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In the middle of the twentieth century, when the European Union (EU) started to take shape, numerous European colonies – many with a significant Muslim population – gained independence. These two moments in history need to be read in relation to each other when thinking about "Islam in Europe". This paper engages in such a relational reading and shifts the analytical focus from "Islam" to "Europe", exploring the ways "EUrope" manifests itself in the city of Brussels. By combining a spatialized analysis of the European Quarter with the conceptual lens of the "palimpsest", I seek to offer a spatiotemporal framing that renders visible the material remains of imperial formations within the fabric of "EUrope". The paper further explores how these often unmarked layers configure EU-space as "white" and Christian, and impact the ways Muslim bodies navigate within the EU-fabric and create counterspaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing productive economic activities with housing is a hot topic in academic and policy discourses on the redevelopment of large cities today. Mixed-use is proposed to reduce adverse effects of modernist planning such as single-use zoning, traffic congestion, and loss of quality in public space. Moreover, productive city discourses plead for the re-integration of industry and manufacturing in the urban tissue. Often, historical examples of successful mixed-use in urban areas serve as a guiding image, with vertical symbiosis appearing as the holy grail of the live-work mix-discourse. This article examines three recent live-work mix projects developed by a public real estate agency in Brussels. We investigate how different spatial layouts shape the links between productive, residential, and other land uses and how potential conflicts between residents and economic actors are mediated. We develop a theoretical framework based on earlier conceptualisations of mixed-use development to analyse the spatial and functional relationships within the projects. We situate them within the housing and productive city policies in Brussels. From this analysis, we conclude that mixed-use should be understood by considering spatial and functional relationships at various scales and by studying the actual spatial layout of shared spaces, logistics and nuisance mitigation. Mixed-use is highly contextual, depending on the characteristics of the area as well as policy goals. The vertical symbiosis between different land uses is but one example of valid mixed-use strategies along with good neighbourship, overlap, and tolerance. As such, future commercial and industrial areas will occur in various degrees of mixity in our cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual art does not judge. That was the method advocated by the school of the skeptics of Pyrrho. Since everything was considered doubtful, they did not want to pass judgment on anything, with a view to achieving "ataraxia," or the peace of mind. Nowadays "stress-resistant" people would say this means that resilience is thrown out of the window. Artwork is open, stated Umberto Eco. All serious interpretations are therefore possible. Contradiction, or at least ambiguity, is an important aspect of art. That is precisely what makes it such an interesting source of resilience. I will take as a case study the discussion that took place in the recent past about sudden unsolicited, inappropriate images painted on walls in Brussels. The artwork by Bonom, Vincent Glowinski, was not part of an urban beautification plan, but raucous protests against the absurd decisions of power and against the hypocrisy of our society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Hani Rashid of the University of Applied Arts Vienna directs Studio Hani_Rashid and the Deep_Futures Lab. Rashid has long been a cyber‐evangelist, being one of the first architects to recognise the paradigm‐shifting potential of computers in the early 1990s. His students are likewise utilising the most up‐to‐date computation processes and techniques to posit all manner of formal articulations housing new and audacious concepts for the future of architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First survey of GHG emissions from Brussels ponds. • Small ponds are more subject to edge effects and have higher pCO 2. • Macrophytes enhance methane production in ponds. • City center ponds have higher N 2 O emissions due to atmospheric deposition. • Brussels ponds emissions were equivalent to the carbon sink estimated for the urban green spaces. Freshwaters have been recognized as important sources of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere. However, urban ponds have received little attention even though their number is increasing due to expanding urbanisation globally. Ponds are frequently associated to urban green spaces that provide several ecosystemic services such as cooling local climate, regulating the water cycle, and acting as small carbon sinks This study aims to identify and understand the processes producing GHGs (CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O) in the urban ponds of the temperate European city of Brussels in Belgium. 22 relatively small ponds (0.1–4.6 ha) surrounded by contrasted landscape (strictly urban, bordered by cropland or by forest), were sampled during four seasons in 2021–2022. The mean ± standard deviation was 3,667 ± 2,904 ppm for the partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2), 2,833 ± 4,178 nmol L−1 for CH 4 , and 273 ± 662% for N 2 O saturation level (%N 2 O). Relationships of GHGs with oxygen and water temperature suggest that biological processes controlled pCO 2 , CH 4 concentration and%N 2 O. However, pCO 2 was also controlled by external inputs as indicated by the higher values of pCO 2 in the smaller ponds, more subject to external inputs than larger ones. The opposite was observed for CH 4 concentration that was higher in larger ponds, closer to the forest in the city periphery, and with higher macrophyte cover. N 2 O concentrations, as well as dissolved inorganic nitrogen, were higher closer to the city center, where atmospheric nitrogen deposition was potentially higher. The total GHG emissions from the Brussels ponds were estimated to 1kT CO 2 -eq per year and were equivalent to the carbon sink of urban green spaces. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three essential elements of modernism consolidated through war: a centralised welfare state, a serial industrial apparatus and, often, a territorial tabula rasa. Hence, for many modernist architects and urban planners, post-war Europe became the ideal ground to put their ideas to the test. However, there is a genuine discrepancy between the proposals of the first four Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) and what was massively implemented throughout Europe after 1945. To explore this divergence, Brussels proves to be an interesting case study for two main reasons. First, it hosted the third CIAM in November 1930, where Victor Bourgeois presented his views on housing and cities, in line with the ideals of the time. Second, after the war, Belgium, like many Western countries, experienced a period of euphoria, during which the modernist ideology attained a sudden and broad consensus. In the capital over the following three decades new infrastructure was built, as well as housing developments that derived, at least formally, from the CIAM ideals. This article explores the gap between the ideals and the reality of modernism through a comparison on two scales: the city and housing. Bourgeois’s Grand and Nouveau Bruxelles proposals are compared to the Manhattan Plan and Etrimo’s housing developments. Understanding the gap between the ideals of modernism and its implementation may help identify characteristics of the modernist movement but also, as Lacaton-Vassal pointed out when citing Habermas, complete the “unfinished project” (Habermas, 1984) of modernism.

