From Fields to Skylines: Mapping Place Resentment in Belgium

Scholars in the political science field recently re-focussed on the importance of place of residence and how it affects political behaviour and political attitudes. One of those attitudes is place resentment, the general feeling of being ‘left behind’ by political elites but also feeling disrespected by citizens who live elsewhere. As such, the concept covers representative, economical and socio-cultural facets. While the concept is often studied among rural versus urban populations, more recent studies also started to dig deeper in which citizens experience place resentment. This study too, aims to gain more understanding in which citizens feel more place resentment in Belgium, a federal country with multi-level government where place of living by default has political consequences. Relying on original national survey data from Belgium (N = 9407), the paper has multiple aims. Firstly, this study focusses not only on rural and urban citizens, but it also acknowledges the intermediate categories of suburban and small-town citizens. Secondly, it takes into account distance or centre-peripheral dynamics. Thirdly, it tries to look at place of living not only from a horizontal perspective, but also focusses on vertical categories people feel attached to. The results confirm the rural urban-divide, but especially from a place-identity point of view, rather than actual living area. It also confirms peripheral dynamics and shows differences among regions. The study also shows that attachment with very local levels of space, such as neighbourhood and even people’s street can explain high place-resentment.