Towards a new class perspective for the network society

This first dialogue was, exceptionally, held in English and consisted of a spoken column by Michelle Provoost, a lecture by Loïc Wacquant and a brief Q&A session between Wacquant and Reijndorp. Both speakers are sociologists, know each other well and are fluent in each other’s language. This report aims to translate these ideas for spatial policy-makers.

Arnold Reijndorp is a sociologist and won the Grote Maaskant Prize in 2012 for his contributions to urban social research. Reijndorp’s publications are characterised by their high accessibility to both laypeople and fellow professionals. Furthermore, his approach embodies a Rotterdam ‘hands-on mentality’, involving field research amongst citizens and a deep interest in what motivates people in the city. It had long been a cherished wish of Thijs Barendse of De Dependance to invite Loïc Wacquant to give a lecture, and so it was only natural to pair him with Reijndorp. Two sociologists with a passion for city dwellers, one with a practical bent, the other with a more theoretical and philosophical approach.

Loïc Wacquant is a professor at the University of Berkeley. He has written several books on urban inequality and ‘advanced marginality’, including *Urban Outcasts* and *Punishing the Poor*. In his own words, he combines Pierre Bourdieu’s work on symbolic power and cultural class with Erving Goffman’s work on stigma.

Lecture Loïc Wacquant

In 'The City’s Pariahs', Wacquant describes how a new regime is emerging in Western society that differs from classical poverty—defined as a lack of resources—namely, a regime of advanced marginality. Advanced marginality is far worse than traditional poverty; it is both material and symbolic. It consists of the desocialisation of work, the stigmatisation and isolation of areas from economic processes, and the fragmentation of previously cohesive groups. This desocialisation is directly linked to radical mercantilism and the monetisation (the financialisation) of the economy.