Biography

Robert Kloosterman is Professor of Economic Geography and Planning at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He was the Director of the Amsterdam Institute of Metropolitan and International D evelopment St udies (AMIDSt), Universiteit van Amsterdam from 2003 to 2008.

His research is guided by questions about how the social, economic and cultural transition of advanced urban economies that gathered pace after 1980 has affected cities and why different outcomes have emerged. His current research activities centre on new economic activities in urban contexts (notably cultural industries and migrant businesses) and on linkages within polycentric urban configurations in advanced economies.A connecting themeconcerns the way different (national or local) institutional environments filter, shape, reinforce or block more general changes. He was the scientific adviser of the InFLOWence project on polycenricity in the Mediterraenean (2010-2013) funded under the ERDF MED programme. He advised the OECD on migrant entrereneurship in 2009-2010.

Robert Kloosterman has received research grants from the Dutch Scientific Council NWO, the European Union, the European Science Foundation, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Housing, Environment and Physical Planning, the municipalities of Amsterdam , Rotterdam , The Hague , the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and other organisations. He was also an independent member of the Dutch Social and Economic Council committee on immigrant entrepreneurship and advised the OECD on migrant entrepreneurship. 

He is on the Editorial Board of the Built Environment journal. He has been a guest editor of special issues of Regional Studies, Built Environment , Urban Studies and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Employment

• 2009 - 2015: Honorary Professor Bartlett School of Planning, University College London

• 2010- 2011    Franqui Chair Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business Studies, Universiteit van Hasselt

• 2008 -onwards: Programme Leader of the research group Geographies of Globalizations (24 researchers).
• 2003 - 2008: Director of the A msterdam Institute of M etropolitan and I nternational D evelopment St udies (AMIDSt).
• 2000 - 2008: Professor of Economic Geography and Programme Leader of the research group Space and Economy (15 researchers) at the A msterdam Institute of M etropolitan and I nternational D evelopment St udies (AMIDSt), University of Amsterdam .
• 1999-2000: Senior researcher seconded at the Scientific Council for Government Policy, TheHague
• 1997-2000: Research group leader, OTB, University of Technology Delft
• 1993-1997: Senior researcher, Department of Social Sciences, Utrecht University
• 1987-1992: Research Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Economisch Geografisch Instituut, University of Amsterdam
• 1985-1987: Researcher conslultancy firm, Research voor Beleid, Leiden .
• 1979-1985: PhD Student/junior lecturer Department of History, Universiteit Leiden  

Visiting Professorships

• 2008-2009 NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study) Fellow in Wassenaar (September 2008 - April 2009
• 2007 Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angeles

Adviser/Panel member

• Member of Kansen voor West advisory board, city of Amsterdam
• Editorial Board member Built Environment
• Adviser OECD Migrant Entrepreneurship (2009-2010)
• Masterclass 'The HistoricalRoots of Creativity and Competitiveness in Cultural Industries',
• INTA Summer Institute Massa Lubrense, Sorrento , Italy .   
• Member of the Board of the Institute of New Town Studies, Almere (2005-2008)
• Member of the Board of NETHUR - Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research (2003-2008)
• Member of the LIMES advisory committee of the Dutch Ministry of education and Culture to advise on the architectural expression of the formerborder of the Roman Empire in the Netherlands (2004)
• Masterclass Urbino, 2004
• Member of committee to advise Dutch government of creative/cultural industries of Education
• Member of think tank to advise Dutch Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning on Çreative cities' (2001)
• Independent member of the Dutch Social and Economic Council committee on immigrant entrepreneurship (1998)

Research

The research of Robert Kloosterman is guided by underlying questions about how social, economic and cultural transitions of advanced urban economies that gathered pace after 1980 have affected cities and why outcomes have differed significantly. His current research centres on three themes:

1. polycentric urban configurations and global urban networks;
2. migrant entrepreneurship;
3. cultural industries.

Polycentric urban configurations and global urban networks

The first theme is concerned with the shifts in relevant spatial levels of the linkages between actors in cities and how they contribute to the formation of clusters within cities and networks between cities - such as polycentric urban configurations and global urban networks. Kloosterman has participated in several international projects on this theme, the most recent being the POLYNET-project led by Sir Peter Hall.

