Eindhoven: the City of Light casting off its own shadows.
How the pursue for growth and progress may brightens the future of the Dutch city at the expenses of its past.
January, 2021
What is the role of cultural-led regeneration plans in the changing social geographies in post-industrial North- Western European cities? The processes underpinning the physical transformation of a city to opening up for new forms of economic and labour production often induces collateral damages on its existing social and cultural stratification. Forced transformational processes induced by marketing strategies, needs of reinventing and appealing to the changing market. On the other hand, focussing only over specific sectors appeal while not considering the whole existing picture, induces other unfavourable shifts and alteration as consequence by inducting gentrification processes in favour of a mono-layered social formation. Eindhoven, the “city of innovation” is an example of how induced processes of gentrification of post-industrial sites can force inequalities and impose a strong social restructuring of the subjected neighbourhoods.