'Zo werkt dat hier niet': Gevestigden en buitenstaanders in nieuwe sociale en ruimtelijke kaders

Conflicts about the division of power between groups can be found anywhere. Sometimes the differences between groups lead to a struggle for power, which is fought out in public. Such a struggle can be between any kind of groups: between the original and new inhabitants of a town, between Christians and non-Christians, native residents and foreigners, or between other local groups. Often one group is locally rooted and can be labelled as ‘established’. Their adversaries can then be labelled outsiders. Changes in the power relationships between established and outsider groups are the central theme in this book. We investigated these changes in two towns in The Netherlands: Amerongen and Veenendaal, both in the province of Utrecht. The terms established and outsiders were first used by sociologists Norbert Elias en John Scotson. They investigated the relationship between two groups in an English town. In 1965 they published the well-known book The Established and the Outsiders. We used the established-outsider theory as starting point for our own investigations in Amerongen and Veenendaal. The established outsider-theory is a theory developed in the 1960s. Since then, many changes in society as a whole and local communities in particular have taken place. Already in 1974 Norbert Elias questioned the use of community studies. He asked himself if interdependence between groups of local residents could still be found. Developments that undermine the existence of groups and their interdependence have grown stronger ever since. This leads us to the first central question of this book: Is the established-outsider theory of Elias and Scotson still applicable to local figurations in the current Dutch societal context? To answer this question we first looked into the original theory and the critique on and additions to the theory, which were developed in the years afterwards. These points of critique are largely the result of societal changes that have taken place in the last forty years. We discuss these changes and the effect they have on applying the theory to the Dutch context. The critique and changes lead to additions and ideas that form the basis for our own model for interpretation of the relationships between established and outsiders. This ‘model for the Analysis of Dynamics on the Power balance in Conflict situations’ (ADPC model) contains four central elements: the distinguishing characteristic, rules and norms, power sources and strategies. We use the ADPC model to analyse the relation between groups in Veenendaal in Amerongen, and finally give some concluding remarks.