What is it about?
This article shows how segregation and inequality is growing in urban Sweden. Residents of migrant backgrounds in disadvantaged communities face racism, segregation, precarious work, and exploitative housing costs. These issues are linked to wider economic and social changes. The study also highlights how local communities organise, challenging injustice and calling for fairer living and working conditions.
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Why is it important?
Overall, the article invites readers to rethink Sweden’s image as an equal society and to pay attention to the growing divides shaping urban life today. Residents of migrant backgrounds in disadvantaged communities face racism, segregation, precarious work, and exploitative housing costs. These issues are linked to wider economic and social changes. The study also highlights how local communities organise, challenging injustice and calling for fairer living conditions.
Perspectives
The study builds on Aleksandra Ålund’s and Carl-Ulrik Schierup’s long-standing research into the paradoxes and adverse transformations of what was once internationally regarded as a just, equitable, and inclusive model of Swedish multiculturalism. The article’s third author, Ilhan Kellecioglu, has been closely engaged in anti-racist urban justice movements in Sweden and has subsequently developed a research trajectory focused on housing issues in disadvantaged urban communities.
Carl-Ulrik Schierup
Linkopings universitet
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Neo-apartheid Metropolis: Racial Capitalism and Subaltern Struggles in Urban Sweden, March 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004757639-013.
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