http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5278-081X
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ABSTRACT
This paper studies the early phases of the process of electrification in Belgium in order to shed light on the emergence of a distributed model of urbanization. The paper argues that the policies developed to extent the supply of electricity to each and every corner of the national territory is part and parcel of a distributed urbanism which reproduced itself in different forms throughout the twentieth century. Detailed analysis of the policies developed by three Belgian provinces to support the electrification in the interbellum period brings into view the ambiguity of the Belgian policy of dispersion. On the one hand, this analysis shows an eagerness to advance industrial production over the entire territory by making use of existing, rural collective resources. On the other hand, the policies of dispersion, despite their anti-urban motivations, in time produced (a need for) collective structures that facilitate processes of accumulation and differentiation that over time may be characterized as urban.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Ingrid Behrsin, Creighton Connolly, James Evans, and Rob Shaw (RGS-IBG 2015 International Conference, Exeter), Bénedicte Grosjean and Panos Mantziaras (VIIIth U&U Seminar, Lausanne) and Tom Broes and David Peleman for their comments on previous versions of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dieter Bruggeman is a PhD student at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University.
Michiel Dehaene is associate professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University.
ORCID
Dieter Bruggeman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5278-081X
Michiel Dehaene http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5560-7753
Notes
1 Indovina, La città diffusa.
2 See, for example, Indovina, La città diffusa; Secchi, Première leçon d’urbanisme; Secchi, La ville du vingtième siècle; Sieverts, Zwischenstadt; Ascher, Métapolis; Corboz, “hyperville”; Rémy and Voyé, La ville; Navez-Bouchanine, La fragmentation; Navez-Bouchanine, Les territoires à urbanisation diffuse; Bourdin, “La question des services”; Dehaene, Gardening in the Urban Field and Phelps et al., “A Postsuburban World?”.
3 Rémy, “signification économique et sociale”; De Meulder et al., “Patching up the Belgian Urban Landscape”; Uyttenhove et al., LABO S works; Ryckewaert, Building the Economic Backbone; Grosjean, Urbanisation sans urbanisme; De Block and De Meulder, “Iterative Modernism”; Peleman, “Les Hommes de la route”; Van Acker, From Flux to Frame; De Caigny, Bouwen aan een nieuwe thuis, Secchi and Viganò, Antwerp; Mort Subite, Barsten in België; Vandermotten, “La production de l’éspace industriel belge”; Kesteloot and De Maesschalck, “Anti-Urbanism in Flanders” and Van Meeteren et al., “Flemish Diamond or Abc-Axis?”.
4 Grosjean, Urbanisation sans urbanisme.
5 De Block, “The Belgian Railway Project, 1830–1837”; Uyttenhove, “Een gedecentraliseerde nederzettingsstructuur.”
6 De Block and Polasky, “Light railways and the rural–urban continuum” and Grosjean, Urbanisation sans urbanisme.
7 Ministrial Order of 8 September 1869.
8 Mahaim, Les abonnements d’ouvriers.
9 De Meulder et al., “Patching up the Belgian Urban Landscape.”
10 Ryckewaert, Building the Economic Backbone and Van Acker, From Flux to Frame.
11 See, for example, Goossens, “het sociaal huisvestingbeleid”; Smets, De tuinwijkgedachte; De Decker, “Understanding Housing Sprawl” and De Caigny, Bouwen aan een nieuwe thuis.
12 See, for example, Mandel, “The Dialectic of Class and Religion in Belgium,” 11–15; De Decker et al., “Revitalizing the City”; Kesteloot and De Maesschalck, “Anti-Urbanism in Flanders” and Oosterlynck, “Regulating Regional Uneven Development.”
13 Smets, De tuinwijkgedachte, 16–28.
14 Goossens, “het sociaal huisvestingbeleid,” algemeen besluit: 18–19.
15 Vandervelde, L’exode rural et le retour aux champs and Seebohm Rowntree, Land and Labour.
16 Strikwerda, A House Divided, 29–30 and 38–42.
17 Henri Charriaut in 1910, as quoted in Strikwerda, A House Divided, 29.
18 Vollans, “Urban Development in Belgium” and De Ceuninck and Valcke, “Van gemeentewet.”
19 De Block, “The Belgian Railway Project, 1830–1837”; De Block and Polasky, “Light railways and the rural–urban continuum” and Grosjean, Urbanisation sans urbanisme.
