Easing spatial inequalities? An analysis of the anticipated effects of Urban Enterprise Zones in Brussels

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an ex-ante policy analysis of the Zone of Economic Expansion (ZEE) in inner-city neighbourhoods of the Brussels Canal Area. It identifies the anticipated effects by scrutinizing the impact of a similar and already implemented Urban Enterprise Zone – the Zone Franche Urbaine – in the city centre Roubaix (Lille). The key question is whether the ZEE can be interpreted as a policy measure to effectively reduce spatial inequalities, or rather, as a measure that will stimulate private land rent valorization strategies with (industrial) gentrification effects. The ex-ante analysis suggests that synchronously implemented territorial policies that seek to enhance functional mixing, will undercut the ability to boost local job creation, yet will displace economic activity and reinforce uneven development within the metropolitan area. Observing this conundrum, the paper reviews the potential of policies that centre on foundational and/or ethnic economic activities that are more in tune with already existing local economic activities and labour markets, and may be more fruitful in achieving social mobility of the current residents.

KEYWORDS:

• City planning
• urban policy instruments
• Urban Enterprise Zones
• uneven development
• mixed-use development

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr Albrechts and our three anonymous referees for their constructive feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks to Dr Van Meeteren for his insights about the theoretical antecedents of the concept of foundational economy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Sarah De Boeck http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9394-6476

David Bassens http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5368-7884

Michael Ryckewaert http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1775-678X

Notes

1 There is a broad consensus that the administrative borders of the BCR do not correspond with its socio-economic borders. Vandermotten (2008) describes how there are big differences in the morphology of the Brussels metropolitan area, where the urban tissue is penetrated with semi-rural morphological tissue. Although these clear morphological borders, the whole area follows a more or less coherent sociological and an economic metropolitan logic. Depending on the criteria used, the amount of municipalities counted within the Brussels metropolitan space vary from 31 to 62 municipalities (Dujardin, Thomas, & Tulkens, 2007; Luyten & Van Hecke, 2007; quoted in Van Wynsberghe, Poirier, Sinardet, & Tulkens, 2007).

2 The first Brussels Government Architect was appointed in November 2009 for a period of 5 years to assist public authorities in the BCR to guarantee the architectural and landscape quality of their projects. Kristiaan Borret is the second Brussels Government Architect. See www.bmabru.be.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Innoviris Funding Prospective Research for Brussels under grant ‘Anticipate 2014-63’.