The urban middle classes often celebrate the diversity of their neighbourhood. As soon as they have children, however, the desire to display symbolic capital may conflict with the need to reproduce cultural capital through the educational system. In the ethnically diverse Amsterdam schooling context, in which parents have free school choice and school access is not determined by fees, the socio-spatial strategies of school choice could be expected to differ from particularly the UK context. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with white middle-class parents in Amsterdam, this study argues that ethnic diversity is a major concern when they are seeing primary schools for their children, but that middle-class fractions have different socio-spatial strategies for managing it. It is argued that, despite differences in terms of housing market and school policies, the strategies of the Amsterdam middle classes are very similar to other contexts, suggesting homologies of class between national contexts.

The global health crisis due to the pandemic of the SARS‐CoV‐2 is associated with processes of urbanisation and globalisation. Globally well‐connected areas with high population densities are hence expected to be disproportionately affected by COVID‐19. This paper investigates the role of population density within the Netherlands, comparing hospitalisation and mortality related to COVID‐19 across municipalities. The paper finds that infections, hospitalisation and mortality related to COVID‐19 are not clearly correlated with the population density or urbanity of the municipality, also when controlling for age and public health factors. The paper concludes that while the public debate stresses the elevated risk of infections in cities, due to transgressive behaviour, the evidence in this paper suggests that the geography of the epidemic in the Netherlands is more complex. It speculates that the variation in urbanisation in most of the country might just be too small to expect significant differences.

Based on data for Amsterdam, the Netherlands, this paper presents new evidence of a strong increase in the number of middle-class families in the city. By presenting the spatial patterns and trends of middle-class families in selected Amsterdam neighbourhoods, the paper shows that central neighbourhoods in particular attract middle-class families. In addition, new-build areas, both central and peripheral, offer a residential environment for middle-class families as a compromise between inner city and suburb. This paper links these patterns and trends with gentrification literature. Middle-class family neighbourhoods are classified in a typology that perceives neighbourhoods as fields that are accessed by means of capital, and operate as a stage for the accumulation of various forms of capital, which are associated with various habituses of the middle class.

Social and social-spatial inequality are on the rise in the Global North. This has resulted in increasing segmentation between population groups with different social and ethnic backgrounds, and in differentiated access to cultural and material assets. With these changes, the relation between segregation in the educational sphere and segregation in the residential sphere has become crucial for understanding social reproduction and intergenerational social mobility. However, knowledge about this relation is still limited. We argue that the institutional and spatial contexts are key dimensions to consider if we want to expand this knowledge. The institutional context regards the extent of public funding, the degree to which parental choice and/or geographical proximity drive school selection, the role and status of private schools and the religious and pedagogical pluralism of the educational system. The spatial context refers to the geographies of education: the ethnic and social composition of school populations and their reputations; the underlying levels and trends of residential segregation; and the spatial distribution of schools in urban space. In this introduction to the special issue we will address these interrelated dimensions, with reference to theoretical and empirical contributions from the existing body of literature; and with reference to the contributions in this special issue. School segregation emerges from the studies included in this special issue as a relevant issue, differently framed according to the institutional and spatial contexts. A comparative typology will be proposed to illustrate how school segregation is peculiarly shaped in different national and local contexts.

There is common understanding that gentrifi ers and new middle classes more generally share an urban orientation and may share a 'metropolitan habitus'. The urban geography of Western metropolises and the formation and reproduction of specifi c middle-class groups are intrinsically connected. The specifi c urban habitus of these new middle classes, however, is challenged by events in the life course. When urban middle classes settle down and have children, many suburbanise. Using two waves of longitudinal data from a representative sample of middle-class couples expecting their fi rst child, this study investigates the residential practices of middle classes that live in the central areas of Amsterdam when they become fi rst-time parents. Building on prior work on urban middle classes, inspired by the theoretical concepts of Bourdieu, through a multilevel analysis, this study seeks to understand how various orientations of capital infl uence the decision whether to stay in the city or move to suburban areas. Controlling for a range of individual and neighbourhood variables, this study demonstrates that couples with high economic capital and relatively low cultural capital have a higher propensity to move out of the central city, whereas couples with high cultural capital and low economic capital have a smaller chance of suburbanising. Furthermore, this study confi rms that the degree of social and economic connectedness through social networks and work in the city also play an important part in determining the propensity to move out of the city.