In the documentary ‘The angel of Doel’, filmmaker Tom Fassaert captures day-to-day life and resistance to the demolition of the Flemish village Doel. The documentary portrays the discourse about Doel as one of decay and mortality; of a disappearing village. However, we believe that there are possibilities to redirect this discourse and to create a new future for Doel by creative use of the village’s structure for new activities.
The narrative of Doel as a dying city can be taken quite literally. Tom Fassaert shows how people have left the village and how a few elder inhabitants have stayed behind. The remaining inhabitants form a small group. In the past they have had to deal with a lot of uncertainty about the future of their village. For over twenty years many stakeholders have made and changed plans concerning the future of Doel. Because of this uncertainty, not much remains of the community that once was.
How then does this become a story of hope? Doel seems to find itself in a void (1). But this void is not an empty, dark hole. Instead, we believe opportunities for revival can be found in the existing structure and spaces. The story of mortality around Doel has brought name and fame to the city, creating some sort of momentum. The village of Doel hosts many tourists that are attracted to the combination of decay and creativity (2). The village of Doel as void creates an opportunity for attracting a new generation that adds to the existing population of remaining inhabitants. By combining the existing knowledge and the sense of community that original inhabitants have experienced with the current fame of creativity and curiosity, we can create a new future for Doel that is built on existing structures.
A new future sounds great, but how would that work? We propose to set out an open call for initiatives that help to bring new life to Doel. These initiatives can innovate, inspire, be creative and create community. A good example would be to encourage the set-up of community-based enterprises (3). In exchange for investment in the village, people receive space such as ownership of the current empty buildings (4). Applicants can live in the buildings as new inhabitants of Doel. This commitment to invest time and space (5) brings certainty and ensures the sustainability of these initiatives into the future.
Additionally, Doel can serve as an example for other settlements that face potential displacement or resettlement. From the past experience of Doel we can learn that miscommunication and lack of community involvement can lead to paralysation of the process. Ultimately this has led to Doel becoming a ghost town. We think that for the process of resettlement as well as for revival of the village, the perspectives of multiple stakeholders should be taken into account. We argue that to be able to make Doel a vibrant village again, collaboration between multiple stakeholders is needed. Because of the different interests involved, the shaping of Doel’s future may be characterized by a sense of struggle. But these conflicts are necessary to come to truly democratic decisions (Carpentier and Cammaerts 2006).
To foster collaboration between stakeholders, we envisage the set up of a committee devoted to the future of Doel. This committee would consist of interested inhabitants and representatives of the municipality. In our view this committee has three important tasks: researching spatial relations and initiating and managing open calls to creative initiatives. Central to the revival of the village is to have the municipality on board. They own many buildings in the village and are responsible for local legislation. If they are not fully committed to creating a new Doel, then revival will be almost impossible. By setting up this committee we encourage the inhabitants to take ownership with the municipality and to be transparent in decision making towards each other.
By encouraging community involvement and offering spatial incentives for long term investments, we hope the narrative of Doel will become one of revival. What would you do as the owner of space in Doel?
Maria Baarslag & Suzanne Noordermeer
Footnotes
1 ‘Urban voids’ lack an evident function or a definition according to a plan. It is a category of urban space constructed as a nothingness, even though the very same space is often used for a variety of purposes (Von Schéele 2016).
2 The concept of creativity here refers to the development of original ideas. This development can be an individual process, but much more likely will be a group effort for innovation (Paulus and Nijstad 2003).
3 Community-based enterprises are collectively established, owned, and controlled by the members of a local community, for which they aim to generate economic, social, and/or ecological benefits (Hertel et al 2019).
4 Similar projects are already running in Europe. For example Case 1 euro in Italy. Here people can buy a house for the symbolic value of 1 Euro if they agree to renovate it within three years (https://www.case1euro.it/).
5 Following the work of Doreen Massey (2013), we argue that both dimensions of space and time are relevant and intimately related when theorizing about change. Time can be understood as the dimension of simultaneity and space then becomes the dimension of multiplicity. We believe both are needed to create a sense of responsibility and commitment to the development of the village of Doel.
References:
Carpentier, N., & Cammaerts, B. (2006). Hegemony, democracy, agonism and journalism: An interview with Chantal Mouffe. Journalism studies, 7(6), 964-975. CASE1EURO. (n.d.)
Case 1 euro - Your new home in Italy. Derived from www.case1euro.it.
Hertel, C. J., Bacq, S., & Belz, F. M. (2019). It Takes a Village to Sustain a Village: A Social Identity Perspective on Successful Community-Based Enterprise Creation. Academy of Management Discoveries, (ja). Massey, D. (Interview) (2013, January).
Doreen Massey on space. Audio podcast. www.socialsciencebites.com. Paulus, P. B., & Nijstad, B. A. (Eds.). (2003). Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration. Oxford University Press. Sinke, D.
Fassaert, T.(2011). De engel van Doel. The Netherlands/Belgium. SNG Film. Von Scheéele, C. (2016). The void: Urban wasteland as political space (Doctoral dissertation, Lund University).
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