De grote stad. Formele indrukken van het Zesde Congres van de Sociale Interacademiale

Samenvatting

A report on the 6th Congress of the Assoc's of Dutch Students of Social Sciences held at Wassenaar in 1957. The theme of the Congress was 'The Big City.' The opening speech of Sj. Groenman (Leyden University, the Netherlands), dealt with the central problem of planning, which he defined as tension between form and content. The tension is insuperable because formal plans change slowly, whereas their content, is life, is ever changing. C. S. Kruyt (Nat'l Planning Office) presented 3 planning alternatives: (1) extension of existing cities, in which care must be taken to leave open areas between them; (2) satellite cities, which must develop social nuclei of their own; and (3) decentralization outside the Western Netherlands, where most of the population is now concentrated. This has possibilities, but special incentives must be offered to employers, and one possible overflow area, the province of Noord-Brabant, has population problems of its own. During an excursion to Rotterdam, W. Steigenga (Planning Officer, Rotterdam), presented the case for planning for the entire Waterweg area with Rotterdam as center; G. E. van Walsum (Mayor, Rotterdam), stressed the need for administrative incorporation of neighboring areas into the city for planning purposes. On the last day, G. J. van den Berg (Noordholland Provincial Social Science Commission), explained the need for treating the entire 'Rhine Delta' area in a European planning framework and divided the Western Netherlands into an overcrowded Southwest (Leiden, the Hague, Rotterdam, Dordrecht) and a relatively less crowded Northeast (Alkmaar, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem). W. J. de Bruyne (Noordholland Foundation) spoke on life in Amsterdam and warned against too easy acceptance of pessimistic stereotypes. I. Langnas.