Doctoral Research: Living with stereotypes in Swedish suburbia
Short description
This project explores how young men coming of ages in Swedish suburbia, develop conscious, as well as unconscious, strategies of resisting, subverting, negotiating and living with the stigmas that they are subjected to on a daily basis due to their background, appearance, and area of living.
Background and research aims
This project explores how young men coming of ages in Swedish suburbia, i.e. territorially stigmatized and poor areas in the outskirts of cities (Miljonprogram areas), develop conscious, as well as unconscious, strategies of resisting, subverting, negotiating and living with the stigmas that they are subjected to on a daily basis due to their background, appearance, and area of living.
The study aims to problematize, and hence also to move beyond, the ruling paradigm of social exclusion as a tool for understanding the life of young people in Swedish suburbia, as well as in other similar contexts in Western Europe and the U.S. To do so the study place its focus on concepts less stigmatizing and of more direct relevance to these young person’s everyday life, such as stigmatization, discrimination, and class.