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‘Amsterdam is standing on Norway’– this was a popular saying in the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century. There was more than one inflection to the phrase. Amsterdam was, in the first instance, built atop a subterranean forest of Norwegian origin. But southern Norway was also a vital resource zone, subordinated to Amsterdam-based capital. This paper follows the movement of strategic commodity frontiers within early modern Europe from the standpoint of capitalism as world-ecology, joining in dialectical unity the production of capital and the production of nature. Our geographical focus is trained upon the emergence of the Global North Atlantic, that zone providing the strategic raw materials and food supplies indispensable to the consolidation of capitalism – timber, naval stores, metals, cereals, fish and whales. I argue for a broader geographical perspective on these movements, one capable of revealing the dialectical interplay of frontiers on all sides of the Atlantic. From its command posts in Amsterdam, Dutch capital deployed American silver in the creation of successive frontiers within Europe, transforming Scandinavian and Baltic regions. The frontier character of these transformations was decisive, premised on drawing readily exploitable supplies of land and labour power into the orbit of capital. We see in northern Europe precisely what we see in the Americas – a pattern of commodity-centred environmental transformation, and thence relative ecological exhaustion, from which the only escape was renewed global conquest and ever-wider cycles of combined and uneven development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is a main European airport and represents an important concentration of European distribution centres (EDCs). It is commonly assumed that distribution centres are attracted to the airport region because of its air transport services. However, if one considers economies of agglomeration, whereby the geographical clustering of economic activities can result in increasing returns, it is quite possible that a significant amount of EDCs have been established near Schiphol for non-airport related reasons. To this end, the present paper investigates agglomeration effects for distribution centres around Schiphol. It reports on two cross-sectional surveys: one of the EDCs around Schiphol and one of the total Dutch population of EDCs. The study finds that economies of agglomeration - and not the air transport services themselves -- are in fact the most important location forces responsible for the attraction of EDCs into the Schiphol area. This result shows that Amsterdam-Schiphol is more than simply a transport hub. Correspondingly, the major role of agglomeration effects should be recognised in future policy to manage and control the economic development of the airport area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western European national policies increasingly portray diversity as negative and migrants as ‘others’ who do not belong to the national community. This article examines how local governments articulate alternative discourses of belonging based on residents' shared membership in the civic life of the city. In a Dutch case study, the ways in which local policymakers diverge from exclusionary national narratives are examined. It is argued that discourses about urban citizenship offer opportunities for the inclusion of migrants by drawing new boundaries between ‘good’ citizens and those who are unwilling to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Diverse schools have become the norm throughout much of what is considered the West. Many urban classrooms feature few white European children but are located in nations dominated by Eurocentric epistemologies and discourses that oppress minority students by devaluing their cultures. Most European scholarship fails to analyse cultures of whiteness in educational settings. This paper addresses this gap by documenting cultural discourses of whiteness infusing a diverse primary school classroom in Amsterdam. Discourses reflecting white cultural norms of order, time, cleanliness, and Western and Christian superiority dominated a classroom containing only one white Dutch child. These discourses contribute to diverse students' explicit racialization while promoting the supremacy of white Dutch culture. They are both assimilationist and exclusionary, suggesting that many students, because of their backgrounds, will never be considered fully Dutch. Findings are of relevance to all nations dominated by white cultures with large populations of students of colour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper revisits the contact hypothesis by assessing differences in generalized trust among participants of Turkish non-profit organizations and ethnically mixed organizations in Amsterdam. Most voluntary sector research takes the contact hypothesis at its core and assumes that the concentration of ethnic minorities in non-profit organizations is detrimental to learning generalized trust. These studies assume that diversity within organizations is better for developing generalized norms without examining participation in ethnically homogenous organizations. I address this gap in the literature by analysing the variance of generalized trust among organizations and their participants. I achieve this through the analysis of purposively designed survey data. The findings suggest that a contact mechanism at voluntary organizations is problematic and should not be asserted uncritically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Populations in Europe are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, and health risks differ between ethnic groups. The aim of the HELIUS (HEalthy LIfe in an Urban Setting) study is to unravel the mechanisms underlying the impact of ethnicity on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Methods/design: HELIUS is a large-scale prospective cohort study being carried out in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The sample is made up of Amsterdam residents of Surinamese (with Afro-Caribbean Surinamese and South Asian-Surinamese as the main ethnic groups), Turkish, Moroccan, Ghanaian, and ethnic Dutch origin. HELIUS focuses on three disease categories: cardiovascular disease (including diabetes), mental health (depressive disorders and substance use