Dr Joris Schapendonk – Placemaking

On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 16:30, I presented my Valedictory Lecture entitled:

Reflections on Academic Placemaking

In this lecture, I reflected on the way we in our Geography Group, which I had the honour to chair for the last 25 years, have been working on creating an inspiring, fruitful and critically engaged academic atmosphere in contrast to many neo-liberal and managerial tendencies from which the university suffers. I show how this academic placemaking is well rooted in the basic principles of scientific formation universities are set up for.

It meant a lot to me that so many former and current students, colleagues and dear friends attended this event and that they expressed their thanks and appreciation.

The full text of the valedictory lecture is available here. The video footage can be viewed here. In this blog entry, I limit myself to just a few visual impressions of this academic ceremony, which, finally, is also a contribution to academic placemaking:

Farewell Symposium
Prior to this lecture, the Geography Group organised a small Farewell Symposium for me on the topic I am currently researching and on issues that have always been very dear to me. I feel very honoured and grateful to the Geography Group, for this fine gesture of ‘affection’. The title of the symposium was:

It is a Matter of Affect:
Social Theory and Geographical Thought

This symposium was designed to think with the affective turn in Geography critically, and it was centred around a couple of questions:

What social theories (can) deal with affect and space (even if they are not associated with the affective turn?)
Why does affect matter? In other words, what are the critical and political elements of affect?
How can we work with affect and space, in terms of teaching and research methods?

Session 1: What is Affect, what does it add to critical thinking in Geography?

Prof. Anke Strüver (University of Graz): Affective Spaces and/in Domestic Work

Dr. Wolfgang Zierhofer (former Assoc. Prof. in Geography): Geography’s ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’

Prof. Gert-Jan Hospers (Radboud University): Being Alone Together: Third Places from an Affective Turn Perspective

Session 2: Affect, atmosphere and politics

Dr. Alana Osbourne & Dr. Harry Pettit (Radboud University): The Political Lives of Urban Affect

Dr. Bettina van Hoven (University of Groningen): Affects, Arts and Didactics

Prof. Benno Werlen (Friedrich Schiller University Jena): Geography of Action – Action as Geographical Reality

Finally, as a big surprise my daughter, Michèle Ernste (University of Basle), gave a presentation entitled: Many Things to Say, reflecting on the academic placemaking within the family and the role of affective atmospheres in her disciplinary field, Archaeology.

Placemaking is the central topic in geography and on this website. Places are often seen as rather stable locations. But many places are in reality vibrantly dynamic and constantly on the move. Places are not just made by their material characteristics but especially also by the events taking place there. Street Markets count to these kinds of events. There are much more dynamics and mobilities in evolved in these street markets than the temporality of the markets or the temporality of the involvement of street vendors suggests.

This is what Emil van Eck analysed in his PhD thesis, which he successfully defended on the 29th of February, 2024 . In face of a panel of prominent opponents consisting of Prof. Susan Watson (Open University, UK), Dr. Fenne Pinkster (University of Amsterdam, NL), Prof. Stijn Oosterlynck (University of Antwerp, B), Prof. Joseph Pierce, (University of Aberdeen, Scottland), Prof. Arnoud Lagendijk (Radboud University, NL), and Prof. Ellen van Bueren (Technical University Delft, NL) and Prof. Tim Cresswell (University of Edinburgh, Scottland), the latter two as members of the special assessment committee judging the distinction, he did a more than outstanding job, which was honoured with the distinction Cum Laude. This made the full supervising (Prof. Huib Ernste, Dr Rianne van Melik, Dr Joris Schapendonk) team very proud, although it was Emil who did it… It was certainly also a product of a stimulating and inspiring academic setting in which Emil could thrive and to which he also contributed.

The title of his PhD thesis is

Public Space in Endless Motion. The politics of markets in the Netherlands.

If you click on the title image, you can download the full thesis.
Outdoor markets represent important public spaces of trade, consumption and social connections. Studies within urban geography and sociology have typically examined the social interactions between market visitors to argue about the role of public space in fostering tolerance and civic engagement. Almost all these studies focus on how such social dynamics develop within markets. This reading is the bread and butter of the politics of public space everywhere, but it also a restrictive interpretation of politics. This dissertation approaches public space politics as the broader power relations between people and institutions that involve negotiations over the terms that govern the use of and access to public space. By documenting the lives of market traders who work on two different markets in the Netherlands, this research sheds a light on the relatively hidden discursive channels, global-to-local policy circuits and mobility practices that are entangled in the politics of markets. The research findings challenge the inclusive characteristics of markets by revealing how racialised policies, multinational legislation and unequal gender relations impede access to markets for certain traders. The dissertation concludes that we need to look beyond the boundaries of public spaces to fully understand issues of inclusion, access and equality.

Tag: Dr Joris Schapendonk

PhD Defence Emil van Eck