Small groups of people, mostly elderly, are making their way through the Dukenburg shopping centre on a weekday afternoon. The large shopping centre is partly closed and the premises in the part that is open are not always occupied by traditional shops.
One unit has been housing a special tenant since last year: Radboud University. To be precise: the quartermasters of the Studio Kanaalzone project. The project is being launched in Nijmegen's canal zone in premises shared by the university and other local parties, including the municipality. On a Wednesday afternoon in mid-March, environmental sociologist Simone Haarbosch is holding office in this Radboud University annex. The Studio’s motto is ‘Doing research for and with residents’ (see box). “We are setting up some research projects that also clearly target the residents of the Kanaalzone. It is precisely in these neighbourhoods that people experience scientists, the municipality, housing associations, and other organisations as far removed from them. People feel that they are constantly asked to do something for some organisation or other, but that nothing is ever really done for them. In this respect, it is true that scientists have for too long mostly served science; I feel an urgency to align our agendas with the concerns of local people. We want to reach the people we don’t know yet. As it stands, local residents and the university cannot find each other.”
This ties in nicely with the University’s founding act, Haarbosch notes. “This University was about offering young Catholics opportunities that they did not yet have access to. Studio Kanaalzone is a perfect match for this kind of university. Who do we serve as a university? That is what it’s all about. I want to use scientific research to serve the people in these neighbourhoods.”
Studio Kanaalzone
Studio Kanaalzone is a collaboration between Radboud University, the Municipality of Nijmegen and the Nijmeegse Woningbouwcorporaties (Nijmegen Housing Corporations) Platform. As of this year, research will be carried out for and by residents and organisations in the neighbourhoods around the Maas-Waal Canal, roughly: Dukenburg, Lindenholt, Hatert, and Neerbosch-Oost. The University is already involved in neighbourhood-based research studies, often from a distance. The idea is to make sure that this research now benefits people in the immediate area. The office in the Dukenburg shopping centre provides an opportunity for low-threshold encounters with residents and organisations in the neighbourhoods, especially since the University shares the shop premises with other local parties, such as Energiefixers, an organisation that makes rental homes more sustainable for free by appointment. The Studio will start out with two research projects: firstly, a scenario study on the neighbourhood of the future, including any investments needed now to design this kind of environment ideally. Secondly, the parties will work on an entirely new model of resident participation, which – unlike the current model – can ensure that all groups in the neighbourhoods are heard.
Flywheel
What would Nijmegen have become if a university had not been founded there one hundred years ago? All the people we spoke to have some idea about it, in most cases a less rosy one than their image of the current city.
“Of course, you never know how a city would have developed over the course of one hundred years without a university,” says Mayor Hubert Bruls. “I see a commercial city of some importance, given its location between the Randstad and the German Ruhr Area. Transhipment and logistics would then have been the key sectors.”
“The city and the University would both have less charisma without one another,” says Daniël Wigboldus, President of the Executive Board. “A university operates in constant interaction with its environment, with branches running from local to global. This is made possible by the fact that it is firmly rooted in its immediate environment. So firmly, in fact, that the University is no longer conceivable without Nijmegen, and vice versa. You can no longer pick us up and just move us somewhere else.”
Professor Emeritus Nico Nelissen, urban sociologist and public administration expert, has an almost endless list of omissions in a Nijmegen without a university: no Waalsprong, no Malden, no monasteries, no University of Applied Sciences as a neighbour, no science park, no student flats, no reputation as ‘Havana on the Waal’, no left-wing majority in elections, no thriving catering industry in the Molenstraat, and far fewer or much smaller cultural venues. “Take away all these jigsaw puzzle pieces, and you are left with a town of barely one hundred thousand inhabitants.”
Simon Mamahit is an expert on youth culture and works in the Nijmegen and Gelderland music scene. “I live in the city centre. Every night there’s a coming and going of young people. Without a university, Nijmegen would be a sleepy Hanseatic city, just a small town in the east of the Netherlands.” Mamahit mentions Zutphen and Deventer. “Or maybe a place like Zwolle. All nice cities, by the way, nothing wrong with them.” Finally, Dolly Verhoeven, Professor by Special Appointment of Gelderland History. She envisions a Nijmegen like her hometown of Apeldoorn, focused on services, possibly with additional emphasis on the healthcare sector.