disorders), and infectious diseases. The explanatory mechanisms being studied include genetic profile, culture, migration history, ethnic identity, socio-economic factors and discrimination. These might affect disease risks through specific risk factors including health-related behaviour and living and working conditions. Every five years, participants complete a standardized questionnaire and undergo a medical examination. Biological samples are obtained for diagnostic tests and storage. Participants' data are linked to morbidity and mortality registries. The aim is to recruit a minimum of 5,000 respondents per ethnic group, to a total of 30,000 participants. Discussion: This paper describes the rationale, conceptual framework, and design and methods of the HELIUS study. HELIUS will contribute to an understanding of inequalities in health between ethnic groups and the mechanisms that link ethnicity to health in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the settlement patterns of Turks and Moroccans in Brussels will be compared with the patterns of the same groups in Amsterdam. It will be argued that housing market variables explain a lot of the differences between the two cities. The large number of (affordable) social dwellings in Amsterdam forms a significant contrast with the virtual lack of these dwellings in the Brussels area. Historical variables account for these different kinds of housing stock. Cultural variables, differences between and within the categories of Turks and Moroccans, can be seen as an additional explanatory factor for the segregation and concentration patterns of Turks and Moroccans in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Held under the aegis the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research (EUCLID), BOBCATSSS conference is organized annually by students of European universities. The organizing universities have to ensure that the Departments of Library and Information Science propose each year the topics for discussion. In 1993, BOBCATSSS held its 1st annual conference series. At its 20th anniversary in January 2012, the organization task went to students from 3 universities of applied sciences, namely University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen (Netherlands) and Stuttgart Media University (Germany). The 2012 conference focused on Information in e-motion. Romania was represented by PhD Angela Repanovici from Transylvania University of Brasov who lectured on What Challenges are Library Leaders Facing? The paper has been written in collaboration with Ane Landøy from Royal School of Information Science in Copenhagen. From the international master program Digital Library Learning, there have been, along with the author of the article, five other colleagues from five different countries. After an introduction to the symposium BOBCATASS 2012, the author presents the work carried out during the master program and presented at the conference: the poster When academia goes "E", which illustrates the results of a survey conducted at the University Library of Tromsø (Norway), a questionnaire which points to the revolutionary politics of this library, namely purchasing of books in electronic format only. The participants, professionals and students in the field of information management contributed to the programme on other subtopics of the conference as well: "E-media in Motion", "My Information", "Organisations 2.0" and "Access to Public Information. The article deals with current topics in a friendly and accessible manner even to the unfamiliar public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC) supports and promotes the interests of the scientific and industrial aeroacoustics community on a European scale and European aeronautics activities internationally. In this context, "aeroacoustics" encompasses all aerospace acoustics and related areas. Each year the committee highlights some of the research and development projects in Europe. This paper is a report on highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2018, compiled from information provided to the ASC of the CEAS. In addition, during 2018, a number of research programmes involving aeroacoustics were funded by the European Commission. Some of the highlights from these programmes are also summarised in this article, as well as highlights from other programmes funded by national programmes or by industry. Furthermore, a concise summary of the CEAS-ASC annual scientific workshop: "Future Aircraft Design and Noise Impact" held in the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) – Amsterdam in September 2018 is included in this report. Enquiries concerning all contributions should be addressed to the authors who are given at the end of each subsection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to methodological difficulties of historical research on women's labor, little is known of women's contribution to household incomes in preindustrial economies. This article is the first to use domestic servants' wages, as documented in account books from the period 1752-1805, to estimate the capital that women could accumulate during their years of service before marriage. As such, it offers a new perspective on women's contribution to household resources. Results show that servants working for the most well-off households in eighteenth-century Amsterdam could save a marriage budget that was between one-third and half of the capital that an unskilled man could save in the same amount of time. Furthermore, servants' wages would in theory have been sufficient to support a family of four at the subsistence level, illustrating that women's wages and potential savings cannot be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International migration changed large West European cities dramatically. In only two generations’ time, their ethnic make-up is turned upside down. Cities like Amsterdam and Brussels now are majority–minority cities: the old majority group became a minority. This new reality asks for an up-to-date perspective on assimilation and integration. In this article, I will show why grand theories like segmented and new assimilation theory no longer suffice in tackling that new reality of large cities, and I will question critically whether using the perspective of super-diversity is more pertinent for our analyses. Children of immigrants nowadays no longer integrate into the majority group, but