The son of mayor Rob Bats
Posted: Tue May 27, 2025 6:59 am
Today, the Cohen committee presented its analysis of the completely out of control Project X in Haren last year. In this case, almost all social and digital transitions are combined. According to the report, governments must organize themselves completely differently to prevent a recurrence.
Generation gap between managers and young people
'Haren' is closely linked to the revolutionary development of information and communication technology. In his list to data book The Network Society, Prof. Dr. Van Dijk, one of the researchers in the Cohen committee, places these trends in the light of cultural, social and economic changes. Anyone who has read it will understand the underlying complexity of the riots in Haren.
In Haren we saw more than just a Facebook party that got out of hand . It was the gap between the sluggishness of a hierarchical organization versus the speed of networking, the gap between government and citizen. But also a generation gap, between administrators and young people.
Rob Bats , the mayor of Haren, heard about the upcoming party from his 18-year-old son. “He said: it’s going to be really big. He’s studying, he’s in the middle of that world. He was my sounding board,” Bats told De Volkskrant. Remarkable, actually.
So not the dozens of professionals from the municipality and the police, but the pubescent son of the mayor became the sounding board. Yet one of the reflexes of the municipality was to remove the sign 'Stationsweg', where Merthe's birthday party was planned. What must they have thought? That young people who come to a Facebook party do not have Google Maps on their smartphone?
Generation gap between managers and young people
'Haren' is closely linked to the revolutionary development of information and communication technology. In his list to data book The Network Society, Prof. Dr. Van Dijk, one of the researchers in the Cohen committee, places these trends in the light of cultural, social and economic changes. Anyone who has read it will understand the underlying complexity of the riots in Haren.
In Haren we saw more than just a Facebook party that got out of hand . It was the gap between the sluggishness of a hierarchical organization versus the speed of networking, the gap between government and citizen. But also a generation gap, between administrators and young people.
Rob Bats , the mayor of Haren, heard about the upcoming party from his 18-year-old son. “He said: it’s going to be really big. He’s studying, he’s in the middle of that world. He was my sounding board,” Bats told De Volkskrant. Remarkable, actually.
So not the dozens of professionals from the municipality and the police, but the pubescent son of the mayor became the sounding board. Yet one of the reflexes of the municipality was to remove the sign 'Stationsweg', where Merthe's birthday party was planned. What must they have thought? That young people who come to a Facebook party do not have Google Maps on their smartphone?