But a comparison with Venlo also makes sense, as a river city. She also puts things in perspective: cities in the Gelderland region that do not have a university have also been growing fast for decades. “Apeldoorn is growing fastest, but Arnhem also already crossed the river.” Nijmegen would have been on the map even without a university. “But without the quality of a somewhat rebellious, youthful and dynamic city, which acts as a flywheel, because this reputation in turn attracts people to whom this appeals.”
Knowledge city
Let’s start with some figures: In 2023, Nijmegen has a population of about 183,000 and it expects to pass the 200,000 mark in a few years. The last scientific study on ‘Nijmegen without the University’ dates back 20 years and concluded that the city owes roughly a third of its capital to the University, in a broad sense: from population to activity, and from consumer spending to cultural activities. Looking at the population, Nijmegen without a university would therefore have some 60,000 fewer inhabitants, placing it at the same level as Ede and its environs. Not in the top ten of Dutch cities, but number 25.
Social geographer Peter Vaessen, one of the authors of the 2005 study, lists a few advantages the University offers the city. Not just contributions to economy and culture, but above all personal commitment. “The more students and staff in the city, the more contributions to boards and voluntary organisations, for example. That way, knowledge flows into the city, and everyone benefits. Conversely, the cultural and residential climate in the city is important for attracting talented students and researchers. This is how city and university keep each other vital, says Vaessen. “That is why it’s important to understand and support each other’s added value as much as possible.”
How well do we actually know each other? To begin with, what do Nijmegen inhabitants know about the University? As for knowledge about the city in the rest of the Netherlands, the Municipality conducted an image survey in 2017: 25% the Dutch population knows Nijmegen as a student city (Nijmegen is better known for the Four Days’ Marches and as city of bridges and rivers, students come in third). “This percentage is obviously much higher in Nijmegen,” says Bruls. “Everyone in the city knows that we have a university. Although the local population is more likely to think of Nijmegen as a student city than a knowledge city.” Lack of familiarity with Nijmegen as a knowledge city extends beyond the city limits, says the Mayor. “It is unfortunately not how people know Nijmegen. We really need to work on this, also to become more attractive to investors.” Daniel Wigboldus underlines the mutual importance of economic activity. Together with Bruls and other partners, he is a member of a consultative body responsible for the regional investment agenda. Wigboldus cites past and present spin-offs arising from Radboud University research, which have turned into dozens of companies providing employment for 7000 direct employees. A well-known and early spin-off is GITP (applied psychology for companies and employees). The largest spin-off by far is pharmaceutical company Synthon, and a familiar name among the dozens on the list is SNP Natuurreizen. “All this activity in turn attracts new young people to the city,” says Wigboldus. “They want to settle in this environment. This is how you develop knowledge with each other, and the arrival of young people enhances vitality and vibrancy.”
Working together
Given its special emancipatory mission, does Radboud University have more of a responsibility than other universities to care for its immediate surroundings? Yes, says Daniel Wigboldus confidently, pointing to the University’s mission statement: ‘Contributing to a healthy free world with equal opportunities for all’. “This is something we do on a global scale, but it often starts in our immediate surroundings. Our University cannot help but operate in constant interaction with what is happening around us.” He points to the student housing market in the city, to the importance for the University of an attractive living environment for its researchers, to the internships students do in the neighbourhood, and to the city as a fieldwork site for research. “Moreover, students and researchers are stimulated by the environment, by everything that is going on and that can spur further research.”
Mayor Bruls sees a mission for the University in its own surroundings. As one of the city’s largest organisations, the University contributes significantly to the growth spurts. “So it is not such a crazy idea to expect the University to make extra efforts in thinking about developments in the city. The University does not exist in its own bubble.” Bruls expects a contemporary interpretation of the founding ideal – the emancipation of the Catholic population: “Use your research to connect to issues that affect the city, to respond to the problems arising there.”
Dolly Verhoeven underlines the University’s responsibility to contribute to local quality of life. “You have to take good care of the living environment of your students, and welcome people who come here to work. Acting together with the city gives people the feeling that we belong together. This can help promote understanding, because there are also irritations, for example the issues with bicycles, or the division of houses into rooms. That is precisely why we have to keep communicating that we benefit from one another.”
