Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam identify with their surrounding built heritage

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Master Thesis in Human Geography

Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam

identify with their surrounding built heritage

Fergus Talbot UvA net-ID: 12264849

First reader: Mw. dr. ir. C.J.M. Lia Karsten Second reader: Mw. dr. V.D. Virginie Mamadouh

Date : Saturday 31 September 2019

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of the interviewees who sat down with me and discussed their memories from attending high school at the Fons Vitae Lyceum at great length. This research has come to fruition thanks to their contributions. Please note that all of the interviewees carry fictional names in this study in view of preserving their anonymity.

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Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam

identify with their surrounding built heritage

August 2019

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Abstract

The purpose of the following research paper is to stimulate built heritage preservation awareness among youth in the Dutch context amidst growing democratisation of heritage preservation discussions and decision-making processes in Europe. In the EU, youth constitute the least participative demographic group in these discussions. Yet, youth must first demonstrate a high degree of attachment to their surroundings in order to desire preservation of the elements in their built environment. It is believed that the more positive one’s experience and one’s memories with the built heritage in his usual vicinity, the more likely one will be motivated to continue preserving it. This research paper presents a case study whereby the main building of a long-established high school in Amsterdam suffered serious damages in a fire from June 2017. Interviews are used to evaluate the high school experiences of the school’s most recent alumni as well as the latter’s memories interacting with their school’s community and its various spaces. Surveys are employed to confirm whether the extent to which alumni partake in preservation processes of their school building correlates positively with their previously mentioned experiences and memories. The overall result is that whilst alumni do preserve predominantly positive memories of their high school experiences, they have not demonstrated sufficient care in growing involved in the preservation of their high school’s heritage. Consequently, the alumni do not identify fully with the built heritage that is their high school.

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Among the many different factors that help forge one’s own identity is the existing built environment. People develop an innately sensitive relationship with the iconic monuments, buildings, streetscape and morphology which surround them. These concrete remnants of history define a city’s character, meaning that they are the unspoken arbitrators of the relationship between a city and its inhabitants. Because the built environment lies at the core of a society’s cultural identity (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007), it is important for knowledgeable actors to consistently seek public opinion approval on the preservation and/or regeneration of built heritage. Since the topic of identity is sensitive, stimulating public participation develops into a key process within heritage preservation discussions in order to lessen disputes and prevent a strict split in viewpoints between knowledgeable stakeholders and the civic sector (Halu & Kucukkaya, 2015). The European Commission made a major step towards bridging heritage and democratisation in March 2014 when it adopted Recommendation 2038 or “Europe’s Endangered Heritage” (EPRS, 2018) policy. This policy partly urges municipalities of historical cities to enlarge the circle of decision makers invested in urban plans to members of the wider community.

This paper concerns itself precisely with the relationship between youth remembrance and identity development processes in the built environment and how this has subsequently reflected upon the level of youth involvement in heritage preservation efforts. The ability to grasp the level of attention devoted by young adults to the built environment which surrounds them and involving them in urban preservation strategies is crucial to instilling them with a sense of duty to care for the places that they live in. If future generations do not mature with a burgeoning vision for the places that they live in, then they will hold significantly less regard for the protection of these places. This would lead to the loss of built treasures inherited from past eras and, implicitly, the decline of a society’s historical identity. In other words, one identifies with a place where one lives, then one will logically care for it in a direct or indirect way. Though there exists substantial literature on the connection between youth and heritage preservation, little to no literature on the involvement of Dutch youth in such discussions has been found.

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Therefore, the following research question has been formulated:

To what degree do adolescents living in Amsterdam identify with the built heritage of their city?

Since a significant proportion of an adolescent’s maturation period takes place in school, this research will focus on analysing the identity building processes of alumni aged 18 through 22 years old from a long-established secondary school in Amsterdam. Having only recently graduated from high school, alumni possess a fresh and objective oversight of their adolescence period. Hence, they are able to link their memories back to a place which has occupied a central role in their identity building process.

Below are key sub-questions which contribute to answering the overall research question:

1. How have alumni perceived their experience of high school?

2. Do alumni strongly link their high school memories to their high school community and to specific areas of the high school which they attended?

3. Do the alumni demonstrate care for their school’s built heritage as a result of the occurrence of the fire?

The following paper commences with a literature review. First explored is the value of heritage for future generations which is complemented by a study of the significance of schools in heritage discussions. This is followed by an engagement with written works on identity building experiences of adolescents in high school. Thereafter, the paper presents a section outlining the methods used to respond to the research question and its sub-questions as well as the reasons for their use. Finally, a section detailing the operationalisation of this research is provided. This latter section also presents a relevant case study to the research at hand.In broader terms, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the wider discussion on raising youth awareness in urban heritage preservation discussions.

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2. Theoretical Framework

2.1. The value of heritage for future generations

Heritage is one of the rare existing sources of wealth which all people belonging to a same society can enjoy for its historical significance, regardless of an individual’s socio-economic background. For many intellectuals, it qualifies as a vital human need since it logically brings individuals “beauty, meaning, truth [and] wholeness” (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007), ensuring continuity of a certain societal order and providing a sense of parity to members of future generations (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007). The significance of built, and thus tangible, heritage is more important considering that it has the capacity to transfer one or more meanings from one generation to the next (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007) whilst continuing to have a function for present-day generations. In many European inner cities, they can continue to be peoples’ homes as is the case with London’s Victorian apartments or Amsterdam’s 17th_{century canal}

apartments. They can remain as epicentres of a city’s cultural life as is the case with Paris’ Opéra Garnier or Rome’s Coliseum. Renowned universities throughout Europe in the likes of Oxford, Cambridge or the Sorbonne continue to shape the education of future leaders within the same built edifices that educated leaders from past eras. Therefore, they continue to withstand the test of time. Monuments, icons and whole streets as well as boulevards continue to define urban geographies: Paris’ Arc de Triomphe roundabout, Amsterdam’s Centraal Station, Berlin’s Kurfurstendamm and the cobbled streets dating back to the Holy Roman Empire are established traffic nodes and axes that are instrumental to fluid circulation within the central areas of these European cities.

