A prehistory of the polycentric urban region: excavating Dutch applied geography, 1930–60

ABSTRACT

Peter Hall’s analysis of the Dutch Randstad, in his The World Cities (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966), generated the archetype of the polycentric urban region (PUR). Although influential, Hall primarily amplified 1950s’ Dutch planning discourse. This paper analyses the PUR’s genesis, discussing the economic modernization of the 1950s and the preceding decades of crisis and war. By temporalizing Gieryn’s truth-spot theory, the paper constructs a prehistory of the PUR through the biographical trajectories of Dutch geography and planning pioneers Louis van Vuuren, Willem Steigenga, Christiaan van Paassen and Gerrit Jan van den Berg. Planning the PUR is recast as a gentle modernization strategy, signalling new interpretations of polycentricity’s contemporary utility.

KEYWORDS:

• polycentricity
• polycentric urban region
• Randstad
• history of geography
• regional planning history
• truth spot

JEL:

• B2
• B3
• P11
• R

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is deeply indebted to Ben de Pater, Jorine Steigenga, Madeleine Steigenga and Leo van den Berg for sharing memories and sources. Marco van Egmond (Utrecht University Library) assisted with map reproduction. This paper was first presented as a keynote at the RSA Network on Polycentric Urban Regions workshop entitled ‘Conceptualising, Identifying and Analysing Polycentric Urban Regions’ at Delft University, 28–29 January 2019. A subsequent iteration was presented at Utrecht University, 29 January 2020. Thanks to Evert Meijers, Ben Derudder and Peter Pelzer for the respective invitations that resulted in valuable feedback. Four anonymous reviewers provided further clarity. This paper is dedicated to Martine van Meeteren-Stijl (1947–2019), as this research brought us closer at a crucial moment.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The consulted archival sources were: the Van Lohuizen and Steigenga archives at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; the Heslinga archive at the Free University Amsterdam; the Ackerman archive at the University of Wyoming – Leramie (USA); the Torsten Hägerstrand archive at Lund University (Sweden); Utrecht University’s Map collection, materials curated by Ben de Pater; and Steigenga family materials.

2. Interviews used: Sven Illeris (10 June 2017), Herman van der Wusten (12 September 2019), Jan Lambooy (13 September 2019), Jan van Weesep (27 September 2019), Bert van der Knaap (25 January 2020) and Anneke Hakkenberg (26 January 2020), plus informal conversations with Ben de Pater, Cathaline Meloen, Jorine Steigenga, Madeleine Steigenga and Leo van den Berg.

3. Gerrit Jan Van den Berg, Willem Steigenga en de ‘Utrechtse school’ [1984], a handwritten manuscript for a guest lecture at the University of Amsterdam. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Steigenga, W. (Willem)/Archief, STEW 008, inventarisnummer d41.

4. Letter from Gerrit Jan Van den Berg to Willem Steigenga, 25 May 1958. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Steigenga, W. (Willem)/Archief, STEW 002, inventarisnummer d11.

5. See note 3.

6. See note 3.

7. Weekly research reports that Van Paassen and Van den Berg exchanged with Van Vuuren. Archive correspondence for Van Vuuren et al.’s Rapport Vlissingen (1942), Utrecht University Library, map collection (uncatalogued).

8. Van den Berg’s (1982) reminiscences start around minute 12:55.

9. See note 3, p. 11 (translated from the Dutch).

10. See note 3.

11. See note 4.

12. Letter from Willem Steigenga to Edward Ackerman, 27 May 1954. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Edward A. Ackerman Papers, Collection Nr. 05363, Box 49.

13. Willem Steigenga. The voice of America. Mimeographed circular dated 30 January 1954. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Steigenga, W. (Willem)/Archief, STEW 002, inventarisnummer d11.

14. Willem Steigenga, Chicago. Mimeographed circular dated April 1954. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Steigenga, W. (Willem)/Archief, STEW 002, inventarisnummer d11; Willem Steigenga, De auto in de USA. Undated mimeographed circular, early 1954. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Steigenga, W. (Willem)/Archief, STEW 002, inventarisnummer d11.

15. The archive provides no evidence that there was a personal relationship between Lynch and Steigenga. It is possible Lynch learned about Van Paassen’s Randstad assessment through Jean Gottmann; letter from Jean Gottmann to Christiaan van Paassen, 16 November 1956. Utrecht University, Archival Collection (curated by Ben de Pater).

16. See note 15.

17. The literal phrase is (translated from the Dutch) ‘polycentric refers to the inter-spatial structure rather than the form. It is possible to apply a polycentric structure to spatial forms’. In the vocabulary of Van Vuuren School geography, the concept of structure refers to the functional relations that constitute a larger whole (Van der Valk, 1942).