I tretton kapitel utmanas rådande problemformuleringar om vad som utgör hindren för att skapa en mer tillgänglig bostadsmarknad och rimligare boendesituation åt alla. Är ökad marknadsekonomi lösningen på bostadsbristen? Måste vi sänka kvalitetskraven för att alla ska få tak över huvudet? Hur hänger bostadsfrågan och frågan om integration och segregation ihop? Är gentrifiering en naturlig förändring av staden? Rådande "sanningar" om fler avregleringar, lägre skatter och ökad marknadsfrihet har kommit att stå i vägen för nytänkande. Det behövs fler röster i debatten. 13 myter om bostadsfrågan ger alternativa tolkningar som kan föra in nya perspektiv på bostadskrisen. Boken ges ut av Förlag Dokument Press, med illustrationer av Sara Granér.

For almost a century, Swedes living in shared housing have resided in 'kollektivhus', a form of co-housing that support sharing reproductive work. However, during the past decade, new forms of exclusive shared housing have emerged on the Swedish housing market. In contrast to international trends of vulnerable singles being forced to share housing, this Swedish example shows that also financially privileged singles reside in shared housing. Based on a survey of housing companies and a case study the article argues that mobility has been a driver for this new form of shared housing. In the article, 'dwelling on-the-move together' is identified as a new practice of residing in exclusive shared housing. This practice is characterised by sharing private, exclusive facilities, sharing paid services and sharing spaces for both home and work, in an environment that certifies that residents can come and go as they please while hired staff takes care of their property. While exclusive shared housing is an asset for residents, it also privatise facilities and reintroduces domestic workers to middle-class housing. In all, the marketization of shared housing risks introducing a stratification of shared housing which may reinforce the geographic and social polarisation of Swedish cities.

The past two decades have witnessed an increase of housing surrounded by walls in the Swedish cityscape. Although Swedish cities do not have the equivalent of gated communities, in the sense of isolated islands of ‘incarceration’ or of a ‘fortress city’, this chapter shows that they are undergoing a process of material enclavism, resulting in urban gating and the construction of exclusive residential hotel housing. The main argument is that gated housing in Sweden reflects and reinforces the ongoing social and geographical polarization of the metropolitan regions. The practices of walling in and walling out, constructed through housing, are simultaneously hindering movement for the general public while supporting movement for privileged groups. Additionally, the concentration of services, amenities and access to physical and high-speed digital infrastructure in exclusive housing lead to new spaces of disaffiliation, or self-segregation, for privileged groups. The chapter concludes that the process of walling in and walling out is a development towards privatization and material enclavism, indicative of a shift in attitudes toward housing in Swedish politics.

Sweden does not have gated communities, but this paper argues that processes of gating and the associated consequences are apparent in Sweden, particularly in metropolitan regions. Based on interviews, observations and analysis of previous research, the article identifies the rise of urban gating and gated housing. Urban gating restricts access to previously public land through material gating and results in a loss of the right to use-value of urban land. The rise of a new and exclusive form of gated housing associated with the lifestyles of the mobile middle class, referred to here, as the residential hotel, is spotlighted, prompting questions about the concentration of affluence in already privileged areas and the reinforcing effect of gating on existing patterns of socio-spatial polarization.

Housing is almost entirely overlooked in mobility studies. Yet mobility is intrinsically linked to housing, not only for the cybernetic elite or global nomads, but also for the middle class. Through a comparative case study of two extreme cases of housing, the Markeliushus from 1935 and Victoria Park from 2009, this study found that mobility has been continuously linked to discourses and practices of housing the modern Swede. Furthermore the findings suggest that two contrasting housing forms have evolved: dwelling-in-place and dwelling-on-the-move. I argue that these two housing forms are part of an evolving stratification of housing based on mobility. The article concludes that mobility has become an entry point for disaffiliation by privileged groups, accessible through housing.

