This article is part of a project to assess the social security debt associated with the widespread implementation of teleworking in Brussels by 2050. More specifically, based on recent literature and data, this article analyses the potential impact of teleworking in Brussels on well-being, the economy, employment, property, mobility and public finances.

The Covid-19 crisis has had a deep impact on the way we work. For a few months, a large part of the Belgian population tried full-time teleworking, often for the first time. Seen initially as a way of limiting contact, teleworking has gradually taken root, becoming more common where it was already practised and extending to new positions and sectors not previously concerned. With this widespread implementation, major societal impacts are to be expected, particularly in Brussels, where teleworking is most widespread. It is important to anticipate them, to prepare for them and to adapt to them as best as possible. This article is part of a project to assess the social security debt associated with the widespread implementation of teleworking in Brussels by 2050. More specifically, based on recent literature and data, this article analyses the potential impact of teleworking in Brussels on well-being, the economy, employment, property, mobility and public finances.

The Covid-19 crisis has had a deep impact on the way we work. For a few months, a large part of the Belgian population tried full-time teleworking, often for the first time. Seen initially as a way of limiting contact, teleworking has gradually taken root, becoming more common where it was already practised and extending to new positions and sectors not previously concerned. With this widespread implementation, major societal impacts are to be expected, particularly in Brussels, where teleworking is most widespread. It is important to anticipate them, to prepare for them and to adapt to them as best as possible. This article is part of a project to assess the social security debt associated with the widespread implementation of teleworking in Brussels by 2050. More specifically, based on recent literature and data, this article analyses the potential impact of teleworking in Brussels on well-being, the economy, employment, property, mobility and public finances.

Aviation seasonality has been acknowledged for a long time, but no global picture is available. Our paper fills this gap by conducting a worldwide analysis of monthly passenger air services at the airport level, and discussing factors that shape this temporality. Our study found that 36% of airports worldwide (accounting for less than 12% of seats) experience a significant degree of seasonality, and that larger airports are less affected. On the one hand, diverse travel purposes related to larger cities, hubbing, physical geography, remoteness and appropriate weather throughout the year induce stable seat capacity. On the other hand, climate profiles and institutional factors are key factors of peaks. Aviation seasonality has impacts for airport funders and managers, regional development and scholars.

In the present article we investigate the geography and magnitude of the climate footprint of long-distance travel with Brussels, Belgium, as a destination. The internationally networked position of this city goes hand in hand with a strong dependence on international mobility, which largely materializes in impressive volumes of long-distance travel and associated consumption of important amounts of fossil fuel. Despite a surge in concerns about global warming, the climate footprint of most international travel, notably air travel, is not included in the official national and regional climate inventories, or in other words, it is not territorialized. The official climate footprint of the Brussels-Capital Region attained 3.7 Mton CO2eq per year (in 2017). Based on our exploratory calculations, however, the total estimated climate footprint of all Brussels-bound international travel equalled an additional 2.7 Mton CO2eq. In terms of geographical distribution, over 70% of international travellers to Brussels come from Europe, while these represent only 15% of the climate footprint of all international travel to Brussels. We conclude that the practice of not allocating emissions caused by international travel to territorial units has kept the magnitude and complexity of this problem largely under the radar and contributes to the lack of societal support for curbing growth of international aviation.

In 2005, the Brussels-Capital Region switched from linear pricing to progressive pricing per person because the latter was supposed to be social and ecological. We show that poor households do not consume less water per person than rich households in Belgium and Brussels. Tiered pricing therefore does not benefit poor households and is not social. We also point out that there is no evidence that progressive pricing has encouraged Brussels residents to reduce their already low water consumption. It would therefore not be environmentally friendly either. On the other hand, progressive pricing has a number of disadvantages and leads to serious problems of equity. We therefore advocate a return to linear water pricing for all in Brussels.

In 2005, the Brussels-Capital Region switched from linear pricing to progressive pricing per person because the latter was supposed to be social and ecological. We show that poor households do not consume less water per person than rich households in Belgium and Brussels. Tiered pricing therefore does not benefit poor households and is not social. We also point out that there is no evidence that progressive pricing has encouraged Brussels residents to reduce their already low water consumption. It would therefore not be environmentally friendly either. On the other hand, progressive pricing has a number of disadvantages and leads to serious problems of equity. We therefore advocate a return to linear water pricing for all in Brussels.

