Community Spaces Under Austerity Urbanism: The Michi Noeki and the Politics of Social Infrastructure in Groningen, the Netherlands

After years of austerity urbanism, many community spaces disappeared or diminished their services. In response, social workers, municipal employees, and inhabitants increasingly argue for the importance of community spaces, especially in 'vulnerable neighbourhoods' that house concentrations of people with low income, low health, and other indicators of disadvantage. However, the transformation of national and urban governance under austerity impacts the making and remaking of 'social infrastructure'. In this presentation, I explore the values, governance, and practices behind creating a community space in Groningen, the Netherlands.

In 2023, a 'Michi Noeki' opened in the Oosterparkwijk in Groningen, responding to such a professed dearth in community spaces. The Michi Noeki is a quintessential example of social infrastructure; it aims to be a place where people can meet each other with minimal financial, social, and physical barriers. This presentation presents an in-depth case study of the Michi Noeki to assess social infrastructure's nature, impact, and reception under austerity urbanism. Work with developers and municipal employees illustrates how processes of marketisation, directly and indirectly, govern social infrastructure. External competitive funding governs the location and nature of new social infrastructure. Embedded in municipal policy objectives, the Michi Noeki radiates neoliberal subjectivity through work reintegration and personal health responsibilisation. However, interviews with users and volunteers will show whether these groups accept these values or will contest them and appropriate the Michi Noeki for their activities and values.

Through the Michi Noeki cast study, this presentation discusses how (semi-) privatised financing and providing community spaces shape the values and practices these places embody. Furthermore, it shows whether citizens accept or subvert these decisions and regulations of their community spaces. Therefore, this paper contributes to debates about the politics of community spaces under contemporary urban marketisation and financialisation.