‘Soft’ privatization of public space: autonomization of outdoor retail markets in the Netherlands

The last three decades reveal a burgeoning body of research that critically examines the role of private actors in the governance of public space. Contributing to this work, this paper shows how an increasing number of outdoor retail markets in the Netherlands have become typified by forms of physical and symbolic exclusion, although these outcomes are achieved by different methods and practices than direct private appropriation and provision. Through the creation of non-profit quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations (quangos), more and more local governments have delegated their responsibilities for the management and regulation of markets to trader-run organizations; a process called ‘autonomization’. Based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary research, the paper traces the main motivations behind, as well as the implications of, this process. It points to the sometimes ambivalent nature of quangos, in which a selected number of market traders stipulate what type of participation in markets is appropriate. The concept of ‘soft’ privatization is developed to denote autonomization as it does not directly exclude traders and visitors, but instead creates a particular governance regime and sense-scape that attracts certain people and excludes others.