In 2005, the Brussels-Capital Region switched from linear pricing to progressive pricing per person because the latter was supposed to be social and ecological. We show that poor households do not consume less water per person than rich households in Belgium and Brussels. Tiered pricing therefore does not benefit poor households and is not social. We also point out that there is no evidence that progressive pricing has encouraged Brussels residents to reduce their already low water consumption. It would therefore not be environmentally friendly either. On the other hand, progressive pricing has a number of disadvantages and leads to serious problems of equity. We therefore advocate a return to linear water pricing for all in Brussels.

Background: In Western countries, COVID-19 has been particularly deadly for care home residents. Objective: To understand the role of age and sex structures, health frailty, and contamination dynamics in COVID-19 mortality in populations living inside and outside care homes. Methods: We compared COVID-19 death data recorded in March-June 2020 in Wallonia (southern Belgium) for populations living inside and outside care homes, using annual death data (all-cause mortality in 2017) to assess the health condition of each population. Results: Sixty-four percent of COVID-19 deaths were residents in care homes, where the outbreak started after that in the external population, but at a faster pace. The death rate varied between 0‰ and 340‰ (mean 43‰) per care home, increasing with the number of both residents and staff. All-cause and COVID-19 mortality rates increased exponentially with age but were much higher in care homes. The ratio of male (M) to female (F) death rates was 1.6 for all-cause mortality and 2.0 for COVID-19 mortality (both confirmed and suspected). The COVID-19 mortality reached 24Š (M) and 18Š (F) of the all-cause mortality rate in care homes, compared to 5Š (M) and 4Š (F) outside care homes. Conclusions: The COVID-19 mortality rate was 130x higher inside than outside care homes, due to the near multiplicative effects of differences in the residents' age and sex structure (11x), health frailty (3.8x), and infection risk (probably 3.5x). Contribution: Care homes should be treated as a very specific population in epidemiological studies due to their extreme vulnerability to COVID-19.

The opening up of the top-level domain name market in 2012 has offered new perspectives for companies, administrations and individuals to include a geographic component within the domain name of their website. Little to no research has been carried out since then to analyse the uptake of the new top-level domain names (TLDNs). Based on the specific case of the TLDN .brussels, this article proposes an empirical study of how the opening up of the top-level domain name market actually impacts registration practices. By making use of freely available software tools such as OpenRefine and Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods, the entire corpus of the .brussels domain names (6 300) was analysed from a quantitative perspective. Based on a statistically representative sample (592 domain names), a qualitative interpretation allowed a more fine-grained analysis of how the new TLDN is being used in practice. By doing so, the article gives detailed insight into the impact of the recent changes to the rules concerning domain name registration. Through this analysis, researchers, policy makers, investors and anyone concerned about the identity of Brussels in the digital realm may have a better understanding of the state of play of the .brussels TLDN.

The opening up of the top-level domain name market in 2012 has offered new perspectives for companies, administrations and individuals to include a geographic component within the domain name of their website. Little to no research has been carried out since then to analyse the uptake of the new top-level domain names (TLDNs). Based on the specific case of the TLDN .brussels, this article proposes an empirical study of how the opening up of the top-level domain name market actually impacts registration practices. By making use of freely available software tools such as OpenRefine and Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods, the entire corpus of the .brussels domain names (6 300) was analysed from a quantitative perspective. Based on a statistically representative sample (592 domain names), a qualitative interpretation allowed a more fine-grained analysis of how the new TLDN is being used in practice. By doing so, the article gives detailed insight into the impact of the recent changes to the rules concerning domain name registration. Through this analysis, researchers, policy makers, investors and anyone concerned about the identity of Brussels in the digital realm may have a better understanding of the state of play of the .brussels TLDN.

The opening up of the top-level domain name market in 2012 has offered new perspectives for companies, administrations and individuals to include a geographic component within the domain name of their website. Little to no research has been carried out since then to analyse the uptake of the new top-level domain names (TLDNs). Based on the specific case of the TLDN .brussels, this article proposes an empirical study of how the opening up of the top-level domain name market actually impacts registration practices. By making use of freely available software tools such as OpenRefine and Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods, the entire corpus of the .brussels domain names (6 300) was analysed from a quantitative perspective. Based on a statistically representative sample (592 domain names), a qualitative interpretation allowed a more fine-grained analysis of how the new TLDN is being used in practice. By doing so, the article gives detailed insight into the impact of the recent changes to the rules concerning domain name registration. Through this analysis, researchers, policy makers, investors and anyone concerned about the identity of Brussels in the digital realm may have a better understanding of the state of play of the .brussels TLDN.

