Inzicht door onderdompeling: een reactie op Bart Van de Putte, Henk de Smaele en Dirk Jan Wolffram

Giving a detailed account of the social history of The Hague’s most prominent sites of civilised leisure - the gentlemen’s clubs, the zoo, the Royal Theatre and the seaside resort of Scheveningen - Plaatsen van beschaafd vertier demonstrates how the constant struggle for social in- and exclusion structured the daily lives of upper and middle class men and women in The Hague in the nineteenth century. In response to Bart Van de Putte, Jan Hein Furnée argues that extensive quantitative analyses of ‘class’ and ‘social class’ show that objective class stratifications based on wealth and/or occupation are important tools, but at most semi-finished products for historical research. Furnée fully agrees with Henk de Smaele’s objection that his study would have benefitted from a more in-depth reflection on the ways in which shifting patterns in women’s freedom of movement in urban spaces were related to their political and economic emancipation. In response to Dirk Jan Wolffram, Furnée repeats some examples given in his book that show how political practices in places of leisure impacted upon local and national politics, even though this did not directly contribute to a linear process of increasing political participation and representation.