A city’s built assets also retain the power to communicate a strong message to its young population and further educate young people across the world on its wider philosophical underpinning. For instance, New York City’s skyscrapers embody the financial might associated with core neighbourhoods such as the Financial District and the affluent residential areas of Tribeca, Soho and Chelsea and more generally, lower-Manhattan. Therefore, these skyscrapers voice the prevalence of neo-liberal economic thinking and of the laws of private property in the attitude and lifestyle of upper-class New Yorkers. On the other hand, the large industrial sites of the Brooklyn Docks and the brown and brick residential neighbourhoods of the Bronx convene a strong sense of

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existing roughness in what is also a major working-class city. Thus, young people can see and attain a certain sense of what makes a young New Yorker proud to grow up in New York City. Different built environments make up the fabric of a same city, thus rendering it unique to young people in a multitude of ways and playing a crucial part in fomenting their identities (Rapoport, 1982; Neill 2004; Tweed & Sutherland, 2007).

This is further underscored by the ability of a piece of tangible heritage to carry political and/or ideological significance for people, including the young (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007; Neill, 2004). In current Western terms, one may think of the abrupt disappearance of the World Trade Center’s twin towers from New York City’s cityscape or of that of the Pentagon from Washington D.C.’s cityscape in the 9/11 terror attacks. For the generation of young New Yorkers and young Washingtonians who witnessed those attacks unfold, the immediate loss of such landmark icons was likely to have inflicted a severe emotion feeling on them which has affected their identities as New Yorkers and Washingtonians. It also likely added new meaning to them alongside the political weight carried by these former buildings: the beginning of the reality of living in an era dominated by the war on the terror. The same could be said for those young Parisians who witnessed the November 2015 attacks in the Bataclan, a 19th_century

building popular among youth for its theatrical and rock music venues and which is now also broadly associated with the advent of terrorism on Parisian soil. These enumerated evolutions in political context are examples of how effects to the built environment could affect the meaning associated to them by youth as a result of outside influences.

However, there also exist examples of physical structures consumed by youth as a means to an ideological or political end. Young Berliners took part in tearing down large parts of the Berlin wall in 1989 to reunify two halves of a same city after nearly three decades of forced separation engendered by the Cold War. Today, the Berlin Wall stands as a piece of Berlin’s heritage with more than one meaning. For the older generations, it is a living testament to the social and historical implications which it once forced upon them. To the young, it is a symbol of repression which they will strive to avoid for the coming future. In more contemporary terms, young Egyptians took to Tahrir Square in Cairo 2011 to voice their aspiration to cultural liberalisation and their exasperation with dictatorship during the period of the Arab Spring. Today, Tahrir Square is particularly scrutinised by the current Egyptian regime in an effort to avoid another uprising of the country’s youth (Sanchez, 2018).

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The significance of built heritage may vary across different societies and geographies and according to the function of physical structures (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007). Yet, built heritage is a determinant factor in the way future generations perceive the historical greatness of their own societies, the values and traditions that they will continue to uphold and the purposeful aspects which they will continue to attribute to the built landscape that surrounds them.

2.2. The significance of school buildings in heritage discussions

Like other historical buildings, long established schools bring much significance to a people’s historical and cultural norms. They qualify as “heritage” because they are capable of surviving long time periods provided that societies continue to see reasons for their preservation (Idrus et al., 2010).

Without counting extraordinary circumstances such as war or the advent of a natural catastrophe, academic excellence represents perhaps the main insurance means underlying a high school’s capacity to withstand time. In the Western context, the latter speaks thus much about what a society may expect from individuals who had the opportunity to attend such schools. Prestigious high schools and preparatory colleges such as Eton College and Rugby School in England or Phillips Exeter Academy and the Boston Latin School in the U.S. are schools that are associated with academic prestige today. In the Dutch context, a number of schools located in Amsterdam stand out: Barlaeus Gymnasium, Vossius Gymnasium and Ignatius Gymnasium among others. The common reason for which the aforementioned schools share heritage status is because of their ever-growing social value (Kamal & Harun, 2002). Therefore, society expects graduates of these schools to put their education to the service of public welfare. Nobel prize winner and chemist Paul Crutzen, CDA founder Piet Steenkamp, children’s author Paul Biegel, poet and author Willem Frederk Hermans and musician and jurist Rob du Bois are examples of individuals who are known to have benefitted Dutch society thanks to the superior quality of education that they received in high school. Ultimately, these figures are popularly known as pioneers who were able to bring about national progress in fields as diverse as the arts, science and politics.

Consequently, it is through their noteworthy aptitude in providing leaders throughout diverse fields that historical high schools continue to receive the admiration

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of the wider public. In this regard, high schools constitute the built heritage symbolising the excellence of the local educational system. Thus, they can continue to guarantee their preservation and thrive.

2.3. Attending school and identity building

Identity development is a process that occurs much during the period of adolescence, when children start to develop into young adults. In turn, a large portion of an adolescent’s time is spent at school, justifying the fact that school is at the heart of the social realm of adolescents (Rich & Schachter, 2012) and the development of their self-esteem - a “global evaluation of one’s own self-worth” (Luyckx et al., 2013; Rosenberg, 1965). School offers an environment in which growing young adults can defy “the developmental challenges of maturation” (Huang 2010, Birkeland et al., 2012) based on evolving circumstances. Hence, one’s individual experience of high school is highly likely to impact one’s self-esteem and mastery of the skills and concepts which will help one later in university and/or in the workplace. Therefore, an adolescent who benefits from a positively structured support in high school is more likely to contribute to the school’s betterment.

