Meet the team
At the Centre of Expertise Just City, we are fully committed to realising a City for Everyone. Although our official location is the Wibauthuis in Amsterdam, we prefer to work from various locations throughout the city. Our team members introduce themselves from places in the city that are meaningful to them.
Asis Aynan - Programme Manager
We are on the Ahmed Ziani Bridge, this bridge is part of the Cornelis Lelylaan and connects the city districts of Centre, West and South with New West. Ahmed Ziani may be an unknown to the general public, but is an incredibly important poet and language innovator. In 1979, he holed up as a stowaway aboard a cargo ship in Morocco. He hid in a container for days. Arriving in Marseille, he found his way to the Netherlands. Here he became a poet and collaborated on the Cornelis Lelylaan tramway, where he lost a finger while working.
The bridge was named after him because of his important work as a poet and I think this naming is such a beautiful statement, a just statement. When you think of justice, you might quickly think of socio-economic themes, but representation in public spaces is just as much a matter of fair distribution.
In my role as programme manager of the Centre of Expertise Just City, I have an eye for the unequal distribution in the city and bring it to the college on my bicycle. With our team - but also with lecturers, students and partners in the city - we try to change that injustice. Of course, this is not a matter of course. But that things are not simple, I have learnt in my 19 years of teaching in front of the classroom, yet simplicity does exist. Like the poem of praise Ahmed Ziani wrote for Amsterdam. It is called Daughter of Amsterdam and it begins like this: You who carry heaven in your eyes/ filled with freedom/ gateway to life!
Contact Asis at a.aynan.nl or 0621158815.
Bob Knoester - Programme Developer
I love the vibrancy of the Dappermarkt, with its affordable vegetables and diversity of people. I would have loved to buy a house nearby but I missed the boat with that. Housing, energy and groceries are becoming more expensive and the urban divide is growing. I want to find out why and what we can do about it.
Equity is not a given over the course of a city’s development, something that is painfully clear when visiting cities like Mexico City, New York or Hong Kong. But, as city living becomes increasingly unaffordable for many people, equity is also under pressure in places closer to home, such as Amsterdam. To help address this issue, I want to be an advocate for the underrepresented and those in danger of being left behind.
I am a social geographer and have spent the last decade working on various issues on behalf of creative consultancies. You could call it participation, social innovation or democratisation, but it’s basically about how residents and the municipality work together to make the city what it is.
Contact Bob at b.knoester@hva.nl(opens in new window) or 0649319889.
Carin Rustema - Programme Developer
I'm sitting inside De Appel international cultural centre in the Nieuw West district. International artists, visitors and residents of the Lely creative hub come here to seek a deepening of the cultural sector. The critical, essential issues of our time are addressed here and often concern equity related to climate injustice, migration and exclusion, our colonial past and present, and identity. For me, equity is first and foremost about being empowered to be your authentic self. While this might seem obvious, increased awareness of the continued exclusion and stigmatisation of people on the basis of their cultural identity, religion, sexual orientation or political affiliation is crucial. This is concerning. Having lived outside Europe for 20 years, I view equity and justice through an international, often non-Western lens. We in our city are not separated from what is happening in the rest of the world. Just consider major issues such as climate change and migration. A good number of the city's residents have family or friends who live outside the Netherlands. Where and how can we find common ground in our daily lives when we differ from one another yet also have much that binds us? How do we learn to understand each other's perspective of equity? To prevent the further polarisation of our city, personal encounters and listening to each other's stories are practically a prerequisite.
As a programme developer, I seek out opportunities to connect (international) education and research to the issues faced by the people and organisations in the city. I studied Communication Science and Business Administration. Last year, I took the Policy Studies in Times of Transition course. I enjoy researching, exploring and learning together, at home and abroad and find arts-based, reflexive and ethnographic research methods interesting due to the depth they provide.
Contact Carin at c.j.e.rustema@hva.nl(opens in new window) or 0640216322.
Julie Ferguson - Scientific Director
Justice and equity are usually associated with people, and less with the natural and urban environment. Yet when it comes to these topics, the environment is an essential stakeholder in various issues and often goes unheard. Think of the city and its own dynamics, the use of natural resources, the importance of biodiversity, etc. I want to draw attention to this, and the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam is a beautiful, fitting location to do so. It’s where nature and the urban environment (plants, the greenhouse, in the middle of the city) come together. It also serves as a metaphor for the way we want to collaborate at CoERS, as an ecosystem in harmonious symbiosis with our environment.
