La course de vélo du Gordel autour de Bruxelles-Capitale : matérialisation d’une frontière communautaire ?

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, every first Sunday of September, Flemish people go cycling and hiking with their families around Brussels-Capital. The main loop of this cycle race named the Gordel (“the belt”) aims to symbolise the linguistic border between Flanders and the Belgian capital city. Originally representing a symbolical struggle against the extension of the Brussels borders over the Flemish territory, this event now promotes the inclusion of the Brussels periphery inhabitants and the heritage of the green belt of Brussels-Capital. Although renamed “Gordelfestival”, the festival has kept the traditional tour around the multicultural city. In protest against this vision of the border, other festive events were created. Three survey methodologies (participant observation, online questionnaires and qualitative interviews) were used to assess the intended marking of boundaries by these events as well as their permanence in the daily perceptions of a border-space.

Keywords

• Brussels-Capital periphery
• marking borders
• political and sport event
• territorial representations
• territorial construction