A multitude of factors exert an impact on the identity building process of young adults whilst they attend school. Unsurprisingly, young adults who enjoy a higher socio-economic status make greater self-esteem gains than their lesser wealthy peers. Whilst wealthier young adults can at once focus on their studies and fall back on their school and families’ extensive array of academically encouraging resources, less fortunate young adults often must make do with the limited amount of resources offered by the schools that they attend. Added to this is the chronic issue of declining parent-young adult relationship quality as adolescents grow older. They strive to affirm themselves through choices which they deem they can begin to make without prior parental consent. This also builds on the greater likelihood of a less fortunate young adult’s need to make ends meet financially and stand strongly to their parents to defend their personal decisions. Falci (2011) demonstrates that in taking up part-time employment, adolescents of lower socio-economic status begin to finance the actions of their personal decisions. Thus, the time which they could devote to mastering concepts learnt in school lessens while their relationships with their parents worsen. As a result, greater levels of work and relational strains lead less fortunate young adults to slower

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growth in self-esteem. A young adult’s gender also has an impact on his/her self-esteem growth rate throughout school. Surprisingly, students of different gender generally experience variating self-esteem levels in middle and high school. While self-esteem increases faster for boys in middle school than for girls (McLeod and Owens, 2004; Falci, 2011), the opposite trend is true in high school (Galambos et al., 2006; Falci, 2011), strongly suggesting that high school is a cornerstone on the paths of adolescents toward greater self-esteem and maturation levels by gender. The effect of gender on one’s self-esteem is perhaps more felt during adolescence than that of socio-economic status, which is more felt when full adult maturity has been reached according to a series of empirical studies (Falci, 2011; Rosenberg & Pearlin, 1978).

2.4. Participation of youth in built heritage preservation

A broad array of literature covers the relationship between youth and built heritage preservation in European and other geographical contexts. However, different contexts display different levels of youth involvement in these discussions. In Italy, competitions have been organized to encourage teachers to enhance the importance of building conversation in schools (Halu & Kucukkaya, 2015). In Israel, the Antiquities Authority set up three education centres across Jerusalem to teach young people the importance of national heritage preservation and some of the conservation techniques widely used to this end (Amit, 2000). In contrast, only one work of literature talked about inclusion of Dutch youth within a comparable educational scheme. However, it concerned the preservation of an archaeological site identified as the port city of ancient Rome (Halu & Kucukkaya, 2015; Bedello, 2000), which underlines the gap in literature covering the resources at the disposal of young people to understand the importance of built heritage preservation and conservation. Some contexts lack the youth perspective entirely. This is the case in Australia, where youth are cited as being among the least consulted population category alongside immigrants and aboriginal groups. In Australia, many of these people have conveyed a feeling of failure on behalf of the national educational system in educating them on their country’s history and the tangible and intangible elements which have accompanied it (McDonald, 2010). Some cases are more extreme, such as in Hong Kong, where there is little to no consultation of the entire local population. In the Chinese city’s case, youngsters truly began to grasp the importance of identity preservation with the return of Hong Kong to China by

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Britain in 1998. Keen to defend the city’s distinct historical identity, young Hongkongers have organized in important numbers in recent years to protest mainland Chinese government regeneration plans of major sites such as Queen’s Pier and Star Ferry Pier (Yung and Chuan, 2011), though to no avail. These different levels of youth involvement suggest that there is no single consensus in academia when it comes to assessing the value of heritage for this particular demographic group.

Prior studies examining public participation levels in the realm of heritage preservation show that large portions of young people surveyed either do not have an opinion on the heritage which surrounds them or simply ignore what that heritage amounts to (McDonald, 2010; Guichen, 2000). Failure to educate a population is conceivably the greatest threat to the success of cultural heritage preservation and the ongoing process of democratization of culture. Additionally, the increased deterioration of built heritage, either caused by violent acts or by natural processes, has led actors in the heritage preservation field to change their view on the role of the public within this field. Before, individuals invested in conservation were mostly those who also owned heritage. The shift in majority ownership of heritage from private entities to the public domain in the XXIst century has been the main driver behind the actions taken to increase awareness among the young in their duty to protect cultural heritage. Many of the steps taken to combat this negligence are being taken in European cities, where, according to much of the literature, there is a revival in the offer of educational programmes, workshops and seminars aimed at educating youth on the origins of heritage and the need for its preservation. In the age of new media and technologies, heritage preservation coalitions involving school teachers, museum curators, national education ministers, urbanists and others have understood that they need to design more interactive experiences between young people and heritage in order to captivate the attention of future generations for a usually static field as heritage preservation. Indeed, the experimental aspect of learning is more heavily enjoyed by young people than the simple act of observing as it is a means to communicate a message that can reach a large group of people (Guichen, 2000). For instance, the city of Arles concentrates 60% of all Ancient Roman vestiges uncovered in Provence. To sensitize young people, teachers of two of the city’s middle schools, the educational services departments of two of its museums and the municipality’s heritage service have come together to propose “cultural heritage” and “architecture” options with the support of

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the French Ministry of Education. They have adopted a highly proactive approach that includes field work, experimental workshops that incorporate the use of video and of clay in the case of hands-on restoration activities (Caylux, 2000). In Germany, school children have been encouraged to replicate a ‘layered cake’ to understand the logic behind the materials which were used to keep the Ancient Roman port of Xanten, now an archaeological site situated in the city, afloat. Though basic materials such as charcoal, tiles, small branches and coins were used for the sake of affordability, the head teacher insisted on the usage of technological means in the future for a higher-quality and more informing experience (Hilke, 2000). Yet, in spite of the the lack of technological resources at the time, these practical and hands-on activities produced successful results in inculcating children with a burgeoning curiosity to pay attention to the preservation of the built heritage which surrounds them (Caylux, 2000; Hilke, 2000; Hollinshead, 2000). In England, a more planning-induced approach was taken to explain to kids the central role of heritage in cities. Teachers, heritage professionals and the government established a scheme called “Schools Adopt Monuments” through which pupils who attended a school in Canterbury attempted to save the local city castle from decay by giving it a central place in Canterbury’s touristic strategy. The children “did a survey to plan the best visitor route [...] and submitted their plans to the local council” and eventually created touristic guides to aid young foreign children understand Canterbury Castle (Hollinshead, 2000). In the English context, the aim was to introduce the young children with the essential integration of heritage preservation strategies at the heart of local planning systems (Hollinshead, 2000).

Arles, Xanten, and Canterbury all constitute relevant examples of the ways in which cities which have addressed the issue of a lack of heritage preservation knowledge among youth by pursuing active and practical education plans. Heritage professionals must bestow built remnants of the past with present-day functions in order to best preserve their attractiveness. Bringing young people into contact with built icons in interactive ways will not only highlight the importance of heritage preservation; it will allow them to develop emotional bonds with their built surrounding and look after it (McDonald, 2010; Caylux, 2000; Hilke, 2000; Hollinshead, 2000). Ultimately, children need to grow up with a vision for the city they live in, feel a strong desire to protect the heritage it has to offer and possess the required knowledge to take the actions necessary in preserving heritage.

