The village Doel is located between the container port of Antwerp and a nuclear power plant near the Schelde. The growth of the port of Antwerp between the ’50s and '60’ was explosive, therefore the government saw the opportunity to expand this port. In 1968, a building construction ban was enforced in Doel. This was an insecure time for the villagers of Doel since they waited for the expropriation of the village. However, the inhabitants didn't receive a decisive answer from the government. Due to this constant uncertainty, inhabitants moved and houses became outdated since nobody wanted to invest in the village. In the ‘80’s Doel was declared a revaluation area by the municipality of Beveren, and millions were invested to make the village livable again. In 1995 new plans were leaked for investing in a new expansion of the port. The uncertainty among the inhabitants arose again (VRT, 2009). According to Marina Apers, a villager; “The government threatened that if people didn't move that they would be expropriated," she says, "and if you are expropriated, you get very little money” (The Guardian, 2014). Despite the uncertain existence of the village, Emilienne always remained true to her village where she was born and raised. The movie “The angel of Doel” shows Emilienne and her fight against the powerful government. Emilienne desperately and against all knowledge hopes that if she doesn't change her way of life, Doel won't either.
The movie, however, states that Doel contributes to the story of men’s own transience (SNG film, 2011). In our opinion, Doel’s story can function better as a cornerstone of this story of transience if it gets historicized.
‘‘If everything always stays the same, how special is it? It’s about moments. The vibe changes, so what’s the use to make efforts to keep it the same.’’ (Quote retrieved from the documentary LA originals)
While Doel continued to exist as a community, the vibe within this community definitely changed since it is now a place for pilgrimage for activists, squatters and tourists.
The old residents of Doel perceive themselves as a closed group, to whom Elias (1994) referred as “we”, the newcomers as a group of intruders, referred as “they” and whom they meant to keep at distance. In the documentary, this is implicated when Emilienne doesn’t join the feast and her friend comments that it is because they aren’t real ‘Doelenaren’/ inhabitants.
The problem is how and why humans perceive one another as belonging to the same group and to include one another within the group boundaries which they establish when saying “we” in their reciprocally communication, while at the same time excluding other human beings whom they perceive as belonging to another group and to whom they collectively refer as “they” (Elias, 1994). This disjuncture between Doel’s inhabitants down plays the real story of Doel and the emotions that were experienced by the original “we’’ inhabitants. Everybody wants to contribute to the story now, making it an archetype for the broader societal problems we experience.
It seems plausible that the increase in attention led to the long, drawn-out process in which the village now finds itself. Therefore, we would like to see what happens if the remaining villagers and the government get together to reach an agreement for the future of Doel. By stressing the interdependence between the different groups and building on improving trust between the involved actors, their perceived intergroup distance can be decreased. By using participatory approaches to increase collaboration between the government and the residents of Doel, the original story of Doel stays intact and can be used as an example of marginalized emotions within governmental hierarchies rather than the wider context of societal problems it is used for now.
Arianne Aanstoot, Hanna de Boer, Maup van de Kerkhof, Lieke Verlind
References:
Elias, N., & Scotson, J. L. (1994). The established and the outsiders (Vol. 32). Sage.
The Guardian. (2014.). Doel: the ghost town that’s paradise for graffiti artists. Retrieved on 22 april 2020, from
VRT. (2009). De teloorgang van een scheldedorp. Retrieved on 22 april 2002, from
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