Placing prostitution

Abstract

Amsterdam's red-light district is the paradigmatic case of window prostitution, but it is not a stable case: both the regulatory context of prostitution in the Netherlands and the socio-spatial dynamics of the district have changed throughout the years. This paper advances our understanding of ‘prostitution and the city’ in at least two ways. The first refers to the evolution of prostitution in the last two centuries and the often-paradoxical effects of changing regulation, in particular the 1911 morality laws and the 2000 legalization of window prostitution. In both cases, prostitution, in parallel to the civilizing of other manners, is relegated to increasingly confined spaces and as such banned from ‘normal’ social life. While reducing the visibility of prostitution in ‘normal’ life, it increases the visibility in these spatially confined zones known as red-light districts. The second involves contemporary policies that aim to remake the red-light district. The recent ‘Plan 1012’ of the City of Amsterdam concentrates brothels in an ever-smaller red-light district. Paradoxically, formal regulation also pushes part of the commodified sexual activities out of the red-light district and into informal circuits that are far less spatially bound. The plan is promoted as one that favours women's rights, but it is first and foremost the City's way of maintaining and furthering the public–private growth coalition that aims to improve the conditions for safe investment by turning a notorious red-light district into an extension of the highly expensive city centre—in other words, state-assisted or ‘third wave’ gentrification.

Keywords:

• Amsterdam
• prostitution
• red-light district
• pro-growth coalition
• gentrification
• growth machine
• sex work

Notes

This paper is an adapted version of a paper originally presented at the conference ‘Imagining Amsterdam: Vision and Revisions’, held in Amsterdam in November 2009. Another version of that conference paper focuses on the changing imaginary of and discourse on prostitution in Amsterdam (Deinema and Aalbers, 2012).

The City of Amsterdam is far from unique in trying to recapture territory in centrally located red-light districts (e.g. Hubbard, 2004a; Loopmans and Vandenbroecke, 2011; Papayanis, 2000; Ross, 2010; Ryder, 2004; Sanchez, 2004).

This is not the place to discuss the differences extensively, but it could be argued that the growth machine concept is more Marxist in its origins and application and the growth coalition concept more Weberian. The machine metaphor is also more rooted in structuralist approaches, while the coalition idea is closer to regime theory.

We would like to thank one of the anonymous referees for pointing us to the developments in the 1920s.

For foreign prostitutes, many from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa, it proved impossible to gain formal license to practice prostitution, as many of them did not have valid work permits or residence permits.

Even though we could consider the 2007 buy-out of Charles Geerts as an early example of the implementation of Plan 1012. As is often the case in the Netherlands, plans and acts are as much the formalization of changes already taking place as they are the blueprint for future changes.

This is a Dutch expression referring to something akin to ‘learning effects’ on one's (policy) positions. However, in Dutch, it is implied that the adaptation of the original position has made it not just different, but more accurate, more effective, thereby becoming the superior option.

The white paper Heart of Amsterdam: Future Perspectives 1012 is the most recent English-language summary of the City's intentions and efforts to restructure Amsterdam's red-light district and its surrounding areas. For updates on the City's publications regarding Plan 1012, see the City's official website: http://www.amsterdam.nl/gemeente/organisatie-diensten/sites/project_1012/project_1012/publicaties/

Our critics could argue that De Wallen is, in fact, already gentrified, that is, many of its inhabitants are not so poor and many of its apartments are not so cheap. They are right—but only to a limited degree. As Van Loon (2010) demonstrates, real estate prices (and therefore also real estate taxes) are clearly below those of other parts of the city centre. As he shows in both statistics and city maps, the red-light district is an island of affordability amidst the traditional upper class districts and heavily gentrified working-class districts of Amsterdam city centre (Van Loon, 2010, Appendix I).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manuel B. Aalbers

Manuel B. Aalbers is an assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam. He is the author of many papers on housing and cities as well as on the anglophone hegemony in social science. His most recent book is Place, Exclusion and Mortgage Markets (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). He is also the editor of Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

Michaël Deinema

Michaël Deinema is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. His current research focuses on the transnationalization of beauty standards in Europe. Before this, he analysed the long-term spatial evolution of urban cultural industries in the Netherlands from an institutional–economic perspective. Email: [email protected]