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3. Research design and methods

Two methods are adopted according to the sub-questions at hand and in the aim to answer the overall research question. The type of research conducted is descriptive research and involves a case study.

To answer the main research question and the sub-questions outlined in the introduction component of the paper, a mixed-methods approach is devised. This consists of semi-structured interviews and surveys aimed at former alumni of the Fons Vitae Lyceum aged 18 through 22 years old. Below is the rationale for selecting the aforementioned school as this research paper’s case study and for employing semi-structured interviews and surveys. Each method is used in the aim of gathering different sets of data.

A school case-study project is most likely to answer the overall research question. A suitable case is that of the Fons Vitae Lyceum, a day school situated in Museumkwartier, Amsterdam and which was founded by the Franciscan sisters of Heythuysen, a religious order, in 1914. Located on the Reijnier Vinkeleskade since 1924, the main building suffered substantial damage following the breakout of a major fire in June 2017. The occurrence of the fire is in itself a valid reason to seek the reaction of adolescents toward the partial collapse of a building that held a central position in their adolescence.

3.1. The interview

Qualitative interviews are used for two reasons. First, they are used to garner complete and detailed accounts recent alumni’s personal high school experiences. Second, they are used to assess the level of attachment which alumni developed to specific parts of the high school building itself i.e. classrooms, hallways, courtyard, chapel, etc. Interview responses seek to answer the research paper’s first two sub-questions. Thus, these interviews serve to at once evaluate high school experiences and personal attachment levels to the school’s built environment. The interview topic list can be found in the study’s first appendix.

The interview population is made up of 15 interviewees. It is mostly made up of female respondents (9/15, c.f. Table 2) whilst an overwhelming portion of interviewees are aged 21 years old (11/15, c.f. Table 1). Through their schooling, interviewees are

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proven to possess primarily middle- to upper-class socio-economic backgrounds. With the exception of four respondents, the overwhelming majority of alumni are currently pursuing higher education studies in universities of considerable national and international reputation (13/15, c.f. Table 3). 4/15 interviewees study at the UvA (c.f. Table 3) and an equal number of interviewees study at the VU (4/15, c.f. Table 3), followed by 2/15 interviewees who study at the HvA (c.f. Table 3). Finally, 3/15 interviewees do not study currently whilst 1/15 interviewee attends the University of Groningen and 1/15 interviewee attends the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (c.f. Table 3). Nearly all interviewees (13/15, c.f. Table 4) are studying towards earning competitive degrees and highly recognised diplomas. Indeed, 9 interviewees look to obtain a WO diploma at a research university (c.f. Table 4) while 4 interviewees look to obtain a HBO diploma at a university of applied sciences (c.f. Table 4). Interviewees are studying a wide range of courses such as medicine (2/15, c.f. Table 5), business/finance/accounting (2/15, c.f. Table 5), social sciences (3/15, c.f. Table 5), engineering (2/15, c.f. Table 5) and science (3/15, c.f. Table 5). Only 3 interviewees are currently not studying towards neither WO nor HBO diplomas (c.f. Table 4). Following the first topic pertaining to respondents’ socio-economic background, two more topics have been developed.

The second topic enquires about respondents’ personal high school experiences. The first two questions seek to extract concrete details about the main memories which alumni have from their time attending school. It is hypothesised that a positive high school experience will correlate with having positive high school memories mainly about interactions with the surrounding community of students and professors. The latter reasoning is underpinned by answers expected from ensuing questions 3 and 4 which are about the significance of carrying the Fons Vitae Lyceum label as a high school student. The ways in which alumni perceived one another as students will assist in gaining an idea of whether these students were integrated, therefore reinforcing the idea that they benefitted from a positive social surrounding. Question 5 serves to recognise a tangible result produced by a positive high school experience: whether alumni have preserved friendships made from in their high school days. Questions 6 and 7 tell whether if alumni were supported by their teachers throughout their high school education and more generally, to detect whether if alumni developed a certain closeness with some of their teachers. Finally, questions 8 through 11 serve to observe

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whether alumni have preserved links with their high school following graduation. More specifically, it would be interesting to see whether alumni have reason(s) to return to their former high school or if they have been interested in forming or joining a high school alumni community i.e. through social media platforms in order to preserve contact with one another. These secondary links wield a degree, albeit a minor degree, of influence in this research paper because one who chooses to preserve long-term connections with a community after having left it strengthens the argument that one has lived a positive experience within said community.

The third topic enquires about respondents’ ability to identify with the school’s built environment. The first four questions enquire about alumni’s perception of the chapel as students. While the identity of the school has evolved from offering a Catholic education to offering a non-religious education, Catholicism has remained deeply engrained in Fons Vitae Lyceum’s built identity since the school has chosen to preserve it throughout its centennial existence. Henceforth, it is intriguing to know whether the chapel, a component of the school’s built heritage, disturbed the beliefs of the alumni when they joined the Fons Vitae Lyceum community and throughout their time in high school. Equally intriguing is how the alumni currently view the potential loss of the chapel since its existence is under threat due to the damages it sustained from the fire. Questions 5 and 6 are vital in observing a popular trend of specific places within the school that the alumni remember fondly for the positive memories which they forged in those places. In recalling their favourite school areas and in giving them the possibility to elect one area to preserve, the research brings forth the importance of memories in formulating preservation choices. Finally, questions 7 through 10 serve to grasp contrasts in alumni’s perceptions of the school building and its various places, thus observing possible changes in alumni’s personal opinions of the building’s architectural value before and after the occurrence of the fire. It is hypothesised that in continuing to express positive opinions of the school building’s architectural value after the fire, the alumni will see reason to preserve the building thereby justifying its heritage status.

3.2. The survey

Second, a survey was distributed in paper format to a large number of former alumni who witnessed the fire in June 2017 and to answer the third sub-question: Do the alumni demonstrate care for their school’s built heritage as a result of the occurrence

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of the fire?. Descriptive statistics are compiled to gather an understanding of adolescents’ emotional response to the destruction of a piece of heritage which they identify with. Thus, the survey has been expected to reflect a correlating level of responsibility towards restoration efforts based on the individual’s high school experience and personal attachment to the building expressed during the interview stage. Due to a need to foster the largest possible sample to answer the second sub-question, the survey constitutes the best existing to garner a high response ratio (Bryman, 2008; pp. 233-234). In the form of descriptive statistics, the aggregated results provide a greater understanding of how strongly alumni show initiative to care for their former school. This is accentuated by the occurrence of the fire approximately 25 months ago, meaning recent alumni were confronted with a situation which demanded that they take urgent initiative to lead successful restoration efforts. It is hypothesised that the higher the level of personal attachment expressed by former pupils in the preceding interview, the more likely it is they will have taken initiative to help care for their school following the advent of the fire.

