Negotiated Belonging

26. December 2010

Negotiated Belonging

A research project by Femke Herregraven
Tutor: Evert Ypma/Felix Janssens

In the contemporary metropolis not only many identities are present, but also multiple times, multiple spaces and multiple networks. This urban environment is local, but becomes part of a dynamic global network by the means of technology; we call this the network society.
In this perspective in our urban life many invisible and decentralised networks are present. Often we cannot see or touch upon these latent networks, but they are fully part of the metropolitan reality.
Negotiated Belonging is a project focusing on three invisible networks; expats (expatriates), migrant workers and tourists. These groups have true different reasons for arrival and goals of their temporary and semi-permanent residence.

The people within these social communities use and consume the city each in their own specific way and we witness their networks emerging spontaneously.
 Although these networks differ in many ways, they are all temporal. They arrive, adapt to a new reality and move on to the next challenge when their aim is fulfilled.
Negotiated Belonging gives insight in these flexible and decentralised networks and refers to them as modern nomads in a network society. The project argues that within the contemporary metropolis these nomads create identity that is characterized through dynamic and temporality. These networks depict another image than constructed identities most cities focus on with their city branding programmes.





Negotiated Belonging





Disappearing City





Moving Macrospehere






Nomadic Networks





Corporate Catch





Homeland Holograms





Missing Middle Class





Corosion of Character





Devotion Dollars





Newspaper screenshot





Newspaper screenshot