The most recent publications on this theme are:

• Special issue of Regional Studies (2008) on polycentric urban configurations (Guest Editors Michael Hoyler, Robert Kloosterman, and Martin Sokol) 
• Article 'Between Accumulation and Concentration of Capital: Comparing the Long-Term Trajectories of the Dutch Randstad and London Urban Systems', in Urban Geography; 28(1): 54-73, 2007(with Bart Lambregts).
• 'Learning from clusters; A critical assessment', (published by Springer Verlag in 2005), edited by Ron A. Boschma and Robert Kloosterman, aimed at addressing the intra-urban linkages. 

Migrant entrepreneurship

The second research theme centres on migrant entrepreneurship, which has become important in many advanced urban economies. Robert Kloosterman, together with Joanne van der Leun and Jan Rath, introduced the concept of mixed embeddedness in the eponymous article in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research in 1999. This concept aims at connecting resources of (aspiring) migrant entrepreneurs on the one hand, with the specific local urban opportunity structure on the other, in a systematic way.

The concept of mixed embeddedness was at the centre of an international research network on immigrant entrepreneurship in advanced urban economies, funded by the European Union under the Fourth Framework Programme (Targeted Socio-Economic Research). This network- Working on the Fringes: Immigrant Businesses, Economic Integration and Informal Practices-was founded and co-ordinated by Robert Kloosterman and Jan Rath, and included participants from European Union member states, Israel, North America, Australia and South Africa. A tangible result of this project is Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Venturing Abroad in the Age of Globalization Venturing Abroad, a volume edited by Robert Kloosterman and Jan Rath.

A further elaboration of mixed embeddedness can be found in 'Mixed Embeddedness as a Conceptual Framework for Exploring Immigrant Entrepreneurship', Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (2009, forthcoming).

Cultural industries

Concerning the third theme, the cultural industries, Robert Kloosterman leads a long-term project on cultural industries and urban economies. Following the steps of Allen Scott's pioneering work on this emerging mainstay of contemporary urban economies,Robert Kloostermanhas beenlooking at cultural industries and urban economies with a focus on spatial patterns of cultural industries and their interrelationship with social networks (in polycentric and monocentric urban configurations).

The Dutch Scientific Council (NWO) has awarded Robert Kloosterman and Maarten Prak (Onderzoeksinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur History, Utrecht University) a four-year research project Places and their culture: the Evolution of Dutch Cultural Industries from an International Perspective, 1600-2000 . The aim of the project is to assess the role and position of the visual arts, architecture and publishing from an international comparative perspective by looking at the patterns of their evolution in selected cities.

The research on architectural practices has resulted in an analysis of the emergence of a cluster of architectural firms in Rotterdam ('Delirious Rotterdam'). More recently, an in-depth analysis of the walls and bridges concerning knowledge spillover between so-called 'strong-idea' architectural practices in Rotterdam and Amsterdam has been published in the Journal of Economic Geography in 2008.

Link to selected publications

• Link to selected publications Robert Kloosterman

International journals (selected)

• Kloosterman, R.C., K. Rusinovic, and D. Yeboah (2016), ‘(Super-)diverse Migrants-Similar Trajectories? Ghanaian Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands Seen from a Mixed Embeddedness Perspective’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1126091

• Kloosterman, R.C. (2015), ‘Forces of agglomeration: Allen Scott’s The Cultural Economy of Cities revisited’, Built Environment (41:3): 379- 389.

• Zhang, X. and R.C. Kloosterman (2014), ‘Connecting the “Workshop of the World”: Intra- and extra- service networks of the Pearl River Delta City-Region’, Regional Studies, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2014.962492

• Kloosterman, R. C. (2014), ‘Cultural amenities: Large and small, mainstream and niche—A conceptual framework for cultural planning in an age of austerity’, European Planning Studies, 22(12): 2510-2525.

• Beckers, P. and R.C. Kloosterman (2014), ‘Open to Business? An Exploration of the Impact of the Built Environment and Zoning Plans on Local Businesses in Pre-war and Post-war Residential Neighbourhoods in Dutch Cities’, Urban Studies (51:1): pp. 153 – 169.

