ABSTRACT
The Netherlands is admired internationally for its striking capacity to create and manage a built and natural environment through well-coordinated public investment, arising from political processes that have sought consensus among different segments of Dutch society. Within the Netherlands, the City of Amsterdam stands out for the strength and continuity of its urban-planning capacity. Amsterdam manages to be many cities and, at the same time, one city, with a strong sense of ‘itself’. The many cities can be found in its daily life environments, its socio-cultural diversity, its industrial, commercial and financial activities, its transport nodes and its cultural, entertainment and sports activities. It is a city of very small neighbourhoods and of economic and cultural nodes that participate in global networks. It is the largest and most internationally engaged of all Dutch cities, the country’s capital, though not the centre of national government. It is also a multifaceted tourist destination, with the attractions of its distinctive historic morphology combining with the lure of its liberal culture (Terhorst et al. 2003). It is somehow small-scale and large-scale at the same time, the ideal of those for whom the heart of urban place quality is an open and diverse cosmopolitan ambience (Amin et al. 2000). It has a lively and diverse civil society, in which conflict is endemic between the different activities and understandings of what ‘Amsterdam’ is, argued through in the media, in meetings, in demonstrations, in electoral politics and, from time to time, in direct action. Within this seemingly anarchic multiplicity, the Gemeente Amsterdam (Amsterdam City Council)1
presides as the expression of the city’s unity, a powerful voice in the region, the nation
and in Europe, as well as a major presence in almost all the activities of the city – as strategist, regulator, funder, manager, landlord and land developer. This presence belongs not just to the City Council itself but is acknowledged, valued and vigorously criticised by its citizens.