The survey population is made up of the 15 interviewees and 20 additional alumni. Please note that the interviewees were instructed to first respond to the interview before completing the survey. In completing the interview first, the author sought to obtain the most genuine account of an interviewee’s high school experience. Participation of the interviewees in the survey was not possible without abiding by this rule. Thus together, the survey drew 35 respondents in total. Furthermore, the survey population is largely made up of female respondents (23/35, c.f. Table 7) whilst an overwhelming portion of respondents are aged 21 years old (22/35, c.f. Table 6). Like the previously mentioned interviewees, survey respondents’ post-secondary education backgrounds reflect their socio-economic status. The overwhelming majority of alumni surveyed are currently pursuing higher education studies (31/35, c.f. Table 8), with 8/35 studying at UvA (c.f. Table 8), 13/35 studying at VU (c.f. Table 8) and 8/35 studying at HvA (c.f. Table 8) as well 1/35 respondent studying at the University of Groningen (c.f. Table 8) and 1/35 respondent studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (c.f. Table 8). A substantial portion of alumni aim to obtain a WO diploma (22/35, c.f. Table 9) whilst 7/35 respondents are pursuing a HBO diploma (c.f. Table 9) and 1/35 respondent is pursuing a MBO diploma (c.f. Table 9). They are studying a diverse range of subjects such as medicine (5/35, c.f. Table 10), business/finance/accounting (6/35,

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c.f. Table 10), social sciences (7/35, c.f. Table 10), engineering (4/35, c.f. Table 10) and science (7/35, c.f. Table 10) whilst 6/35 respondents are either studying a different subject belonging to a different discipline or they are not studying (c.f. Table 10). The near totality of survey respondents is therefore studying towards earning competitive degrees and highly recognised diplomas whilst only 4/35 respondents (c.f. Tables 8 and 9) are currently not pursuing higher education studies.

The survey also sees a substantial majority of respondents enrolled at Fons Vitae Lyceum for 6 years (57.1%, c.f. Figure 1). Over 1/5th_{(22.9%, c.f. Figure 1) of}

respondents remained enrolled there for 7 years, meaning that a total of 80% of respondents spent 6 to 7 years of their adolescence period as high school students at Fons Vitae Lyceum. Therefore, these respondents naturally associate their maturation process with this precise school through education obtained and friendships made there. The remaining respondents (20%, c.f. Figure 1) were enrolled at Fons Vitae Lyceum for 2 to 5 years and perhaps do not identify with the school on the same level as their peers who had attended it for a longer period of time.

The survey questions can be found in the study’s second appendix. The first two questions serve to evaluate the emotional reaction that respondents expressed towards the advent of the school fire. Feelings of worry and anxiety as well as experience of shock are chosen with a view of analysing how distressful the partial collapse of the school building proved to be at the time of the event. The following two questions are intended to analyse respondents’ primary motivation behind caring for the preservation of Fons Vitae Lyceum’s historic school building, either as a place which respondents identify with through their education and friendships or as a piece of Amsterdam’s built heritage. Together, potentially high levels of emotional distress and preservation motivation are expected to finally correlate with ensuing action. Hence, the last three questions seek to gather whether the alumni sought to take concrete action and grow involved in restoration efforts following the fire. In expressing and realising a vision for the future of their school building, an uncontested piece of built heritage, the school alumni can claim to identify with the building to full extent.

Ultimately, the combined use of interviews and surveys served to uncover a possible relationship existing between positive or negative high school experience and demonstrative or absent level of care in adolescents. The value of a mixed-methods approach is the complementary aspect of semi-structured interviews and aggregated

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self-completion questionnaires which, together, answer the research question (Bryman, 2008; p.637).

3.3. Operationalisation: Approaching the research population practically and ethically

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all interviewees, who took time in their schedule to sit down with me and discuss their individual high school experiences at the Fons Vitae Lyceum. Approaching recent alumni from the Fons Vitae Lyceum was possible due to personal connections that the author of this research paper entertains with a number of said alumni. Alumni interviewed were aged 18 through 22 years old – a primordial condition given that interviewees were able to make the individual choice to partake in this research. With their consent and with the help of the author’s personal connections, individual alumni were asked for their contact information and were invited to take part in the research on a one-to-one basis with the author. Many of the interviewees live and attend a higher education institution (cf. figure 2) within the Amsterdam metropolitan area. As such, and to reassure interviewees of the well-intended nature of this research, they were asked to meet with the author in a public setting, such as a university or a café, to conduct the interview and survey. Those interviewees who do not reside in Amsterdam were asked to partake in this research through an online interview session. Please note that all interviewees carry fictional names in this study in view of preserving their anonymity.

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4. Key Results

4.1. A closely integrated student body and supportive professors

The first and most apparent result from this study is the degree to which all interviewed alumni felt a sense of belonging in their high school experience. Positive memories most strongly correlates with having made friends throughout high school. Just like the people “make a place”, the fifteen alumni all agree upon the fact that the people, students and professors alike, made their high school experiences at Fons Vitae worthwhile.

