By many it is called the ghost town of Belgium. You might have heard about the village of Doel: this abandoned and partly destroyed village in Belgium has been threatened by the growing docks of Antwerp. Filmmaker Tom Fassaert made a documentary in which we follow one of the last remaining inhabitants: the 75-year old lady Emilienne (An Angel in Doel, IDFA, 2011). In “An Angel in Doel”, we see how she refuses to leave her village, while all others steadily move out to other places. Emilienne seems very stubborn: she has absolutely no desire to cooperate and find another place to live.
The documentary is shot in black-and-white, which gives the viewer a timeless feeling. It does not seem to matter when exactly this documentary has been filmed, which shifts the focus away from time and to the physical space of Doel. According to Doreen Massey, space is the dimension of multiplicity: of things existing at the same time, and the existence of the other (Massey, 2013). Viewing the physical existence of the village of Doel from a space perspective is key in understanding the politics and power relations going on, and the way Doel is therein “politicalized” in the process of change. Where it was a space to live at first, it became a space of protest and discussion later on, and finally a space of abandonment.
In the beginning, Emilienne still has several social contacts. However, during the documentary when more and more people are leaving Doel, we can see how her social space starts to change. According to Massey, the social space is considered to be the product of connections with each other. The social ties Emilienne will remain to have are mostly with the film crew of the documentary. As Tom phrased it, this connection even enabled her to stay in the village and it empowered her to make a statement out of it. However, not all social connections are of equal power, which we can see for example in Emilienne’s power relation with the mayor of Doel.
Doel as a space to live has shown to be considered unequal to the dock of Antwerp, which also highlights the unequal power distribution of these spaces. The perspective of space is essential to let us be critical about unequal power distribution of spaces. What is more important: the dock of Antwerp, including the trade and business possibilities that it brings, or the village Doel, a space for living and social connections?
While time still seems to be the dominant paradigm in change theory, the fact that Doel still exists these days and has persisted through the years is in our eyes the physical manifestation that space is often equally or even more important in change processes. Thinking about this example made us appreciate Doreen Massey’s argument even more: space should be given more attention when thinking about change. Maybe if at the time, the concept of space had been taken more into consideration, the process of change in Doel could have been fairer. Awareness of unequal power relations of people and spaces is essential in our point of view, taking into account the multiplicity of space itself and the different perspectives on that. Perhaps than things would have worked out better for the inhabitants of Doel and it wouldn’t have to be a “ghost town”!
We are curious to know what you think about this, let us know in the comments!
Johan Aarnoudse, Sifra Eigenraam, Sophie van der Vlugt
References:
IDFA “An Angel in Doel”, accessed on 23/04/2020, derived from:
Massey, D. (2013) Massey on Space. Social Science Bites. Sage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quj4tjbTPxw
Comments
Post a Comment