Waarom blijft stedelijke uitspreiding bestaan? Een onderzoek naar stedelijke uitspreiding vanuit een neo-institutioneel perspectief, casestudy: stedelijke uitspreiding in Paramaribo, Suriname

This doctoral research originates from the disappointing results of research and spatial planning practices in order to reverse urban sprawl in Paramaribo into more desirable spatial development patterns. As a result, I doubted the validity of the spatial planning instruments that I knew, as well as the suitability of Western urban planning theories in non-Western urban contexts. I also felt that the analyses regarding the causes of urban sprawl in Paramaribo in the available studies and policy documents were not entirely accurate. Yet I could not indicate exactly how they could be improved. This feeling did not only apply to Paramaribo, other Caribbean academics also shared this opinion regarding other Caribbean cities. These cities all have very different spatial and social characteristics and challenges, but are all originally based on similar (neo)colonial spatial development models. That is why I wanted to elaborate on these issues in my PhD. The research is divided into two sections: the theoretical and the empirical section. In the theoretical section, I create a framework in which I explain the challenges in urban sprawl research in general. Based on the analysis of the definition, causes and consequences of urban sprawl, I was able to discover that existing literature too often ignores the context-specific and multidimensional characteristics of the concept of urban sprawl. I also noticed that the literature is dominated by Western academics and literature sources. I try to overcome these challenges by defining urban sprawl as a collective action problem. As such, I was able to investigate urban sprawl from a neo-institutional perspective. In order to operationalize this perspective, I selected Ostrom 's Institutional Analysis and Development frame (IAD). To emphasise the relationship between politics, public administration and the population (individual or organized) more explicit than in the AID, I supplemented the IAD with the World Bank's service model. Hence, I could also investigate the relationship between these actors in a more structured manner. To further substantiate this extended analysis framework, I discuss the effects of neo-patrimonialism, unearned income and path dependency. In the empirical section, I use a case study to investigate whether the application of the extended IAD in urban sprawl research effectively leads to new insights into the causes of urban sprawl in a specific city. Thereby bridging the existing challenges in urban sprawl research. To shape the empirical section, I returned to Paramaribo. Based on a single case study with embedded units of research, I started testing the validity of the theoretical assumptions. Based on the first results of field research, I was able to detect that urban sprawl in Paramaribo was mostly driven by residential and infrastructural developments, and that public housing allotments were most suitable for further empirical research. In order to bring structure to empirical research, research questions and a research strategy were defined. The empirical section is subdivided into four sub-studies: first the context of public housing, second the spatial context of the National Housing Programme (NHP) projects Hanna's Lust, Waterland and Leidingen 10A, third the explanations and perceptions on the location choice of the NHP projects and fourth the perception of the residents on their new living environment on one of the three NHP-projects. I used this info to unravel why the urban sprawl is sustained in Paramaribo through the NHP-projects. For example, I discovered that part of the urban sprawl in Paramaribo can be explained by generic causes, but I also discovered a range of context-specific causes, such as corrupt land policy, populist public housing policy, absence of critical civil society, limited political opposition, shortcomings in the construction sector and housing needs that are passed down across generations. In addition, the investigation of the motives of the different participants as well as the interaction of the different participants revealed path dependence of these discovered causes. That is why the empirical section briefly explored the possibilities of developing strategies that try to overcome the path dependency of urban sprawl causes in Paramaribo. These strategies should be further investigated in subsequent research. Based on this research, I unravelled the challenges of urban sprawl research through literature and a case study. To overcome these challenges a neo-institutional perspective was suggested and was empirically tested. The positive results of this research encourage in-depth and comparative research. In-depth within the case of Paramaribo and comparative research through the development of several single cases in other cities which makes it possible to develop comparative research between different sprawled cities.

Publication year:2019

Keywords:Doctoral thesis

Accessibility:Open