To this day, all alumni continue to entertain lasting friendships with people whom they have come across during their time at Fons Vitae. Out of the 15 alumni interviewed, 6 openly indicated the number of friends with whom they remain in close contact. In the words of one alumnus, “I have some really nice friends [from Fons Vitae] and we’re still meeting every now and then, so that’s really nice”. Each of the 6 interviewees preserves small, tight-knit high school friends circles of four to six friends, except for one interviewee who continues to speak with as much as ten friends from Fons Vitae. The latter interviewee further states that “most of [his] friends right now are from Fons Vitae”. Another interviewee has gone as far as to mentioning that all three of his current roommates are friends dating back to his days as a student at Fons Vitae. One interviewee explains the main reason for which she has kept close relationships with her small group of high school friends as well as what it means to her to be a Fons Vitae alumnus: “I think the special thing of our school is that it was relaxed. There weren’t any bullies, you had different groups of people so for example, the sportsy type of guys or the ‘alternative people’, but everyone got along well. Maybe being a Fons Vitaer means being open-minded; that’s the kind of person attending Fons Vitae.” Personal desire to continue cultivating friendships with past classmates derives in part from having shared similar high school experiences. Fons Vitae’s ability to “prevent a lot of bullying and make sure that everyone felt very included”, in the words of another interviewee, was key to former high school students in creating lasting bonds of friendship and in transmitting to each student a feeling that he/she benefited broadly from a positive support structure.

In being the place where the interviewed alumni were able to create long-lasting friend networks, Fons Vitae has succeeded concretely in offering an environment where

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students could successfully mature (Huang 2010, Birkeland et al., 2012) and develop their self-worth (Luyckx et al., 2013; Rosenberg, 1965).

Likewise, many of the interviewees praised a number of their high school teachers and for a number of different reasons. Many made attending classes fun. In this regard, Jan Verkerk compared Fons Vitae Lyceum to the renowned fictional school Hogwarts saying that “Hogwarts had strange, prestigious people and Fons Vitae [Lyceum] has them too”. Teachers allowed for a certain degree of proximity with students. Alumni mentioned having been close to their Dutch, French, Biology and Latin teachers in particular. Casper Maassen explains how he perceived his French teacher: “[The French teacher] was probably one of the strictest teachers, but really fair. And in the end, he really fought for me when I just about didn’t go to the next year.” Femke Sands further noted her French teacher as “very nice, very kind […] and very personal with the people who went to school”. Lotte Tenschert, Isa Peters and Kim Gerritsen remember their Latin teacher fondly, stating ease in approach and a constant feeling of support as their principle reasons. Furthermore, all three alumni underlined his friendliness, citing his desire to hold informal teacher-student dinners outside of school. Moreover, Ian Veldkamp and Lotte Klostermann each described their Biology teacher as having been “famous” and “known” respectively for his positively humorous side. According to Veldkamp, their teacher would at times keep students entertained by “standing on the tables, jumping from one table to another”. Lastly, Cornelia van der Toorn expressed her close relationship with her Dutch teacher who “gave [her] a real boost” and who “supported [her] and not the school or [her] grades” after encountering difficulties in her first year of high school.

In response to the first sub-question, a range of reasons, such as proximity, relativity, consistent support, friendliness and fairness on behalf of teachers have mentally benefitted students and given them greater reason to remember their high school experiences positively.

4.2. Remaining indirect connections with high school

It is safe to say that none of the fifteen alumni from the Fons Vitae Lyceum have preserved strong connections with their high school following graduation. Cornelia van der Toorn and Femke Sands have kept some indirect links with the school through family: a cousin of the first and a younger brother of the second continue to attend high

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school there. Both van der Toorn and Sands mentioned that it is only through their relatives that they hear about the latest events occurring at Fons Vitae Lyceum, particularly with regards to their former professors.

Elsewhere, 7 of the 15 interviewees have said that they continue to cycle past Fons Vitae Lyceum occasionally. Four more interviewees continue to cycle past the school regularly, meaning that a combined 11/15 former alumni continue to cycle past their high school building, albeit at different frequencies. Only two interviewees have taken the tram past their school since graduating from high school and no interviewees ever drive in front it. Subsequently, cycling remains to a great extent the primary medium through which former alumni travel past the building.

The overwhelming reason behind traveling past high school again is nostalgia: 13 out of the 15 interviewees all associate seeing the school building on their route as a form of reminiscence of an easier time in their lives, remembering the friends they made their (13/15) and the professors who they encountered during their high school career (10/15). The second reason behind traveling past high school again is to view the progress of the main building’s restoration (7/15) and compare the building’s current appearance with the old look which the interviewees had been familiar with. The latter reason symbolises interviewee’s degree of attachment to the physical aspect of a place which occupied a central role in their adolescence which, given the current age of interviewees, remains a recent period in their lives and therefore vivid in their memories. Although most students travel only occasionally past their high school building, their main reasons for doing so reinforce the idea that they carry positive high school experiences with them to this day.

4.3. Correlation between memories and physical space

The first piece of school space which former alumni of the Fons Vitae Lyceum were asked to give their impressions of was the chapel as it severely damaged by the June 2017 fire. None of the 15 alumni associated the school chapel with a religious connotation in spite of the school’s Christian identity. Furthermore, none of them saw the chapel as conflicting with their personal views, religious or otherwise. Rather, the chapel seems to have taken on other two minor roles in the high school period of a small number of alumni. A small number of alumni (3/15) saw it as a space to relax with friends as did Isa Peters, who described her experience of it as “ ‘gezellig’. It was ‘chill’,

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because it was old and I prefer old architecture to new, modern architecture” whilst others (2/15) perceived it as a quiet study space. However, two alumni noted his deep satisfaction with it: “It was really old. It looked and smelled like the 1970’s […] I would not call it a working space, it was simply awful” according to Jan Verkerk whilst Lotte Tenschert highlighted it as “old and boring”. Generally, most students (10/15) disregarded the chapel meaning that they spent little time there and did not see it as a prime factor in their or their parents’ decision to enrol at Fons Vitae Lyceum. Nonetheless, when asked if they continued to view the chapel under the same light following the occurrence of the fire, three interviewees expressed a sad feeling for not holding it with higher regard. Kim Gerritsen notably stated that “After 7 years, I’ve felt a connection with it because I went to that school for 7 years and after that, it was my school. The chapel has become mine, it was special.” Though Casper Maassen did not “have a ‘wow’ factor” towards the chapel, he now views the loss of a substantial section of the chapel as “really a pity” and having had a “weird” feeling about it after the fire which he could not explain concretely. Generally, the chapel was therefore a space that was overlooked by alumni during their time in high school and which they have only begun to rediscover through their visual memories of it now that much of it has burnt down. In this sense, the fire has given a small number of Fons Vitae Lyceum alumni at once a minor sense that it constitutes a piece of lost built heritage and a major sense that it carried little functional purpose having outdated its religious use.