My research focuses on network collaboration and network governance in the context of social innovations, with inclusion and sustainability (biodiversity and circular economy) as key themes. This is reflected in questions such as: who is or is not involved in decision-making? How does that impact knowledge development and learning processes? Who reaps the benefits and bears the burdens of our choices? And how do we organise collaboration between different stakeholders that results in a more equitable and just city? I look forward to answering such questions through practical research with and for our partners in the city.
Contact Julie at j.e.ferguson@hva.nl(opens in new window) or 0628530103.
Lex Veldboer - Scientific Director
The distribution and quality of social amenities in the city are important issues for me. An unfair distribution of amenities has a major impact on people’s sense of justice. We see this in the distribution of housing, for example, but also in the distribution of basic collective services such as libraries, community centres and public transport.
In Amsterdam, bus and tram stops are regularly removed for reasons of efficiency. In my previous neighbourhood, the tram stop at the head of Ceintuurbaan near the Amstelhuis disappeared a few years ago. This was a great loss for many local residents, especially for elderly people with mobility issues. If we want to prevent people from being left behind and dropping out of society, we will have to become much more vigilant when it comes to the fairest possible distribution of amenities in the city.
Contact Lex at a.p.m.veldboer@hva.nl(opens in new window) or 0621157589.
Marieke Diesveld - Project Assistant
Located at a former shipyard in the Amsterdam-Noord district, De Ceuvel is a sustainable hub for creative and social entrepreneurs. It's a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and artists with a green heart, all of whom have single-handedly helped build their workspaces in Amsterdam's first circular office park. There are even special plants that will clean the soil and leave the place better off than it was found.
De Ceuvel aims to be a figurehead of society's transition to a contemporary circular lifestyle. Climate justice is an issue close to my heart, which is why I feel a close bond with De Ceuvel's mission and vision to contribute to resolving this issue. I am a project assistant at CoERS and help the team behind the scenes with administrative and regulatory work along the programme lines.
Contact Marieke at m.diesveld@hva.nl(opens in new window)
Eline van Dillen - Communications Adviser
I am standing on the Brink, the central square in Betondorp. Until four years ago, I lived in a nearby corner house overlooking greenery....and the ring road. My daughter was little and we went on endless walks through the neighbourhood. Although small, Betondorp is home to a surprising number of courtyards and passageways with many interesting buildings and people. It is truly unique. Yet it has its own urban issues. Poverty is tangible in places, not only materially but also socially. And the disappearance of the last neighbourhood grocery shop was a shock to many local residents. We also witnessed how this square was redesigned and has now become a meeting place where - hopefully - young and old can gather. I think it’s one neighbourhood intervention that has turned out really well. But no doubt others will have their own opinions.
And that motivates me to collaborate on building a fairer, more equitable city. Perspectives differ on what makes a city liveable, pleasant and equitable, which is why everyone’s voice, interests and needs must be heard. How do you bring all that together? I work as a communications adviser at the Centre of Expertise and increase the visibility, understanding and use of the knowledge we have and the results we develop.
Contact Eline at e.van.dillen@hva.nl or 0618938334.
Saskia Vos - Communications Officer
My children love this playground in Oosterpark. Having to cycle at least half an hour to get here just adds to the fun because there is much to see along the way. The children’s perspective of the city differs from mine. They enjoy the various vehicles driving around; I see the crowded streets. They excitedly point to planes flying low overhead; I think about the impact on the climate and their future. They marvel at people shouting, talking on their mobiles and (often) swearing; I see the further erosion of tolerance.
This might sound a bit gloomy but that’s not how I feel. I love our city: the people, colours, smells, possibilities and here and there that glimmer of hope. I also see the many people who (want to) work on a more equitable city for all. Hopefully, our work with CoERS contributes to that. As a communications officer, I make the work we do visible and ensure that people know how to find us and get in touch. After all, we achieve more together than we do alone.
Contact Saskia at s.t.vos@hva.nl(opens in new window) or 0642600292.