Kvalité i stadsbyggnadssammanhang gäller frågor om goda bostäder, inbjudande och trygga mötesplatser, grönområden, promenadstråk och kollektivtrafik som tillgodoser god tillgänglighet. Trots ambitiösa visioner och planer för god kvalité har segregation och polarisering bitit sig fast, samtidigt som samhället förändrats genom individualisering, ökad mobilitet och digitalisering, vilket resulterat i vad jag skulle vilja kalla för motstridiga processer i stadsutvecklingen. Ett exempel på en sådan motstridig process är att samtidigt som det byggs exklusiva bostäder sänks kvalitetskraven på bostäder för de minst bemedlade grupperna. Ett andra exempel är att samtidigt som städer planerar för stråk och mobilitet begränsas rörelsefriheten av staket och grindar som genomkorsar vissa stadsdelar. Ett tredje exempel är att samtidigt som det byggs trygga och inbjudande offentliga mötesplatser byggs privatgemenskaper i exklusiva bostadsområden. Förändringar som dessa är viktiga att lyfta eftersom de leder till nya, centrala frågeställningar för planering och bostadsbyggandet i tider när Sverige återigen ska bygga hundratusentals nya bostäder.

The Folkhem era in Sweden set high architectural standards for social infrastructures dispersedly located in cities. Over the past two decades, however, Swedish planning, when it comes to the localization of social infrastructure, has been increasingly characterized by privatized social infrastructures added to housing. Methodologically, this article draws on a compilation of architectural designs of shared housing that includes social infrastructure, 12 interviews with developers, and 22 interviews with residents. The article argues, first, that two historical approaches can be identified: one in which porous borders support urban social life in and around the housing complex and another where distinct boundaries form an edge where things end. Secondly, the article argues that in recent shared housing complexes, the infrastructures of fitness, health care, and privatized services—previously available solely in the public realm—have moved physically and mentally closer to the individual, largely replacing residents’ everyday use of public space. The article concludes that in recent shared housing complexes, ambiguous borders are formed. Ambiguous borders allow a flow of goods and people, but the flow is based on the needs and preferences of residents only. Overall, such privatization counteracts the development of urban social life while adding to housing inequality, as this form of housing is primarily accessible only to the relatively wealthy. Furthermore, there is a risk that urban planning may favour such privatization to avoid maintenance costs, even though the aim of planning for general public accessibility to social infrastructure is thereby shifted towards planning primarily for specific groups.

Sharing housing is more often than not seen through a positive lens of togetherness, de-growth, community spirit and as a driver of the sharing economy but as the urban population increases and affordable housing decreases, sharing housing is also a basis for economic profiteering. This article explores the socio-material differences in housing specifically designed to be shared, and which exist on the Swedish housing market in the 2020s. The historical trajectories of three key shared forms of housing in Sweden, the kollektivhus, the residential hotel and the co-living hub, are analysed after which a four-field figure is developed, coupling material and social aspects of shared forms of housing. The article argues that housing designed to be shared is both a way to counteract and a driver for spatial inequalities. There is a risk of inequalities in material standards, inequalities based on concentration or lack of facilities and services, and a risk of economic profiteering of vulnerable groups. One challenge for future housing in Sweden is to counteract housing inequality by supporting affordable housing designed to be shared, while at the same time safeguarding the interests of vulnerable groups.

“Stråk” is one of the design approaches in the current Swedish sustainability discourse, which has been developed with the objective of reconnecting so- called vulnerable districts with the urban core. This paper investigates the architectural transformation of the Rosengård stråk in Malmö, Sweden. Taking everyday movement as a theoretical starting point, empirical data was gathered through interviews with key planners in Malmö municipality and a questionnaire distributed at the two endpoints of the Rosengård stråk. The study found that the stråk contributed to the liveliness of the disadvantaged neighbourhood and that movement through the neighbourhood had indeed increased. The paper suggests that in urban design, stråk can be defined as corridors of movement that connect neighbourhoods and nodes and link local and regional scales, and, that planning for stråk imply a shift towards planning for connectivity. This approach contrasts with previous planning approaches and ideologies, which have focused on improving adjacency and accessibility to service and amenities at the neighbourhood scale. Planning for connectivity, in contrast, implies creating a network of connections with the aim of also making people leave their neighbourhood to access services and amenities necessary for daily life. The paper concludes that although investments in stråk may make it easier for people to exercise their right to move, they carry the risk of reduced investment at neighbourhood level, since when connectivity matters more, adjacency matters less.