The rehabilitation of public spaces is often considered as key policy instrument of contemporary urban policies. In Brussels, the renewal of streets, squares or parks has been a core ingredient of a broader policy framework aimed at delivering an urban revitalisation since the early 1990s. In this paper, we will set out a geography of the renewed public spaces in the city’s inner neighbourhoods. This empirical account shows that, in central working-class neighbourhoods, policy efforts to beautify urban public spaces intersect spatially with interventions dedicated to the surveillance and normalisation of the uses of these spaces. Hence, beautification under surveillance seems to be the order of the day in these neighbourhoods. These findings can be interpreted as materialising a generic political strategy striving to open up central working-class neighbourhoods for new middle-class populations to settle in and ideally mix with the incumbent residents, rather than policies driven by revanchist attempts at isolating these areas and excluding their inhabitants from the rest of the urban fabric. We argue that the pattern of beautification under surveillance can be conceived of as part of a broader shift towards a policy model merging social and penal approaches.

This note examines and compares the cartography of the nobility’s spaces of residence in Brussels in the late 18th century and at the very end of the 20th century. Although those spaces have been considerably expanding over the period concerned, the nobility’s contemporary spaces are definitely linked with those of the late Ancien Regime.

The spatial analysis of a literary text published in the mid 19th century allows a rediscovery of the panoramic literature genre and the wealth of information it provides about the urban context in which it was born. Through a literary geography essay based on the singular narrative of a condemned love, we wish to show the relevance of interdisciplinary thought on space and artistic productions, which are best understood when explored from different perspectives. The narrative studied here is built around the boulevards of Brussels and their social use: the analysis of places, temporality, characters’ journeys and their cartographic translation reveals the sociospatial structuring of the city as a whole. It also provides precious information concerning the use of space and its representations, which traditional historical sources are unable to do.

The spatial analysis of a literary text published in the mid 19th century allows a rediscovery of the panoramic literature genre and the wealth of information it provides about the urban context in which it was born. Through a literary geography essay based on the singular narrative of a condemned love, we wish to show the relevance of interdisciplinary thought on space and artistic productions, which are best understood when explored from different perspectives. The narrative studied here is built around the boulevards of Brussels and their social use: the analysis of places, temporality, characters’ journeys and their cartographic translation reveals the sociospatial structuring of the city as a whole. It also provides precious information concerning the use of space and its representations, which traditional historical sources are unable to do.

The spatial analysis of a literary text published in the mid 19th century allows a rediscovery of the panoramic literature genre and the wealth of information it provides about the urban context in which it was born. Through a literary geography essay based on the singular narrative of a condemned love, we wish to show the relevance of interdisciplinary thought on space and artistic productions, which are best understood when explored from different perspectives. The narrative studied here is built around the boulevards of Brussels and their social use: the analysis of places, temporality, characters’ journeys and their cartographic translation reveals the sociospatial structuring of the city as a whole. It also provides precious information concerning the use of space and its representations, which traditional historical sources are unable to do.

The paper looks into the geography of scouting movements in the French Community of Belgium, made up of organisations gathering local associations aimed at educating and occupying children or youngsters by means of various activities. We examine the characteristics of the establishment of the different movements (urbanity, socio-economic level, subregionalism) and interpret this distribution as the result of a spatial diffusion process partly structured by the sociopolitical pillars of the Belgian society (catholicism, socialism, liberalism).

This article introduces the papers gathered in the issue. After an investigation of the semantic content of the « privatisation » concept, the article sketches an overall picture of the new regulation patterns of urban spaces, in terms of access and use, so much in the public as in the private realm. In each case, it seeks to find out the factors behind the generalisation of these new regulation patterns of urban spaces, questions the issue of the peculiarity of the processes of privatisation in European cities in comparison with experiences reported in the North-American urban context, and points out some political dimensions of these processes for urban governance.

