We are Benchmarking all the Time: The Refashioning of the Municipal Housing Companies in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden

• Is the refashioning of the municipal housing companies (MHCs) the beginning of the end of public housing in Sweden? In terms of social responsibility, how is one to understand the new direction of these companies? The purpose of this paper is to make a preliminary analysis of the new role and direction of the municipal housing companies in Göteborg, in particular in the district of Greenhill. We analyze data gathered from interviews and documents. The empirical material was collected within a research project in progress, which looks at public housing and safety in three stigmatized districts of Göteborg. The analysis is mainly inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capital. The new role of the municipal housing companies is viewed as a reproduction strategy, aimed at maintaining a dominant position in the field of rental housing companies. The strategy has evolved in a situation where the former financial privileges of public housing have been revoked, and the municipal housing companies, to an increasing extent, are forced to attain great economic strength. The situation of Greenhill Dwellings, a local municipal housing company, is somewhat special. In contrast to other municipal housing companies, they only administer and let dwellings in one single district – Greenhill. The fate of Greenhill Dwellings is, therefore, intimately related to the development of Greenhill. The Greenhill Dwellings do much to promote the local community. They refuse, however, to provide new housing for people on welfare. Moreover, when a child of a tenant commits a crime, their policy is to evict the family. The direction taken by Greenhill Dwellings implies, among all, a deflection of their responsibility for vulnerable groups on the housing market. It is too early to say with any certainty whether this is the path other MHCs will embark upon. If they do, they risk to liquidate themselves, since this kind of social responsibility is a constituent element of the MHCs.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Public Housing

Gothenburg

Bourdieu

field

capital

habitus

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)