The interview produced a variety of answers with regards to alumni’s favoured school areas and personal choice of area preservation. One pattern that stands out is longing that many alumni have for the school’s stained glass. 9 out of the 15 alumni have said that if they had to choose one area of the school to preserve after the fire, it would be the stained glass and the school’s old building in which it stands. Both the stained glass and the old building form one indivisible section of the school in the eyes of these alumni, partly because together they seem to form the core of Fons Vitae’s architectural and religious identity. Other reasons for which alumni voiced a desire to preserve the school’s old building are a liking for many of the language and literature classes held there. Isa Peters recalls the “posters and old stuff from [her] professor’s travels” which drew her attention as well as the lessons which to her were “so much fun and that classroom is filled with so many memories and pictures from all the travels we

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made. It was more personal space”. Furthermore, Cornelia van der Toorn remembers the “really nice times with friends” she had in her Dutch and English courses.

Another place that a few alumni enjoyed was the school cafeteria, which Naomi Moones thought to be “characteristic and unique” while Serena Maroquin and Jaap Hulsbosch enjoyed it for its cosiness and relaxing environment surrounded by their friends. If given the choice to preserve the cafeteria, the two aforementioned mentioned alumni would have declined as they do not like the way in which the school remodelled the interior. On the other hand, Hulsbosch would have gladly preserved it since he saw it as a central location to meet and interact with friends.

Last was the school yard (2/15) which Anna Blekker describes as “very big, very open with lots of space and a lot of benches”. Blekker thinks “she wouldn’t want any change [to the school yard] because it was good to go outside after class, to talk with people, to get some fresh air”. Despite the fact she remained vague in her discussion about the memories she had experienced in the school yard, her opinion to preserve it the way she interacted with it during her high school days is visibly strong.

Thus, two different correlations seem to emerge in answering the second sub-question of this research. On the one hand, most alumni have seemingly little to no strong link between their high school memories and a school space which they either did not enjoy or where they did not produce any meaningful experiences, as is the case with the school chapel. On the other hand, most of them have strong links between their memories and school spaces which they thoroughly enjoyed for visual pleasure, as is the case with the school building housing the stained glass, or for meaningful experiences, as is the case with specific classrooms which hosted the courses that they enjoyed best.

The last revelation of the interview is the way in which former alumni seem to strongly identify with the building of their high school through present-day nostalgia. All fifteen alumni are in agreement over the ability of the school building to fit in nicely with the surrounding residential neighbourhood of the Oud Zuid area. Jan Verkerk briefly explained his belief that the Fons Vitae Lyceum building originates in quintessential Amsterdam School style: a number of the school’s built characteristics such as its brown brick colour and the presence of glass originate in this early 20th

century Dutch style of architecture. In his opinion, the closeness in architectural style between school building and neighbourhood is largely due to Fons Vitae Lyceum and

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the Oud Zuid district being built in a similar time period. According to him, the school’s design was “inspired” by the area’s Berlage style of architecture. Furthermore, a strong majority (13/15) of other alumni mainly mentioned the brick colour as the leading factor for which they believe in the building’s seemingly natural fit for the neighbourhood. Unexpectedly, Anna Blekker was the only alumnus to cite the rooftop of the building as another factor for the school’s ability to blend in completely. When questioned about their current feeling towards the school building and its various areas, Irena Peters declares her feeling about it as “nostalgic” and which “she didn’t have back when [she] was attending there”; Max Timmermans states that “it’s a shame that [the building] burnt down”; Kim Gerritsen now “sees the building differently” than she had used to, perhaps echoing Lotte Tenschert’s sentiment about it now being a “monument” where she has made “a lot of memories” in contrast to her previous thoughts of the building as “boring and depressing”. The historical and unique architectural style of the school building is what appears to prompt many alumni to express a feeling of nostalgia towards their high school days. In turn, nostalgia and forced change to the architectural identity of their school as a result of the fire seem to have an important impact on how they now view the school’s architectural value. Consequently, both factor heavily into the relationship between memories and physical space.

4.4. Survey results

The surveys yielded many contrasting results between the emotional reaction of respondents to the occurrence of the fire and how their reaction reflects their drive to preserve their school. Concerning the former, a clear majority of respondents (24/35, cf. figure 5) remember having worried when the fire broke out. Yet, the results show that the level of shock incurred by these same respondents towards the advent of the fire is more mitigated. Whereas a small majority (21/35, cf. figure 4) of respondents recall having been shocked by the event, a comfortable minority (14/35, cf. figure 4) recall having been little shocked to not being shocked at all. These results correlate logically: Alumni were faced with exceptional circumstances bound to cause damage to a place central to their daily lives in their adolescent cycle. The fire has at once destroyed areas of a place where alumni were educated and a place where they started to find personal meaning and a sense of wholeness. Though not an event of political or ideological

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significance, the occurrence of the school fire carries its own significance of a different nature, the latter of which echoes a similar conclusion to that seen in the literature: Extraordinary events decisively shape the way in which people associate with the places where said events take place (Tweed and Sutherland, 2007; Neill, 2004).

This observation is further underpinned by the reasons for which alumni would care for the preservation of their school. An overwhelming majority (28/35, cf. figure 7) of them state fond memories of having received a high-quality education and developed lasting friendship bonds as their primary reason. Thus, because the Fons Vitae Lyceum has been such a unique place through the adolescence cycle of its alumni, the latter want to preserve their school out of pride of having attended it and having had a part of their individual identities shaped by it. Most alumni (20/35, cf. figure 8) see reason in preserving the school’s architecture as a quintessential piece of Amsterdam’s built heritage despite the fact that preserving the school for the sake of preserving the historical urban landscape remains a secondary motive to them. In re-connecting with the literature, both results concretely mean that the school is a piece of the built environment, among others, which remains instantly recognisable in the minds of its alumni and which carries individual meaning to each one of them (Rapoport, 1982; Neill 2004; Tweed & Sutherland, 2007).

