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- Backvall, Karin
(författare)
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Constructing the Suburb : Swedish Discourses of Spatial Stigmatisation
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- By exploring representations of place, this thesis treats practices of spatial stigmatisation in the context of segregated Swedish cities. In three papers, different aspects of stigmatisation and place-making are discussed and analysed, where the overarching ambition is to identify and critically deconstruct the ideology behind stigma as well as suggest ways of making representation positive. In other words, this thesis takes issue with the negative labels attached to certain urban areas by exploring dominant discursive trends and mechanisms, or techniques, of creating spatial stigma.Theoretically, the analysis is informed by postcolonial critical research on segregation and representations of people and place, where place-making is of particular importance. The case study consists of printed news media and political discourse concerning stigmatised urban areas in Sweden, and the method is inspired by critical discourse analysis.The empirical material covers a period of twenty years, and the analysis is particularly focused on constructions of ‘race’ and poverty and how these two dimensions intertwine. The main findings point to a dominant trend of representing stigmatised neighbourhoods as failed and miserable places that are not considered part of Sweden. They become racialised both through representations of the neighbourhoods as foreign and unintegrated places and through representations of the residents, usually categorised as the ‘immigrants’, as culturally different from ‘Swedes’. There are signs of a more critical discourse which challenges the negative representations, but it remains weak compared to the predominance of the negative reporting.
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- Backvall, Karin
(författare)
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Decolonising residential segregation and “cultural difference”
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the context of Swedish anti-segregation strategies and area-based policies, this article critically examines how parliamentary motions create and reproduce a racialised understanding of housing segregation. A close examination of political language reveals a predominantly negative framing of both people and place, where already stigmatised areas are demonised as segregated places where the ‘immigrants’ live. In particular, the disadvantaged position of many of the residents in stigmatised areas is expressed through a consistent construction of non-‘Swedishness’; of not being considered part of Sweden based on perceived cultural difference framed as an individual or spatial attribute. In addition, the condition of not belonging is believed to merge with a condition of ‘utanförskap’, (‘outsiderness’). Despite the ideological differences between the various political parties, de-colonisation is still lacking in the Swedish political discourse on ethnic residential segregation.
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- Backvall, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Mechanisms of media stigmatisation: Colonial discourse and the racialisation of Swedish suburbs
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Using Sweden and Swedish newspapers as our case, we analyse 16 years of news reports on stigmatised areas. Particular attention is paid to what we refer to as mechanisms of stigma, in other words; news media techniques of representing place and residents in a stigmatising manner. These consist of firstly grouping neighbourhoods together based on common traits; second, comparing and contrasting places with each other; and thirdly, racialised blame, which constructs ethnic minorities as problems. Mechanisms of stigma are placed in the context of dominant themes of news media reporting on stigmatised neighbourhoods, where we identified categories of hopelessness, violence and colonial representations as the most common framings of the news stories. In addition, the thematic analysis has allowed us to observe the increase of stories of violence and terrorism in news reports on stigmatised neighbourhoods, in turn connected to the overall inflation of islamophobia and nationalism, with focus on Muslims and Islam as threats to integration, safety and national unity.
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- Backvall, Karin
(författare)
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Who’s to blame? Segregation, policy and stigma in Swedish editorial discourse
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Critical research on residential segregation has long emphasised issues of inequality and discrimination as crucial factors for its production and reproduction. Equally, research on spatial stigmatisation is recognised in scholarly debate as a highly problematic practice which not only shapes policy interventions but also affects the residents of targeted areas. With the ambition of problematising the relationship between residential segregation and stigmatisation, this article analyses printed newspaper editorial discourse in order to critically examine constructions of place. News media has been argued to be a key agent in the practice of stigmatisation, which makes editorial statements highly significant when it comes to how the newspaper perceives the importance of stigmatisation. In addition, the theoretical framework of residential segregation as a process based in structural inequalities provides the basis for identifying stigmatisation of poor and racialised neighbourhoods as an often neglected but indispensable piece of the puzzle. It is argued here that editorials’ neglect of practices of stigmatisation reproduce and simultaneously hide power relations inherent to processes of inequality.
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- Polanska, Dominika V., 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Predatory commodification and housing renovation
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Urban Affairs. - : Routledge. - 0735-2166 .- 1467-9906. ; 46:4, s. 682-700
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores the renovation of housing governed by two tenure formsin Sweden, rental and cooperative housing. Based on a relational approach,we argue that despite requiring a similar need of maintenance at regularintervals, renovation in rental housing takes a substantially different formcompared to cooperatives, regarding the extent of the work, the involvement of, and the outcome for, the residents. With the concept of predatoryhousing commodification, we aim at examining how the process of housingrenovation is organized, what driving forces motivate renovations, along with how it impacts affected residents. Our contribution is twofold: firstly,we conceptualize renovation of housing as a commodifying process, withinthe realm of financialization, most often carried out brutally and contributingto housing inequality; secondly, our contribution is empirical as it covershousing renovation from a relational and contrasting perspective in a fieldthat is still under-studied in the Scandinavian context.
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