Poverty and Profit in the American City

Blog overview

In this blog series we focused on the theme of our event with Matthew Desmond on July 4, 2018: home evictions. In 2016, 2.3 million people were touched by eviction, showing this to be not just a local or regional problem, but a nationwide epidemic that is as much a cause of poverty as a result. At the event, Dutch journalist Arjen van Veelen read a column about his time living in St. Louis, on which he based his new book ‘Amerikanen Lopen Niet’. In this blog series you’ll find an interview with Van Veelen, three segments of his book, an interview with Matthew Desmond, and a review of the exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington based on Desmond’s book ‘Evicted’.

A Knock on the Door

By Lize Geurts

   “There is a knock on the door. Whether or not the belongings are packed, the kids are ready, or the new plan is put in place, no longer matters.” A few sentences written on a wall plastered with eviction notices describe what happens to a family when their landlord one day decides it has …...

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Interview with Matthew Desmond

By Katherine Oktober Matthews

  In his book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond reports on the contemporary American epidemic of evictions. His warning looms large: “Without a home everything else falls apart.” Told from the perspective of eight individuals being evicted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as their landlords, Desmond’s investigative book …...

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The American and Dutch Housing Crisis Compared

By Cody Hochstenbach

  The United States are confronted with a severe housing crisis. The poor struggle to find decent, affordable and secure housing. In contrast, the affluent are able to use their property as money-making machines. In his landmark book Evicted, sociologist Matthew Desmond shows that one of the most unjust features of the US housing system …...

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Vacation for White People

By Arjen van Veelen

  Branson, Missouri has a reputation for being a Christian version of Las Vegas. The conservative tourist town is situated in the Ozark Mountains, near the Arkansas state border. Despite its remote location, the town attracts millions of visitors every year. They come for country music and Christian theater shows; for the Silver Dollar City …...

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An Elvis Presley on the Extreme Right

By Arjen van Veelen

  If you want to pay Elvis Presley a visit, you could just go to Graceland; that’s where he’s buried. Better yet, head off to Wright City, Missouri, where the singer’s spirit is still alive and kicking. The small country town is about an hour’s drive from St. Louis. Even before you hit town, you …...

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The Gateway Arch: a Statue of Unliberty?

By Arjen van Veelen

Is the Statue of Liberty still an appropriate icon for the USA? To an international audience, the massive monument is undoubtedly the country’s most famous and cherished landmark.  Lady Liberty still welcomes crowds of tourists, just like she used to welcome immigrants with her arms wide open. But does she tell an honest tale? Is …...

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Interview Arjen van Veelen

By Katherine Oktober Matthews

  Dutch journalist Arjen van Veelen didn’t plan on moving to the U.S.—but after his wife accepted a job in St. Louis in the summer of 2014, he found himself coincidentally in the backyard of the Ferguson riots. With that, he began to research and write about his American experience, reporting back to a fascinated …...

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