Post-migrant activism: urban justice movements in Sweden

Abstract

Emergent new urban justice movements represent new actors in Swedish civil society. They see themselves as heirs to a tradition of the popular movements and struggles that once created the Swedish welfare state. During the 2000s this has become increasingly substantiated through a multifarious movement coming out of Sweden's culturally stigmatised and socially marginalised förorten (suburbia), which is home to a multitude of subaltern population groups; in particular migrants from various backgrounds and their descendants. Analysing the consolidation of this new so-called «suburban movement» (förortsrörelsen), their strategies and alliance building, the authors demonstrate the importance of the movement's anchorage in local communities and a learning from the ground up in which knowledge production and activism intersect. This has brought forward the voice of the subaltern and is carrying forth a critical political message to Swedish society. The paper concludes that old and new popular movements in Sweden seem to come closer to each other in confrontating a looming crisis of democracy.