Both China and the Netherlands have experienced large and rapidly changing inflows of migrants into cities, putting a major demand on their public and private housing markets. This project will have a better understanding of the impacts of social housing programmes and market forces on urban housing of different migrant groups. It will also assess the impact of innovative social housing programmes on the social integration of migrants. This project is a Dutch-Sino collaboration, funded by Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) in China.

• Ids Baalbergen
• dr. Gideon Bolt
• dr. Yanliu Lin

• Nico Heerink (WUR)
• Eveline van Leeuwen (WUR)
• Several Chinese partners

Policies of dispersing asylum seekers to asylum centres are often understood to produce societal exclusion. However, it is unclear how variations in asylum centres? spatial, material and social structures reinforce processes of stereotyping, or by contrast, contribute to the inclusion of asylum seekers. This research will provide a nuanced account of the everyday social relations in and around three different types of asylum centres located in Bavaria, Germany, and will employ the concept of (un)familiarity to analyze the relations between asylum seekers and local residents. The methods used are photo diaries, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and postal surveys.

• dr. Bas Spierings

Together with the Netherlands’ Institute for Sport and Physical Activity (NISB) and fifteen National Sport Organizations (NSOs), representing over 3.2 million sport club members, this research project examines changes in membership and engagement in sport clubs. Combining a sociological, geographical and public administration perspective, we analyze to what extent people bond themselves to one another in sport clubs and are willing to engage themselves with their club. We zoom in on regional and social differences and variations with respect to each branch of sport. The study is based on a mixed methods design, including both quantitative and qualitative research and the application and assessment of interventions. The goal of the research project is to develop new insights into (changing) meanings of citizenship, membership and membership organizations in Dutch society in general and sport organizations in particular. In doing so, we intend to help Dutch sport organizations to successfully anticipate and respond to changing meanings that sport participants attach to club membership and engagement, and to contribute to wider scholarly and public debates on civil society and social cohesion.

• prof. dr. mr. Mark Bovens
• dr. M.G. (Michel) van Slobbe
• prof. dr. Maarten van Bottenburg

• Stijn Verhagen (Hogeschool Utrecht)