What is striking is how desire to preserve in response to an emotional reaction stemming from an occurrence as damaging as a fire has not given forth to ensuing involvement of alumni in preservation efforts. Near equal numbers of respondents stated having sufficient availability in their schedules (17/35, cf. figure 9) to dedicate time to getting involved in their school’s preservation as those who said that they have little to no availability to do so (18/35, cf. figure 9). Furthermore, no alumnus regardless of his/her time availability has taken personal initiative in helping positively impact restoration efforts. In response to the third sub-question, these statistics underline an absence in correlation between desire to restore and taking ensuing action to restore. Further interviewing of young adults on the explanation behind these results would be necessary to understand their lack of participation in a preservation process which has directly concerned their education and welfare.

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5. Conclusions

The general aim of this research paper is to address the relationship between young adults aged 18 to 22 and heritage preservation efforts in the Dutch context.

In answering the research question at hand, the first conclusive observation is an existing correlation between having positive memories experienced in a place and expressing worry toward a cherished place being lost. As this paper’s case study has proven, a school which provides its students with a high-quality education and ideal conditions for the development of stable support systems i.e. friend networks and supportive professors also feeds its students with a sense of pride in attending said school. The interviews further this finding as Fons Vitae Lyceum provided its former pupils with the conditions in which they eventually felt integrated within the school’s community regardless of the interviewee’s gender. Most interviewees were women (9/15) all of who stated having had positive high school experiences through supportive professors and integrative class peers. A positive high school environment has likely impacted the self-esteem of female alumni during their adolescence period (Galambos et al. 2006, Falci, 2011). Consequently, female alumni partly retain positive memories of high school because potential negative effects which gender would have exerted more severely on their self-esteem (Falci, 2011; Rosenberg & Pearlin, 1978) in less favourable conditions were mitigated by the positive environment that they benefitted from in high school. All men interviewed (6/15) also stated having had positive high school experiences thanks to supportive professors and integrative class peers. As a result, high school alumni preserve positive memories of their high school experiences because Fons Vitae Lyceum was a central place in the social realm from their adolescence period (Rich & Schachter, 2012) where they were thoroughly supported in overcoming the challenges of maturation (Huang 2010; Birkeland et al., 2012).

Moreover, the reputable plethora of post-graduate destinations of most of the alumni interviewed and surveys signifies that the school has justified its continual presence in Amsterdam’s local education system. For the most part, the alumni continue to receive quality education in their post-graduate studies thanks to the high-quality curricula which they pursued in high school. Therefore, they will be expected to successfully integrate the educated Dutch class, thus continuing Fons Vitae Lyceum’s

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tradition of providing its pupils with a high standard of academic instruction. As a result, the school witnesses its own social value grow which in turn gives the public reason to support its preservation after the fire (Idrus et al., 2010).

Though the Fons Vitae Lyceum does not retain the pedigree of an iconic monument or long-established boulevard, it continues to bring meaning and a sense of belonging to those generations of students who have attended the school (Tweed & Sutherland, 2007) since its inception 100 years ago. Through their positive high school experiences and individual relationships with the school’s community, alumni hold memories of specific areas from within high school which they once relished either due to visual pleasure or meaningful experiences. These preferred places were mainly specific classrooms where favourite courses were held and the old historic building housing as well as the stained glass which it contained. The occurrence of the fire accentuates the fact that the alumni remember their preferred school areas with a substantial degree of nostalgia. Except for the stained glass which has been successfully preserved (Verwoolde, 2019), the alumni will likely never again have the opportunity to see or interact with their preferred school areas in the ways that they were used to doing so. In the end, the alumni do see the school as having been central in fomenting their identities (Rapoport, 1982; Neill 2004; Tweed & Sutherland, 2007) at a stage of their lives when identity building was in full progress. Consequently, the school is a piece of built heritage which has conveyed different meanings to different individuals belonging to a same population, namely the students, through generations (Tweed and Sutherland, 2007).

The second conclusive observation is the unexpected passiveness of Fons Vitae alumni towards involvement in restoration efforts regarding a piece of heritage which they have grown to cherish. Despite being worried about what could happen to a cherished place in the future, young adults do not attempt to demonstrate care for it. They do not possess a vision for the future of a place which has given them meaning. Consequently, a piece of built heritage can have its existence threatened by inertia rather than a more expected sense of dislike expressed towards it.

In response to the research question, adolescents living in Amsterdam strongly identify with the built heritage from their city on largely sentimental grounds. Yet, they have little regard for carrying out their desire to preserve heritage. Without caring for the future of heritage, they cannot completely identify with it.

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6. Discussion

Further research is required to understand the reasons for which adolescents and more generally, young adults, living in Amsterdam do not grow more involved in heritage preservation discussions in a city which has plenty to preserve and restore. It is entirely possible that a lack of involvement of young adults may originate in a lack of their goodwill. To entice the minds of young adults in the realm of built preservation, future policies will probably need to devise concrete solutions through which adolescents can experience with preservation techniques, as shown throughout in the literature (Bedello, 2000; Caylux, 2000; Hilka, 2000), and new technologies which may grow in influence on the field.

The complete lack of involvement of the alumni in the built preservation process of their former high school is unexpected and preoccupying. It may stem from a cultural difference in approach towards the heritage preservation realm between the Dutch context and the Anglo-Saxon context. Contrary to the Anglo-Saxon context, the Dutch context seems to prioritise the intervention of the local government, architectural and urban planning firms in heritage preservation discussions and processes over the inclusion of the civic sector. For proof, Stedenbouw, a recognised urban planning magazine, explains the main priorities which have been elaborated for the renovation of the Fons Vitae Lyceum, namely adding layers to the building, expanding the building’s foundations, revamping constructional logistics and sustainability ambitions (Verwoolde, 2019). It also lists the actors involved in the school building’s preservation process and never once does it mention the role of the civic sector, thus hinting at the latter’s complete absence among stakeholder talks (c.f. Table 9).Further research on Dutch participatory culture into the heritage preservation and restoration processes is necessary to gain a greater grasp on the roles of different stakeholders involved within local preservation and restoration processes. This way, it would be possible to view how the civic sector could adopt a role in discussions and how could youth can be proactively motivated to make a difference in deciding the future long-term appearance and functions of heritage buildings. After all, adolescents and young adults also interact with their surrounding built environment. They will need to develop a long-term vision for their heritage buildings, the same way they will need to develop a long-term vision

Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam identify with their surrounding built heritage

Master Thesis in Human Geography

Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam

identify with their surrounding built heritage

Assessing the extent to which adolescents in Amsterdam

identify with their surrounding built heritage

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