The article considers positions of EU members-states in light of a possible no-deal Brexit. Meanwhile the majority of EU leaders believe that the concessions to the country set to leave the European Union will create a dangerous precedent for the “European project”. Some representatives of the European establishment have their own concerns regarding a disorderly no-deal Brexit and considering some measures to counter it.

In the present article we investigate the geography and magnitude of the climate footprint of long-distance travel with Brussels, Belgium, as a destination. The internationally networked position of this city goes hand in hand with a strong dependence on international mobility, which largely materializes in impressive volumes of long-distance travel and associated consumption of important amounts of fossil fuel. Despite a surge in concerns about global warming, the climate footprint of most international travel, notably air travel, is not included in the official national and regional climate inventories, or in other words, it is not territorialized. The official climate footprint of the Brussels-Capital Region attained 3.7 Mton CO2eq per year (in 2017). Based on our exploratory calculations, however, the total estimated climate footprint of all Brussels-bound international travel equalled an additional 2.7 Mton CO2eq. In terms of geographical distribution, over 70% of international travellers to Brussels come from Europe, while these represent only 15% of the climate footprint of all international travel to Brussels. We conclude that the practice of not allocating emissions caused by international travel to territorial units has kept the magnitude and complexity of this problem largely under the radar and contributes to the lack of societal support for curbing growth of international aviation.

This study examined the contribution of wealthy migrants to the social transformation of urban territories, analysing the processes and agents that facilitate the settlement of that specific social group in certain neighbourhoods. The results are based on a field survey conducted between February and June 2018 by qualitative methods in the Brussels Solvay neighbourhood. Solvay is located east of the Brussels inner ring and near Matonge, the popular Congolese commercial centre. Since 2000 it has been internationalising and upgrading because of the settlement of a large population of wealthy Europeans, attracted by the international functions of Brussels and the institutions of the European Union. This case-study demonstrates that the arrival of this high-income group is linked to the production of "ready-to-use" spaces for the latter by a multitude of economic agents, by the redevelopment of public space, the construction of a trendy commercial offer and the development of new segments of the real estate market, reflecting a generalized gentrification of the district. Real estate and commercial actors thus benefit from this solvent public, present in the short term and with particular consumption patterns. The public authorities support or even anticipate this transformation. It ousts the working classes of the area by the reduction in the supply of affordable housing, the creation of new commercial structures and policies to control urban space. In this way, the various agents who "make room" for wealthy Europeans in certain Brussels districts actively contribute to the transformation of the city.