Gated communities and gated housing enclaves have primarily been identified as elite spaces of privilege that support self-imposed disaffiliation and spatial and social withdrawal by the affluent. Over the past decade, however, European countries have also seen a rise of gating in large housing estates. Drawing on previous research and a comparative case study that includes interviews, observations, and mapping, this article analyses policies and practices of gating in large housing estates since 2010 in Malmo, Sweden and since 2000 in Paris, France. We argue, first, that gating is legitimised by policy arguments about 'defensible space', by a critique of the modernist design, and by a perceived need for diversification. Secondly, we expand the notion of urban gating and identify four types of enclosure: complete enclosure, semi-enclosure, enclosure through densification, and enclosure of parks and playgrounds. We conclude that the notion of the welfare state has changed, not only in financial terms but also as an urban form, leading to the micro-segregation of housing and land, which makes visible the social stratification within large housing estates. Gating of large housing estates thus leads to 'enclosed communities' rather than 'gated communities'.

This article analyses the political and ideological transformations underlying the gradual privatisation and deregulation of the mid-twentieth-century Keynesian model of housing provision in Sweden. We identify a series of three political and ideological shifts in housing policy and urban form since the 1930s: regulating Folkhem housing, deregulating Folkhem housing, and back to business in housing. We argue that even though the Folkhem parole of ‘housing for all’ differs extensively from the current situation where the market is ‘housing the privileged’, segregation trends have, from the Folkhem to the post-welfare period, been shaped by both state interventions and market forces. Second, we argue that there is a continuing trend through which newly constructed housing has metamorphosed from a basic human right for the working class into an expression of individual distinction and ‘style’ for the upper middle and middle classes. While privileged classes, more than ever before in modern Swedish housing history, have the possibility to choose new forms of housing, the most impoverished groups live in residual and often stigmatised peripheral housing areas. One main conclusion is that recent forms of housing for privileged groups signal a cultural and ideological shift towards new, more elitist conceptions of housing and privilege.

In the field of housing research, gender and space have historically been overlooked, both empirically and theoretically. The theoretical base of research on housing, gender, and space is to be found in a cross-disciplinary field of spatial theory, gender studies, feminist and critical studies in geography, sociology and architecture. In this article, it is primarily the spatial-theoretical grounding that we want to emphasise. The article first introduces theoretical approaches to the research area and then gives examples of research within two themes related to the spatial-theoretical point of departure.

Denna antologi är ett resultat av ett gemensamt arbete mellan forskare och tjänstemän för att diskutera möjligheterna och formerna för det praktiska arbetet kring hållbar stadsutveckling. År 2010 utlystes medel inom programmet Samordnad stadsutveckling - en förutsättning för hållbarhet, vilket har finansierat forskningsprojektet Omvandling av fragmenterade städer. En studie av att integrera hållbarhetsmål genom urbana rörelsestråk, med finansiering från FORMAS och RAÄ för att under tre år fördjupa sig i hållbar stadsutveckling och inte minst kring sociala utmaningar. I fokus för projektet är Malmö stads satsning på att knyta ihop de östra och västra delarna av Malmö genom förstärkandet av ett stråk. Antologin presenterar både konkreta resultat av dessa satsningar, och reflektioner kring de processer som initierades. http://www.mah.se/Forskning/omforskning/Organisation/Profiler/Forskningsprofil-Urbana-studier/Funktioner-och-tjanster/Skriftserie---MAPIUS/

Los trabajos reunidos en esta colección tienen en común la aplicación de perspectivas interseccionales para entender la vida urbana desde los bordes, a través de situaciones observadas en diversos contextos nacionales y regionales, en el espacio público, el acceso a la vivienda, experiencias y estrategias de resistencia espacial, entre otros tópicos relevantes.

