LED 2016 Group H Landscape Democracy Challenge 3: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 04:57, 18 May 2016
Refugee housing in Stockholm – racism or valid concerns? A multidimensional democracy challenge
| Place name | Unknown and secret temporary places | |
| Location | Stockholm | |
| Country | Sweden | |
| Author(s) | Emil Buzzi | |
| ||
Rationale: Why have you chosen this case for the landscape and democracy seminar?
In a fairly large city as Stockholm, landscape democracy challenges are up for discussion every day. The urban landscape is constantly challenged in a myriad of ways. Recently however, a new complex challenge has emerged. With a high number of refugees in Sweden during the fall of 2015, the government has asked municipalities to provide housing for those seeking asylum. Municipalities in the greater Stockholm area are thus planning temporary housing units to be constructed around the city. This has resulted in protests from local residents. This complex issue involves both concerns about the refugees moving in and the built environment. The challenges thus involved both social issues concerning refugees in general to the physical built landscapes in the neighbourhoods where temporary houses are planned. The municipalities and their planners thus must both navigate purely racist protests when a new project is advertised and also the concerns over the urban environment when they arrange information and participation efforts. These different issues are in reality sometimes hard to separate, thus resulting in a complex and important landscape democracy challenge.
Representation of your observations
A multidimensional democracy challenge
Modular housing in Stockholm-municipalities
As a consequence of the influx of refugees during 2015, municipalities in the county of Stockholm are required to accommodate housing for refugees that can not find their own housing. However, important to note is that a majority of refugees moving to Stockholm municipality arrange their housing themselves [1]. During 2016, the municipality of Stockholm needs to arrange housing for 2800 refugees as well as housing for unaccompanied refugee children that during the fall of 2015 was 2000. The municipality of Stockholm is thus under pressure to quickly construct temporary housing modules in different locations around the city [2][3]. Other municipalities in the county of Stockholm are also required to build modular housing. One example is the municipality of Botkyrka that are building 44 modular housing units. The municipality of Botkyrka held a information-meeting for residents in the area where the houses are planned and the local newspaper is describing people attending the meeting as upset but relatively calm and reasonable, comparing to the latest developments in Nacka, another Stockholm municipality, where residents are accusing the not yet known refugees to be potential rapists and murderers, where residents are proposing the criminal biker-gangs are preferred over housing for refugees [4].
Furthermore, as municipalities are dealing with issues of social concerns from the local residents, they are in parallel working with the formal process of information and participation when building and obtaining all permits for the temporary housing units. The municipality of Stockholm is going through the normal procedure for building temporary houses, but have made the documents secret due to the threat-level towards this kind of housing [1]. During the fall of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, planned housing for refugees around the country has been burned down after the locations of the planned housing has been publicly known [5][6]
Social concerns or urban planning? Complexity and tension
As introduction above to the situation of temporary housing projects in different Stockholm municipalities suggests, the planning for these temporary modular houses is complex. The complexity is not only due to the acute need for these houses and the strong opposition towards them in certain localities, but also the multidimensional aspects of the situation. The municipalities and the planners are dealing with social and cultural concerns and urban planning concerns at the same time. This means that planners need to deal with two very different streams of issues when projecting the housing and localities where they are placed. The issues in the information and participatory process thus involves everything from purely racist views on refugees, to valid moderate concerns, to purely urban planning concerns, as the location of houses and preservation of parks and playgrounds.
Furthermore, the open-meetings arranged for local residents has in several cases been visited by violent nazi-organisations who have raised racist comments by arguing that women and children are in danger if refugees are allowed to reside in the temporary housing in the local area. These nazi-organisations has during meetings been both argued against and backed by local residents during meetings [7][8][9].
Dealing with this Landscape Democracy Challenge
The description of this Landscape Democracy Challenge is far from away from traditional discussion on urban planning and development. Here, strong opinions and concerns towards refugees are mixed with issues of urban planning. For municipalities and planners responsible for the planning of temporary modular housing for refugees, they are challenged with a complexity in their interaction with the public. Planners need to both interact in their normal sphere, discussing the position of the modules and the places they need to use for building, but also far outside their normal zone of work, dealing with concerns and strong acquisitions towards the refugees that are planned to move in to the temporary modules. Furthermore, as these housing projects are under threat, municipalities has in some cases decided to make the document secret, thus adding another challenge to the discussion as residents can not fully discuss the places where the houses are planned as they only give an indication of the area.
Chart of the issues
Reflection
What are the major challenges for changing the situation?
- Please add approx. 150 words in essay style
What could be a starting point for democractically-based change?
- Please add approx. 150 words in essay style
References
[1] http://www.stockholm.se/FamiljOmsorg/Socialt-och-ekonomiskt-stod/Flyktingmottagande/Boende/ ∗
[5] http://www.svd.se/samordningen-avbruten--men-branderna-fortsatter ∗∗
[6] http://www.gp.se/nyheter/sverige/%C3%B6ver-40-asylboenden-har-brunnit-1.179215 ∗∗
[8] http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/haninge-kommuns-mote-slutade-i-kaos/ ∗∗
[9] http://www.dn.se/sthlm/mote-om-ensamkommande-flyktingar-sparade-ur/ ∗∗
Comments regarding the non-english references to this work:
∗ This is the official website of the municipality of Stockholm with information regarding temporary housing units for refugees
∗∗ All media links are from well-known and established local and national press
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