Focusing on a population of white-collar immigrants who chose to move from Romania to Brussels-Capital Region between 2014 and 2019, this article signals the formation of a third wave of Romanian migration. The participants in the study are Romanians residing in Brussels, corresponding to the features of the European Man (Homo Europaeus) and they belong to the "middle class" leaving Romania at an accelerated pace motivated by the desire to achieve a transnational lifestyle and an improvement of subjective well-being. We draw our findings from both quantitative data on mobility in the EU and qualitative research that reveals what are the elements that push, attract, and retain RWCIs to Brussels. It is also an opportunity to reflect upon the notion of sense of place experienced by a population that, despite having only recently moved to Brussels, already shows a high degree of attachment.

This paper analyses and critically discusses experiences and narratives of sexuality disclosure and concealment of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background living in Brussels. Elaborating on queer of colour critiques to the normativity charted by coming out discourses, this paper argues for the unpacking and deconstruction of the binary and linear trajectory from "in" to "out" of the closet to understand the experiences of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background. This paper analyses and critically discusses experiences and narratives of sexuality disclosure and concealment of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background living in Brussels. It does so by presenting data collected over a year of ethnographic research in the city. The "closet/coming out" metaphor is central in western discourses around LGBTQ identities and sexualities, and its wide circulation resulted in its conflations with a number of different meanings. Rather than simply being a descriptive metaphor, it comes to represent a linear, tautological, and normative path of LGBTQ liberation, leading the LGBTQ subject from an "in" of darkness and secrecy to an "out" of transparency and authenticity. Queer of colour scholars have noted how the metaphor, and the prescriptive path it traces, often fails to capture and understand the experiences of racialised LGBTQ people. Elaborating on queer of colour critiques to the normativity charted by coming out discourses, this paper argues for the unpacking and deconstruction of the binary and linear trajectory from "in" to "out" of the closet to understand the experiences of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background. In particular, it argues for a focus on silence as a productive site, on non‐disclosure of sexuality as a functional strategy, and on the ways in which knowledge about sexualities can often circulate in tacit ways. As a result, the rigidity of the closet is disrupted, and its borders emerge as porous and flexible in the experiences of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Philostrato is the property of Epiarte, S.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Limited empirical evidence in support of world-city formation has been the 'dirty little secret' of the eponymous research area. Since the late 1990s, inspired by Sassen's account of The Global City, the field focused on advanced producer services (APS) firms as primary actors in world-city formation. While generating robust insights into the shifting geographies of world cities, empirical attention has mostly focused on mapping inter-urban world city networks formed by APS firms. Despite a rich literature on APS clusters, the degree to which specific intra-urban agglomerations and their inter-firm connections shape up has received little systematic attention. Based on a company survey in Brussels (Belgium), our study charts interactions between APS professionals to better understand the geographies, quality and intensity of their encounters. Our findings reveal that the Brussels-based APS cluster constitutes a hybrid of an industrial complex with stable formal ties and a social network based on informal exchange. Financial services assume a central position in what might be called 'a para-financial services complex', revealing close ties with legal services, accountancy and audit, and ICT. Geographically, we find that the APS complex depends on fine-grained localisation economies, which allow a small share of APS professionals to service both domestic and international clients. We conclude that APS actors in Brussels exhibit a strong domestic anchoring, indicative of the continued relevance of world cities as national financial centres amidst financial globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the phenomenon of 'everyday cosmopolitanism' based on fieldwork and interviews with young people in the public space of Brussels, conducted between 2013 and 2016. Although the open and positive inter-cultural practices observed in public space are echoed in the tolerant attitudes expressed by these youngsters, my research also revealed the existence of racist and ethnic stereotype. This begs the question about the contingencies and the limits of this type of 'everyday cosmopolitanism'. This paper argues that that an investigation of the emergences and disappearances of tolerant attitudes can be better understood and localised by engaging in an atmospheric translation of Lyn Lofland's notion of the 'parochial realm'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language Problems & Language Planning is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This Forum contribution presents fragmented accounts of historical narratives collected while conducting ethnographic fieldwork among civil servants in and around the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. It focuses on the roles that heritage-making practices play in articulating European identity and belonging within these institutional spaces. In the ongoing debates over 'bridges' and 'walls', Commission officials advocate building the former and tearing down the latter. The European heritage narratives they enact tell the story of a supranational community formed from the expansion of external borders and the elimination of internal ones. Through the transcendence of borders, both physical and cognitive, geographic distances and social differences are made increasingly irrelevant. Their efforts in this regard are nonetheless hindered by futurist temporalities that orient Europeanness in opposition to the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomske Ideje i Praksa is the property of Centar za Izdavacku Delatnost Ekonomskog Fakulteta u Beogradu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper proposes a policy evaluation approach to estimate the local multiplier effect of (public) R&I expenditures in the context of regional innovation systems (RIS). Starting from input-output tables and recent improvements in local multipliers, the proposed approach tracks all economic flows generated by the initial public R&I expenditures, distinguishing direct impact and subsequent effects on the supply chain, consumption, fiscal flows and inter-regional spillovers. The main interest of this approach is the focus on the 'certain' returns occurring within a RIS, irrespective of their 'uncertain' innovative outcomes, i.e. this approach tracks the economic flows of R&I expenditures even if innovation-oriented activities should fail to provide the expected benefits for regional productivity. The case of Innoviris, the Brussels regional R&I agency, is discussed to validate this approach unpacking the economic flows in a context of strong interregional linkages showing the spatial distribution of economic returns generated by R&I-oriented public expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 235 of the Constitution of South Africa contains a promise of potential self-determination of language and cultural communities. An essential question arising from this promise is how an individual's freedom of association interacts with the ability of a community to determine its membership. This article reflects on this question with reference to standards developed in international law and practices in the constitutional law of selected case studies. Whereas international law sets a universal standard of free association, states have developed practices whereby the individual's right to free association is recognised, but where there are also some measures allowed to ensure that an individual is indeed accepted by and part of the community. Any conflicts that arise are, generally speaking, subject to a form of judicial review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst Multiform has achieved a certain acceptance as a way of combating the so‐called New London Vernacular's contextual architecture, there are still many other aspects of urbanism it does not necessarily address, particularly within the public realm. The cityscape is often left out of the debate where buildings risk becoming simply self‐referential objects. Dirk Somers, manager and founder of Antwerp's Bovenbouw architectuur, argues for a reconsideration and posits successful precedents that balance convention with surprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project of four pocket parks is being carried out in the framework of the sustainable neighbourhood contracts (contrat de quartier durable), an urban renewal policy at regional scale in Brussels, in which regional funds are subsiding communal urban refurbishment. In a specific communal perimeter – a neighbourhood – a group of operations such as public space renovation, public housing development and public equipment construction are being developed within a four-year program. Since the launch of this policy in 1993, about 80 contracts have been successful. Being part of one of these local contracts (Bockstael), the four new pocket parks are located along the L50 railway lines, on leftover and residual spaces. Meant to complete a set of larger operations, the four plots’ smaller sizes and undefined status locate them at the edge of traditional design and allow for an experimental process. At the intersection of architecture, landscape, urbanism and sociology, the project is carried out for the city of Brussels by a multi-disciplinary team of designers.

