The politics of responsibility
state-led gentrification and tenant organizing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.60.24784Keywords:
state-led gentrification, responsibilization, tenant organizing, urban governance, territorial stigmatizationAbstract
During the 2010s, a number of projects have been initiated with the aim of "developing" city districts that have been classified as "vulnerable" or "particularly vulnerable". With a focus on Angered in Gothenburg, this article analyzes the governance strategies that have been dominant, what kind of conflicts they have generated, which strategies residents in the neighborhoods have developed to resist the ”development”” and the outcome of the conflicts. Based on critical urban research and governmentality theory, we distinguish three forms of shifting responsibilization: 1) from macro- to meso-level when municipal housing companies are given the responsibility of leading partnerships with private actors and non-profit organizations in a way that involves these actors in tasks that were previously the responsibility of the state, 2 ) from the meso- to the micro-level when municipal housing companies shift the responsibility for renovations and development of local environments to individual tenants, 3) from the micro-level back to the meso- and macro-level when residents of million program areas resist responsibilization and a re-responsibilization of the municipality and the central state.
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