The article examines the evolution of the Belgian electoral map, from the property qualification to the latest parliamentary elections in June 1999. It stresses the permanences of the regional electoral behaviours and those of their determining factors while placing the advances and breaks in the context of the long-lasting phases of the social and economic development. In spite of a tendential score decrease since 1965, the social-christians keep the most stable geography. So do the French-speaking socialists, whereas on the contrary the Flemish socialist geography has lost its « central » character to become a « peripheral » one since 1981. The liberal geography is the most unsteady and appears more and more focused on the biggest metropolitan employment basin while competing with the social-Christian vote in the « peripheral » areas, especially in Wallonia. The extreme right and the Ecologists share a more « central » geography, which indeed reflects sociologically opposed electorates, both nevertheless determined by post-Fordist stakes.

The adoption of an International Development Plan (IDP) by the regional government at the end of 2007 marks a significant transition in urban policies in Brussels. This text seeks to highlight the essential options of the IDP and presents a critical analysis of it. In our view, the IDP indicates essentially the formalisation of a relatively new strategy in Brussels, aimed at the development of significant portions of the regional territory for the purposes of private real estate developments of a speculative character which are supposed to function as new levers in urban “revitalisation”. As such, the Brussels IDP is in keeping with a serious tendency towards the widespread use of urban policies of neoliberal inspiration, which encourage the rehabilitation of city centres without taking into account the effects they have on intensifying the city’s social and spatial divisions.

The adoption of an International Development Plan (IDP) by the regional government at the end of 2007 marks a significant transition in urban policies in Brussels. This text seeks to highlight the essential options of the IDP and presents a critical analysis of it. In our view, the IDP indicates essentially the formalisation of a relatively new strategy in Brussels, aimed at the development of significant portions of the regional territory for the purposes of private real estate developments of a speculative character which are supposed to function as new levers in urban “revitalisation”. As such, the Brussels IDP is in keeping with a serious tendency towards the widespread use of urban policies of neoliberal inspiration, which encourage the rehabilitation of city centres without taking into account the effects they have on intensifying the city’s social and spatial divisions.

The adoption of an International Development Plan (IDP) by the regional government at the end of 2007 marks a significant transition in urban policies in Brussels. This text seeks to highlight the essential options of the IDP and presents a critical analysis of it. In our view, the IDP indicates essentially the formalisation of a relatively new strategy in Brussels, aimed at the development of significant portions of the regional territory for the purposes of private real estate developments of a speculative character which are supposed to function as new levers in urban “revitalisation”. As such, the Brussels IDP is in keeping with a serious tendency towards the widespread use of urban policies of neoliberal inspiration, which encourage the rehabilitation of city centres without taking into account the effects they have on intensifying the city’s social and spatial divisions.

The urban novels that developed during the second half of the 19th century aimed to present the structure and social composition of the city. Such novels have been analysed mainly through thematic analysis, but also with the Bakhtinian chronotope. Nevertheless, Franco Moretti’s (2000) now classic study initiated a ‘geographical turn’ that calls for a more systematic analysis of what it contributes to the chronotopic approach. Firstly, beyond the overall description of the novel, it is interesting to focus on the dynamics of specific stories described within the novel (the story’s pace, the routes and encounters of the various characters). Secondly, we will also examine cartography’s contribution to the careful reading of a novel. How do mapping and visualisation through maps allow for a new knowledge, which was inconceivable and inconceived using chronotope analysis? This contribution considers both these dimensions in Les Mystères de Bruxelles (1845-1846) by Suau de Varennes, an urban novel rediscovered recently that is a variation of the well-known Mystères de Paris. Cartography allows a reassessment of an unknown literary work. It also opens up fertile prospects for collaborative research between social history, literature and urban geography.

This article deals with the difficulties of access to water for hygiene (for washing, accessing a toilet or washing clothes) encountered by people living in Brussels. We highlight the notion of water vulnerability, which takes into account the difficulties of access to water due to its cost, housing characteristics (leakage, absence of basic sanitary equipment, etc.) or absence of housing. We show that at least 100,000 people, i.e. 8.2% of the Brussels population, are in water vulnerability because of the impoverishment of the Brussels population and lack of public sanitary infrastructures (in particular showers, fountains and public toilets).

This paper studies the French presence in Brussels from a socio-demographic and geographical perspective using individual and aggregate statistical data. Highly concentrated in the southern districts of the Region, this rapidly growing population is characterised by an over-representation of young adults and women. It includes mainly higher education graduates but is nevertheless polarized between low-income youth and well-paid employed adults. Unlike nationals of countries bordering Belgium, with whom a comparison is made, Franco-Brussels citizens are therefore more of a middle-class migration (Scott, 2006) than a transnational migrant elite.