By looking at the bodily performances of Polish EU civil servants in Brussels, I aim to show the colonial and racial legacy of Europe. I trace this legacy in struggles over an implicit and dominant European style that emerges in distinctions governing bodily performances in Brussels. This “Eurostyle” is firm but variable; it reflects national specificities and the modernity of Europe. Europe’s colonial power also comes into view through challenges to the Eurostyle, in performances of a resistant and more “religious” Polish body reflecting a self-imposed mission to re-Christianize Europe. Building on observations and interviews, my ethnography shows that a focus on Polishness in Brussels may explain ideological tensions in Poland stipulated by nationalistic and moralistic rhetoric as opposed to that of liberal and secular Europe.

Le présent article porte sur le syncrétisme générique dans les romans de Christopher Gérard, écrivain belge francophone (né en 1962). Aux Armes de Bruxelles (2009) s’apparente au guide littéraire, touristique et gastronomique et au récit de la quête de la mystérieuse Louise ; Porte Louise (2010) est un mélange d’un roman d’espionnage et d’un récit de voyage ; enfin Vogelsang ou la mélancolie du vampire (2012) constitue la synthèse du fantastique, du roman policier, du roman d’amour et du conte philosophique. Nous analysons l’aspect transgénérique des textes, ainsi que divers fonctions et enjeux de cette pratique scripturale de l’auteur, fasciné par l’hybridation postmoderne. L’étude démontre qu’en mélangeant différents genres et en sabotant leurs protocoles, l’écrivain fait du neuf avec du vieux et cherche ainsi à reconfigurer l’esthétique du roman et à le renouveler. Il détruit aussi la composante émotive des genres paralittéraires et, ce faisant, dépassionne efficacement l’aventure pour focaliser l’attention du lecteur sur le thème qui lui est particulièrement cher : Bruxelles, sa ville bien-aimée.