En livsform blir till : Etablering av stads- och medborgarideal 1979–1990

This thesis investigates the development and formation of new ideals for the city and its citizens which emerged in the wake of the economic crisis of the late 1970s to the early 1990s. This period of time is often identified as the end of the industrial society and the beginning of what is generally known as the information society. By studying how the city was perceived in the context of a new societal form and, through that, was given a new economic function, this thesis shows a different understanding of why and how Swedish cities adopted new and completely different strategies in a relatively short period of time. As opposed to similar research in the same field, this thesis studies the early development of these new strategies and ideals of the city by focusing on two previously overlooked concepts: samhällsform [societal form] and livsform [life form]. As this thesis will show, these two concepts were paramount to the agents own understanding of the connection and co-dependence between the city, the citizen and the order of production. By using theories concerning the importance of time as a way for the agents to structure their own understanding of events, this thesis shows how the image of crisis created ruptures in time and thereby enabled new possible actions for the agents. By making the industrial society and industrial city a thing of the past, new strategies could be implemented and old norms and practices were challenged. The new ideal city catered to the imagined needs and demands of a new life form, namely karriärbunden livsform [career bound life form], which was considered to contribute to growth in the new information society. As this thesis points out, this life form was made into a template of how a city should be planned and thereby has gained great advantage in comparison to other groups in Swedish society