Urbana utmaningar : Svensk urban marginalisering i ett komparativt perspektiv

Events of social unrest and violent crime increasingly draws attention to the urban periphery of Swedish cities. Media and politicians depict a homogenized image of the suburbs as problem estates and ‘no-go zones’. This aggravates the urban integration process as well as creates a stigma for the individual resident. This could lead to misconceptions among the decision makers and policies based on skew presumptions. Urban marginalization is part of the consequences of political priorities. Despite this fact, there is a lack of research on urban marginalization in Sweden. Studying also the negative consequences of policies is one of the most important missions of political science. Accepting this challenge, this study uses Loïc Wacquant’s analytical concepts ghetto and anti-ghetto, to chart the structure and function of marginalized suburbs in Sweden. This analysis, which is more systematic than Wacquant’s original study, shows that Swedish suburbs can be classified as anti-ghetto, which gives reason to question the homogenized media image and gives important insights for future urban policy. Applying Wacquants theory on the Swedish case also means testing his claim that all Western European cities can be classified as anti-ghetto. The study finds that anti-ghetto is a fruitful concept for the understanding of Swedish marginalization. Consequently Wacquants assertion is strengthened, thus this study constitutes another proof European cities are not converging the American ghetto. Thereby this study makes a substantial contribution to Wacquant’s project of creating a comparative sociology of urban marginality