We often depict urban inequality in terms of a growing gap, Femke Kaulingfreks outlines in her inaugural lecture. A gap between the city inside and outside the ring, a gap between poor and rich Amsterdammers, but also a gap between the living and system world. The image of the divide helps to highlight that people feel alienated or disadvantaged by policies that do not take their experiences into account, but it does not help to understand more precisely how inequality arises, and how we can combat inequality.
Reality is more complex than you can grasp in the image of two worlds with a gap between them. We will have to jump into the gap, says Kaulingfreks, and study what is happening there. How are certain policy decisions and experiences of residents made, and how do they relate to each other? Kaulingfreks aims to investigate how communities form in urban interstices, how practices of solidarity arise in those interstices to protect people against the negative effects of urban inequality, and what role intermediaries (often social professionals) play in working on solutions for urban inequality.