20 Peleman, “Les hommes de la route.”
21 Van Acker, From Flux to Frame.
22 See Castells, La question urbaine.
23 Such as in the title of Grosjean, Urbanisation sans urbanisme.
24 See also Dehaene, Gardening in the Urban Field and Dehaene, “From the Nebular City to the Horizontal Metropolis.”
25 Castells, La question urbaine.
26 For such an analysis of the Belgian housing policies see Goossens, “het sociaal huisvestingbeleid.”
27 Dunleavy, Urban Political Analysis and Saunders, Social Theory and the Urban Question.
28 Saunders, Social Theory and the Urban Question, in particular chapter 8.
29 For example, Lefebvre, La révolution urbaine; Brenner, “Theses on Urbanization”; Brenner and Schmid, “Towards a new epistemology of the urban?” and Merrifield, The New Urban Question, in particular chapters 1–3.
30 See also Angelo and Wachsmuth, “Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology.”
31 For example, Hughes, Networks of Power; Nye, Electrifying America; Platt, The Electric City; Otter, The Victorian Eye and Lagendijk, Electrifying Europe.
32 For example, Kaika, City of Flows; Kaika and Swyngedouw, “Fetishizing the Modern City”; Heynen et al., In the Nature of Cities; Castán Broto et al., “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Urban Metabolism” and Castán Broto and Bulkeley, “Maintaining Climate Change Experiments.”
33 Dupuy, Urban Networks – Network Urbanisms.
34 Rémy, “signification économique et sociale”; Bourdin, “La questions des services.”
35 For example, Hughes, Networks of Power, 15 and 18–46.
36 A municipal obligation because of the decrees under French Revolutionary Rule of 14 December 1789 and 16 and 24 August 1790; reconfirmed in the Belgian municipal law of 1836.
37 Terlinden and Zehnlé, “De onstaansgeschiedenis van de industriële elektriciteit.”
38 See, for example, the series of books by Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer.
39 Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing, 11–26.
40 For example, Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, Langerbrugge, 112, 138, or 182.
41 Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing.
42 Vandewalle, “elektriciteit in België” and Kurgan-van Hentenryk, “The Belgian Electrical Industry.”
43 For example, Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, de Kempen and Brion and Moureau, Tractebel 1895–1995.
44 For example, Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing; Kurgan-van Hentenryk, “The Belgian Electrical Industry” and Terlinden and Zehnlé, “De onstaansgeschiedenis van de industriële elektriciteit.”
45 Saey and Van Nuffel, “Nevels over Christaller” and Van Meeteren et al., “Flemish Diamond or Abc-Axis?”.
46 Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing, 231 (note 17, table).
47 Provincial Archives: Commission pour l’Electrification, Electrification de la Flandre Occidentale, in particular 9–11; Provincial Archives: Commission pour l’Electrification, Rapport sur les projets généraux.
48 Provincial Archives: Centrales Electriques des Flandres, Projet d’avenant.
49 Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing, 51–9 and 230–1.
50 For example, Municipal Archives: council meetings and correspondence of Overmere council, 1922–1935.
51 Ibid., 100.
52 Van Acker, From Flux to Frame, 31–188.
53 Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, Antwerpen, 69–89 and 105–8.
54 Provinciebestuur Antwerpen, 50 jaar provinciale elektriciteitsdienst, 6–8.
55 Ibid., 9.
56 Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, de Kempen, 229–44.
57 For example, Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, Antwerpen, 399–464.
58 Provinciebestuur Antwerpen, 50 jaar provinciale elektriciteitsdienst, 4 (map).
59 Van Acker, From Flux to Frame, 30–55.
60 Stynen, Studie van mijnnederzettingen.
61 Vandewalle, “elektriciteit in België.”
62 Kerckhaert and De Vleeschauwer, de Kempen, 81–103.
63 Maes, De overheidsbemoeiing, 48–50.
64 Interelectra, Interelectra 1930–1980, 13.
65 Limburgensia Collection: Provinciale Elektriciteitsdienst: Organiek reglement, 1938, 1–9, Provincial Library Limburg [LA-D-4583 87P].
66 Interelectra, Interelectra 1930–1980 and Interelectra, Interelectra 1930–1990.
67 Storme, “Inleiding,” ii–iii (translation by the authors).