At Studio Kanaalzone in Dukenburg, Simone Haarbosch explains that the Studio’s research is inextricably linked to the city: involving citizens in urban development is not something the University can do alone. She points to a large map with colourful threads showing the networks in the neighbourhoods. “To reach everyone, we need to work with housing corporations, neighbourhood coordinators, and volunteers from the neighbourhoods. These people already come to many people’s homes, and they speak their language. We are connected to the neighbourhood, also because we want to monitor the effects of our research in the longer term. It is a long-term process, which involves making a lot of contacts.”
New bridges
All interlocutors underline the importance of being proud of both the University and the city, but there are also issues, and this too, they all agree on: Does the University reach all the groups in the city? Unfortunately not, as all concur. President of the Executive Board President Wigboldus: “What I'm most concerned about is the divide in society: how can we ensure that all of Nijmegen benefits from and is proud of the University, and not just the familiar groups.” Sociologist and governance expert Nico Nelissen signals insufficient cohesion between the campus and its surroundings, especially as department after department leave the city centre. “Everything is now on campus, which reinforces the island character. People from outside the University experience the campus as a fenced-in area where there is no place for them, unless they need to go to the hospital. What is needed for the future is to build new bridges.”
“The University benefits some groups in the city more than others,” says Bruls. “It could belong more to everyone, if there were more connections to the city.” Commit more strongly to local parties than you do today, he says in his appeal: “Go into the city, meet the people in the community centres.”
That sounds like music to Verhoeven’s ears: “Let’s agree in coming years to set aside one day a year for city lectures. Every faculty can add value to the city with its knowledge. Activating neighbourhoods, operating sports grounds: we can more often take initiatives that really benefit the city.” Bruls is happy to take on this challenge, if only because understandable knowledge transfer fuels a sense of pride. He points to the Valkhof Museum’s exhibition on the black hole this year. “There is something we just came up with in our little town. On the health front, fortunately, a lot is already happening, and this benefits everyone.”
Nelissen recommends inviting people to campus events more often. “Physical contact is the key to integration and understanding.” Bruls sees a pitfall in the mutual approach, given the campus bubble, its academic jargon, and the belief that people at the University always know best. “If you want to be respected, you also have to show others respect.”
The Mayor cites as an example the way the campus approaches the identity debate, the conversation around gender, the supposedly inclusive language that ends up excluding other people. “There is a danger in taking things too far. People in the neighbourhoods don’t understand it, so that instead of bridging the socio-cultural divide, you are actually strengthening it.”
Simon Mamahit also sees that the divide is far from closing. As an expert in youth culture, he sees the divisions growing sharper. “There is no real connection to the city. Especially in today’s society, filled with misunderstandings and polarisation, the University really has a part to play. Offer ordinary people a forum for discussion, and don’t keep it among academics.” Mamahit refers to Radboud Reflects: “Fantastic debates, but the subject matter is rather pompous.” Don’t talk about the people who are in trouble, but instead involve them in shaping your debates, and in choosing speakers and venues. His recommendation: “Less ideological talk, which clearly scientists have a tendency towards, and more investment in contacts, for example by deploying ambassadors in the neighbourhoods.”
Dissatisfaction with the social divide is now being addressed at Studio Kanaalzone: all hands on deck for more connection. There are some snags, though, as Simone Haarbosch knows: the Studio research studies have to be designed carefully. “It’s still research, of course; you can’t promise anything beforehand because you don’t know what will come out of it. Research is there precisely to explore the unknown. We are not here for easy solutions to ready-made problems, although such solutions may eventually arise from our projects.” Here is an example, following on from the Studio’s study on the neighbourhood of the future: if the initial findings show that many people are longing for more contact, don’t wait. “You can start thinking with all the partners about whether you can already organise something like living room cafés.”
Near the exit of the Dukenburg shopping centre is the neighbourhood library. A man comes out, a cup of coffee from the library in his hand. He immediately starts talking to us. If you’re the type to pigeonhole people, you might call him ‘confused’. He looks angry, insists, keeps repeating himself. “Why doesn’t anyone listen?! I want to work, but I can’t do anything! I’m full of power, but I don’t have a shield.” His eyes are spitting fire. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says, sensing the discomfort. “I want to work. I have powers, but I don’t have a shield.” This man has rarely been heard, that much is clear, though he may soon find an interlocutor at Studio Kanaalzone.
This article was written by Paul van den Broek and Vincent Decates, and also appeared in the special anniversary edition of Radboud Magazine. The photographs were selected from the Radboud University collection. The persons appearing in the photographs have no relation to this article.