This paper addresses the suburbanization process diachronically, comparing the aspirations of old and new movers to the new town Almere. Based on a survey conducted among 295 inhabitants, this paper focuses on aspirations of moving and the lived experience of urban vis-a-vis suburban environments. It shows that ideas about pioneering, communitarianism and utopias have shifted towards pragmatic and individualistic aspirations such as employment opportunities and better housing space-to-price rates, reflecting the shift from western prosperity of the 1960s and 1970s to the current precariousness of neoliberal, global city competition.
This Working Paper is no longer available. The published version is available in Built Environment, Volume 41, Number 4, Winter 2015, pp. 550-566(17).