The tragic story of Doel had almost repeated itself in the small village of Moerdijk (For background info on Moerdijk (in Dutch) see this article). In both villages a plan for building/extending a harbor was a threat to the village. In both villages there was resistance to these plans, and in both villages people experienced the fear of having to leave their house. However, the outcomes differed. Whereas Doel has become a “ghost town”, Moerdijk has overcome the challenges and is thriving again. How is this possible? We would like to analyze and compare both cases using relevant theory, and we will draw lessons from that for future cases.
Democracy
In terms of the concept of democracy, differences can be found between Doel and Moerdijk. Deliberate democracy consists of two levels: instrumental deliberation, a procedural tool, through which we negotiate and make decisions; and dialogic deliberation, or dialogue, through which we construct the concept of the self and other, the sense of community, and public reason (Kim & Kim, 2008). The instrumental deliberation in Doel limited itself to the political system, in which the state had already decided what was going to happen to the village. In Moerdijk, the municipality involved the citizens in the negotiation process through several community meetings. For the dialogic deliberation, everyday political talk is crucial. In both cases, conversations about the political actions and choices were present. However, the content (discourse) was different.
Discourse and power
The importance of everyday talk can be related to discourse theory of Foucault, in which he states that discourses create our reality (Cheek, 2008). The discourse in Moerdijk was different from Doel. The dominant discourse in Doel was that the government communicated that the harbor was going to be built and this requires residents to move out of the village. In Moerdijk, the municipality had a different message: Despite the new harbor, Moerdijk should stay livable for its citizens. Its slogan was: people, planet and profit. The discourse among citizens was not only about how they could live on in the village. In this way the discourses created a different kind of reality in both villages, which may have influenced the outcome.
Trust
In contrast to what happened in Doel, the residents of Moerdijk restored their confidence in the town, after a long period of uncertainty (Peeters, 2018). This can be linked to the literature of J. Lewicki (2006) about trust, where the municipality can be seen as the trustor, and the inhabitants and companies as the trustee. Because of the drastic industrialization plans, people did not trust the livability of Moerdijk anymore. Therefore, the municipality successfully developed and implemented the ‘Moerdijk arrangements’ to give Moerdijk a boost. Homeowners were guaranteed the ability to sell their home to the municipality, at any time, for 95 percent of the value of the house (Peeters, 2018). This can be linked to the notion of institutional trust. People gained confidence in institutions through the procedures and arrangements that were made. Using such ways of regaining institutional trust may have been effective in Doel as well.
Conclusion
To conclude, the outcome of such a case greatly depends on how the democratic processes are shaped, which reality they produce through discourse, and how they preserve trust. Doel and Moerdijk are both educational cases for future projects that include different stakeholders and opinions.
Iris Bijvelds, Anne van den Brink, Esmee Hendriksen, Thamar van Overveld
References
Cheek, J. (2008). Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of
Qualitative Research Methods (pp. 356-357). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Kim, J., & Kim, E. J. (2008). Theorizing dialogic deliberation: Everyday political talk as communicative action and dialogue. Communication Theory, 18(1), 51-70.
Lewicki, R. J., Tomlinson, E. C., & Gillespie, N. (2006). Models of interpersonal trust development: Theoretical approaches, empirical evidence, and future directions. Journal of Management, 32(6), 991-1022. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wur.nl/10.1177/0149206306294405
Peeters, E. (2018, 1 oktober). Inwoners hebben weer vertrouwen in Moerdijk, gemeente hoeft minder huizen op te kopen. Retrieved on April 24, 2020, from https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/2857279/Inwoners-hebben-weer-vertrouwen-in-Moerdijk-gemeente-hoeft-minder-huizen-op-te-kopen
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