Controlling, exploiting and claiming diversity - Analyzing the role of multiculturalism in Rosengård's development

Postindustrial Malmö relies heavily on stories and images as engines for economic growth. Cities use place marketing strategies to attract capital, investments and affluent residents. The evident focus on economic growth has led to a significantly polarized city in which people with low-incomes, usually ethnic minorities, live in segregated areas such as Rosengård. Segregated and poor areas become undesirable for the city’s image. The following thesis analyzes the role of multiculturalism in Rosengård’s ongoing development in light of the desire to market the area as part of Malmö’s image and combat the undesirable perception of a polarized city. The aim is to discern how multiculturalism is treated in order to understand ‘who’ the development is planned for. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on two crucial planning documents which revealed that multiculturalism was referred to in terms of 1) being part of the city, 2) meeting places, and 3) investing in people and their abilities/cultures. Meeting places were chosen to be further analyzed in relation to the research question through theories of multiculturalism as well as modern and postmodern planning. The analysis gave rise to three different arguments; multiculturalism was controlled, exploited and claimed - hence revealing its role as a mere​ tool or process​ in Rosengård’s development. Ultimately, multiculturalism’s role allows us to understand that postindustrial Malmö markets and develops Rosengård for affluent residents such as the creative class, where the area’s diversity is used as a tool to attract these residents as well as achieve other goals that might not benefit the minorities. Since the development is still ongoing, future research is needed to discover the real impacts of the finished project