Inaugural lectures Wibaut chair

This chair was established by the municipality of Amsterdam at the University of Amsterdam for the study of metropolitan challenges.


The Wibaut Chair is a chair established by the City of Amsterdam at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It was established in 1991 by the Amsterdam municipal council. The chair is intended for the study of major problems in Amsterdam. In this collection you can see who held the chairs and read their inaugural speeches. You will also find the portfolio of current chair holder Femke Kaulingfreks.

The candidate is appointed for a period of five years. From February 2023, the Wibaut chair will be held by Femke Kaulingfreks. The central approach of the chair is to deepen the theme of 'individual and community' and related topics of community spirit, control, ownership and equality of opportunity. The municipality of Amsterdam has the ambition to strengthen the connection and trust between citizens and between citizens and the government in the super-diverse city of Amsterdam. The chair holder is asked to conduct research into relationships between the municipality, citizens, companies and civil society in order to strengthen mutual connection, trust and solidarity. The research can therefore contribute to both the strengthening of community spirit and the relationship between Amsterdam residents and the municipal government.

The chair holder is asked to focus on new forms and practices of urban democracy in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in which control and ownership are being reshaped. The relationship with inequality (in a political, cultural, socio-economic and spatial sense) is particularly important.