into a large amalgam of ethnic groups. Next to the diversification of ethnic groups, we see diversificationwithinethnic groups in the second and third generations. I will focus on intergenerational social mobility patterns given that they are key to existing grand theories of assimilation. I will argue that super-diversity theory can only partially show us the way. To further build an alternative theoretical perspective, we also need to borrow from the intersectional approach and the integration context theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How migration and mobilizations of difference are accommodated at the local level is a burning question. Concepts adopted by local governments and the capacities of cities to formulate and implement these have received increasing attention, but often without examining the ideas and norms that underlie local concepts and practices. This article assesses the hypothesis of local-level pragmatism, which it rejects, and develops the notion of ‘paradigmatic pragmatism’ to characterize how local-level politics address mobilizations of difference. Based on empirical findings from Amsterdam, Antwerp and Leeds, and comparing the content and the implementation of ‘diversity policies’, I argue against a dichotomy of pragmatic vs ideational politics. Instead, these cities draw on a variety of ideas and pragmatically combine them under the header of diversity. This paradigmatic pragmatism invites further research on the effects of potential incompatibilities of immigrant policy ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amsterdam inns were indispensable hubs in the organization of early modern urban trade. Their economic functions were numerous: innkeepers offered credit and transport services, acted as sureties and accepted bills of exchange on behalf of their alien guests. In the sixteenth century, a group of predominantly German innkeepers participated in the international trade, but in the following centuries the combination innkeeper-agent became rare. Publicans continued to assist mercantile clients though. Besides offering storage and transport services, meeting space, and credit, certain publicans also mediated between foreign and indigenous traders. A select group of inns also hosted auction-marts, which attracted brokers, merchants, and general public. In the nineteenth century, the inns lost their appeal and specialized institutions like hotels, restaurants, trade halls, auction-houses, and transport companies took over the economic functions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Between the mid-eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, commercial networks of Ashkenazim in central Europe experienced major shifts. I argue that this was a transitional period between the extensive trading and credit networks of central European Court Jews in the early modern period and the rise of new Jewish banking houses across Europe in the nineteenth century. Based on examples from Amsterdam, Frankfurt an der Oder (Prussia), and Warsaw I demonstrate how Amsterdam served as a center for the provision of credit to central and, indirectly, eastern Europe until the late eighteenth century, with Jewish merchants in central European cities like Frankfurt an der Oder serving as middlemen. Relying not on far-reaching networks but rather on more regional ones, a new mercantile Jewish elite rose in Warsaw beginning around the turn of the century, creating a new financial hub in east-central Europe. I suggest that the rise of Warsaw as a new center of Jewish banking and commerce can be described as a parallel development-though one on a much smaller scale-to the rise of London and that both new centers prospered at the expense of Amsterdam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, population diversity in the Western world has strongly increased. Cities in particular have over time become more diverse and multicultural. They face the complex challenge of maintaining and strengthening social cohesion among their diverse population, with its plural identities, lifestyles and behaviour. However, in Europe, the current (national) debates on integration, with their monocultural visions and strong emphasis on the risks stemming from ethnic and religious diversity, hamper fostering social cohesion at the level of the city and impede identity-building strategies of groups and individuals. Focusing on the Netherlands as a case study and using the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam as examples, this article shows that social cohesion policy would benefit from framing the integration debate differently. Research, performed in these cities, serves as a basis for alternative and more fruitful interpretations of diversity, identity and integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay examines the literary representation of towns in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the dramatic poetry of the 17th century, the leadership of autonomous German and Dutch trade towns was extensively praised within the context of the mythos of the city blessed with everlasting prosperity by God. In the early 18th century, new forms of trade increasingly undermined the social and economic security of the municipal patriciate. The essay outlines conservative reflexes of the endangered urban elites by examining dramatic texts from Amsterdam and Hamburg, in which the territorially defined source of solidarity of the town was no longer employed as a dramatic frame of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the background to the organization of the 1928 Olympic Games, and the impact of hosting the Games on Amsterdam's position as a city of prominence in Europe and indeed the world. Going back to the founding days of the City of Amsterdam, the city's heritage will be used to provide a platform for more recent political rhetoric and actual policy plans for Amsterdam to potentially bid for the 2028 Games, 100 years since the first time they hosted the event. Next to (part) speculation on why Amsterdam should or should not bid for the Olympics again, the essay will take a comparative perspective, evaluating both the 1928 and 2028 cases to identify if reasons for wanting to organize the Olympic Games are based on similar or quite different legacy intent and if legacy intent is founded upon distinguishing features of the city's heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]