Utställningen Allmänningen handlar om våra gemensamma rum. De torg, stråk och gröningar dit allmänheten idag har tillträde. Mellan tätort och landsbygd, längs med åar och vattendrag, via våtmarker och kulturminnesplatser, över höjder och ängsmarker. Det är platser för demokrati, kulturellt utbyte, handel och rekreation.

I utställningen Allmänningen möts historiska spår, planerare och några nedgrävda kartor. Genom olika kartläggningspraktiker som rör sig mellan plats och representation visas hur allmänningen som fenomen har transformerats över tid. Den har genomgått ett antal olika förändringar och människor har trots dessa skiften alltid tagit platser i anspråk: gröningar, gator, parker, stråk, torg – på landsbygd, i tätort, längs med åar och vattendrag, via våtmarker och kulturminnesplatser, över höjder och ängsmarker. Det är platser för demokrati, kulturellt utbyte, handel och vila. 

Här presenteras allmänningen som ett begrepp, som fysisk plats och kulturell enhet. Från kroppens intima skala till värderingen och regleringen av mark. 

Utställningen är kopplad till forskningsprojektet Allmänningar och stråk för rumslig rättvisa i urban fullåkersbygd finansierat av forskningsrådet FORMAS.

"In the Mix" was an exhibition of artistic work by students from the universities Alfred, Concordia, Cornell, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse, University of Buffalo and University of Rochester, New York state, U.S.A. Karin Grundström and Timothy Engström acted as jurors in the selection process of the artistic work and presented a statement for the exhibition. "In the Mix" was curated by John Aasp, the Gallery director at the College of Imaging arts and sciences at RIT.

”Staden studerad/City Check” was the first exhibition in Sweden on urban research. The exhibition was curated by research curator Karin Grundström and exhibition curator Testbedstudio Architects in collaboration with Johanna Sjögren-Duthy, project leader at Form/Design Center. ”City Check” presented results, methods and research processes from the following five research projects: ‘Transforming Dual Cities- integrating sustainability through passages of mobility’; ‘Meeting places and integration in urban public spaces’; ‘Urban Transition Øresund’; ‘CRitical Urban Sustainability Hub (CRUSH)’ and ‘Green Play’. Through the curating process, the concepts of stråk/pathways, urban commons, meeting places, participation, urban landscapes and memory were identified. These concepts constituted the thematic foundation of the exhibition. Light screens sweeping through the exhibition hall formed spaces in which visitors themselves could explore the research projects. In each space a theme was presented through articles, books, videos, models, urban plans and narrative material. Social media was used for communication between researchers, media and the interested public. Due to the collaboration between researchers and Form/Design Center the exhibition also became a pedagogical tool in education.

”Urban explorations – Works&Words” was an exhibition on the practices of researching the urban environment. The exhibition developed from a collegial collaboration between Malmö university, Sweden and Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) N.Y., U.S.A. The exhibition was curated by Karin Grundström (Urbana studier, Malmö university) and Roberley Bell (Imaging arts and sciences R.I.T.) in collaboration with Jules Chiavaroli (Dept of Architecture, Golisano institute of sustainability, R.I.T.) and Community Design Center in Rochester, which hosted the exhibition. In the curating process, the concept ”urban explorations” was identified as a common starting point. Linguistic and cultural differences prevented the use of alternative concepts such as stad/city; offentlig plats/public place and rum/space. Instead, the practices, i.e. the act of exploring through both verbal and visual means, formed the common basis. Researchers in architecture, planning, design and photography exhibited analyzes of the urban environment through their Works and Words. Colleagues, students and the public participated in a seminar at the opening of the exhibition. ”Urban explorations – Works&Words” was transported to Sweden and exhibited at the MEDEA studio, Malmö University.