Resisting the Neoliberal Turn in Swedish Housing Provision

Sweden is commonly regarded as a country with some of the best housing standards in the world. The provision of ‘good housing’ has been at the core of the Swedish post-war welfare model, but, over the past decades, a systematic process of marketization has led to increasing housing shortage, and the lowering of housing standards, particularly affecting low income groups. A large amount of housing from the late 1960s is also in urgent need of renovation. Those who do not have the possibility to buy a dwelling are dependent on a shrinking rental market due to the systematic conversion of rental housing stock to tenant-owned housing, and the current reluctance of developers to start up new building projects. Several researchers point at how the Swedish housing system has been thoroughly deregulated from the 1990s onwards, to ‘gradually become one of the most liberal market-governed housing markets in the Western world’ (Hedin et al. 2012, p.444). The lack of national government interventions and the absence of a national urban policy have led to an increased debate within private sector, tenants’ organizations, as well as the growth of new social movements based on housing issues. The social movements articulated around housing provision are fighting against the fear of ‘renoviction’, territorial stigmatization and the difficulties for young people to enter the housing market due to the increased housing shortage.

This article will shed light on the organization, arguments and reception (by authorities and police) of these new social movements. We will give examples of the debate and present results from an ethnographic study based on interviews with activists from several marginalized housing areas in Sweden. We argue that this ‘dysfunctional’ housing market is deeply imbedded in the increasing socio-spatial, gendered and racial segregation within the Swedish urban landscape.