• Kloosterman, R.C. (2010) ‘Matching opportunities with resources: A framework for analysing

  (migrant) entrepreneurship from a mixed embeddedness perspective’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (22:1): 25-45

• Kloosterman, Robert C. (2008), Walls and bridges: knowledge spillover between ‘superdutch’ architectural firms. Journal of Economic Geography 8(4): 545-563

• Kloosterman, R.C. and B. Lambregts (2007), ‘Between Accumulation and Concentration of Capital: Comparing the Long-Term Trajectories of the Dutch Randstad and London Urban Systems’, Urban Geography; 28(1): 54-73

•  

  Van der Leun, J.P. and R.C. Kloosterman, ‘Going underground: Immigration policy changes and shifts in modes of provision of undocumented immigrants in Rotterdam’, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 97(1), 2006 : 59-68

   

• Kloosterman, R.C. (2005), ‘Come together; An Introduction to Music and the City’. Built Environment, 31(3): 181-191

• Kloosterman, R.C., J.P. van der Leun and J. Rath (1999), ‘Mixed embeddedness, migrant entrepreneurship and informal economic activities’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, (23:2): 253-67

• Kloosterman, R.C. and G.C. Quispel (1990) ‘“Not just the same old show on my radio”; An analysis of the role of the radio in the diffusion of black music among whites in the south of the United States, 1920-1960’, Popular Music, 1990, 9(2): 151-164

Books/edited volumes

• Lambregts, B., N. Beerepoot and Robert C. Kloosterman (Eds.) (2015), The Local Impact of Globalization in South and Southeast Asia: Offshore Business Processes in Services Industries. Oxford/New York: Routledge
• Learning from clusters; A critical assessment . Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2005. Editor (with Ron A. Boschma)
• Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Venturing Abroad in the Age of Globalization. Oxford / New York : Berg/University of New York Press 2003. Editor (with J. Rath).

Book chapters

• Brandellero, A.M.C. and R.C. Kloosterman (2016), ‘More than just bytes? responses to digitisation in the Paris cluster of world music production’. In B.J. Hracs., M. Seman, and T.  Virani (Eds) The Production and Consumption of Music in the Digital Age: London: Routledge: 177-189
• Kloosterman, R.C., N. Beerepoot and B. Lambregts (2015), ‘Service-sector driven economic development from a historical perspective’. In: B. Lambregts, N. Beerepoot and Robert C. Kloosterman (Eds.), The Local Impact of Globalization in South and Southeast Asia: Offshore Business Processes in Services Industries. Oxford/New York: Routledge: 17-28.'The creative hype'. In: S. Franke & E. Verhagen (Eds), Creativity and the City; How the creative economy is changing the city . Rotterdam : NAi Uitgevers, 2005: 56-65.

• Kloosterman, R. C. (2014), “Faces of migration: migrants and the transformation of Amsterdam”. In Kochan, B. (Eds.), Migration and London’s Growth. London: LSE London: 127-143

•  

  Kloosterman, R.C. (2013), "The Amsterdam Economy and Its Impact on the Labor Market Position of Migrants, 1980–2010." In: N. Foner, J. Rath, J.W. Duyvendak, and Rogier van Reekum (eds.), Immigration and the New Urban Landscape, New York and Amsterdam. New York: NYU Press: 107-121

  M. Deinema and R.C. Kloosterman (2013), ‘Polycentric Urban Trajectories and Urban Cultural Economy’. In:  J. Klaesson, B. Johansson and C. Karlsson (Eds.), Metropolitan Regions; Knowledge Infrastructures of the Global Economy. Springer Verlag:  Berlin/Heidelberg: 339-373

   

   

Selected Dutch publications

• Kloosterman, R.C. (2015), ‘De gevaren van een getemde stad’. In: V. Mamadouh en A. van Wageningen (red.), EU@Amsterdam; Een stedelijke raad. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press: 187-192.

•  

  Folmer, E. en R.C. Kloosterman (2015), ‘Een nieuwe geografie van wonen en werken’. In: W.G.M. Salet, R. Vermeulen en R. van der Wouden (Red.), Toevoegen van Ruimtelijke Kwaliteit; Ruimtelijke Kennis voor het Jaar van de Ruimte. Amsterdam: 136- 144.   

  Kloosterman, R.C. (2015), ‘Cultuurpaleis of alternatief podium? Culturele planning gevierendeeld en gewogen’. In: E. Schrijvers, A.-G. Keizer and G. Engbersen (Eds.), Cultuur herwaarderen. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press: 83-102

   

• 'Elke dag zondag: welkom in de vrolijke wereld van Morrissey', in: R. Boomkens & R. Gabriëls (eds), Een alledaagse passie; 20 essays over popmuziek. Amsterdam: De Balie (1996): 130-141.

Selected Blogs

Kloosterman, R.C. (2015), ‘One-Hit City Wonder: Düsseldorf and Kraftwerk’,

Kloosterman, R.C. (2015)  http://www.stadslevenamsterdam.nl/2015/11/05/big-spenders-londen-vs-amsterdam-column-robert-kloosterman/