METROPOLIS INTER CONFERENCE -
International Conference on Divided Cities and Strategies for Undivided Cities,
Göteborg, Sweden, May 25 - 26, 1998

Co-operation for Multiethnic Inclusion

A project on Local Citizenship, Participation and Community Integration in Metropolitan Stockholm

Part of the international comparative research program: Multicultural Policies and Modes of Citizenship in European Cities Sponsored by UNESCO

Contribution of Stockholm to the Metropolis Inter-Conference "Divided Cities and Strategies for Undivided Cities", Göteborg, Sweden, May 25 to 26, 1998.

The present paper is a draft of the proposal presented to the Ministry of the Interior i Sweden, in last summer. The project Co-operation for Multiethnic Inclusion started in October 1997. Approximately 20 practitioners, politicians and researchers are directly connected to the project. The ongoing targets are several, mainly putting actors engaged in local development in the areas participating in the project, Kista-Akalla, Rinkeby, Spånga-Tensta (in Järvafältet, Municipality of Stockholm) and Jordbro (Municipality of Haninge), in touch with each other; initiating the discussion of common issues of special interest, and exchanging experiences in the field of local integration programs; as well as initiating the research as it is presented in the following pages.

Co-operation for Multiethnic Inclusion

A Project on Local Citizenship, Participation and Community Integration in Metropolitan Stockholm

General background, context and realization

The present project is an integrated part of a co-operative, international, long-term research program: Multicultural Policies and Modes of Citizenship in European Cities. Over a period of six years, (1997-2003), this program will organize and monitor comparative studies on multicultural policies for the inclusion of immigrants and ethnic minorities (of migrant background) in processes of decision-making in local urban government. It will create links of communication and co-operation among researchers, local authorities and citizens initiatives in different parts of urban, multiethnic Europe.

Research has been planned and will be carried out simultaneously in Eighteen European Cities. In Sweden, extensive research will take place in Stockholm, closely following the propositions of the conjoint European program, concerning its general theoretical approach and its methods of data collection. Our central concern is to examine existing practices for multiethnic inclusion. This will be done based on extensive field work and data analysis, recording current forms of social exclusion in Swedish urban society. We aim to examine different types of programs and community action for multiethnic inclusion at the local level, some of which could hopefully be described as "best-practices". Through active dialogue with a range of local stakeholders we hope to be able to stimulate the development and dissemination of such practices. The Swedish experience will be continuously discussed within the context of the larger European network of researchers and urban stakeholders (local politicians and authorities, NGOs, etc.).

Two local areas (Järvafältet and Jordbro) belonging to metropolitan Stockholm have been selected for particularly intensive long-term studies. They are both markedly multiethnic parts of the city, where large sections of the population have a recent immigrant background, and they represent, each in their own way, important examples of current Swedish problems and strategies of local urban development in multiethnic neighbourhoods. These are areas where, currently, a number of initiatives have been launched in order to combat social exclusion and ethnic segregation through local community effort and enhanced citizens' participation. These initiatives include, among others, the so-called "Blomman fund", funds targeted at initiatives of local Swedish communities to combat social exclusion through citizens' participation, distributed by the Ministry of the Interior on the initiative of the late Councilor of State, Leif Blomberg.

In line with the idea of the European urban research program as a whole, the intention of the Swedish study is not simply to present a conventional evaluation of these initiatives. We shall follow the forms of local participation these initiatives give rise to and, on the basis of a long-term commitment, the project will pursue productive co-operation among researchers, policymakers, civil servants and NGOs, concerning issues of social inclusion and multicultural community integration. This co-operation will be developed in Stockholm - that is in relation to the local communities studied and the greater Stockholm region. The Swedish experience will be continuously related to the international experience, which will take place in the context of the larger European co-operative framework progressively set up by the MOST program.

The MOST program, as a whole, has been designed by Steven Vertovec - Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (CRER), University of Warwick, UK, and chief co-ordinator of the international program - in co-operation with, among others, Aleksandra Ålund and Carl-Ulrik Schierup at Umeå University, who are both included in its international steering committee. It has in 1996 been officially adopted and is sponsored on a long-term basis by the UNESCO MOST-program (Management of Social Transformation/Sub-program: Management of Cultural Pluralism in Europe). MOST provides limited financial support for meetings of the research program's international steering committee, meetings which have also received limited seed money from the European Commission. Aleksandra Ålund is, moreover, Swedish partner to a joint application from a number of participating teams in several European countries, addressed to the European Commission's Fourth Framework Program (main contractor: Steven Vertovec, CRER), with the objective of obtaining supplementary funding for setting up national projects (financial support for the work of one post-graduate student for three years). The successful launching and the carrying out of the national studies to be included in the program are, however, absolutely dependent on the availability of substantial national funding. Some teams have already secured national funding, while others - among them the Swedish team - are still in the phase of addressing applications to national funding bodies.

The Swedish part of the programme - in the following referred to as The Swedish National Study - will be co-ordinated by Aleksandra Ålund, sociologist at Umeå University, and carried out in co-operation with a highly competent interdisciplinary research team. The Swedish team includes Roger Andersson and Irene Molina, Uppsala University (Urban Geography), and Carl-Ulrik Schierup and Lars-Göran Karlsson, Umeå University (Social Anthropology and Political Sociology). All members of the Swedish team have long-term, standing experience of urban research, as well as of research in international migration and ethnic relations.

Rationale and Objectives

The focus of the international research program, Multicultural Policies and Modes of Citizenship in European Cities (above), is on issues of local "citizenship" affecting immigrant or ethnic minority groups, concerning ways in which they have gained access (or been confronted with obstacles) to decision-making processes and public resources in European cities. Highly qualified research teams will be involved in case studies of the dynamics between local authority institutions, NGOs and immigrant or ethnic minority groups activities. Subsequent comparative analysis will provide new perspectives on evolving urban policies surrounding local authority consultative bodies, civil service positions, local government funding (e.g., for organizations, training, labour market integration), housing projects, cultural programs and urban regeneration schemes.

The project's comparative perspective holds a dual relevance: on the one hand, for developing shared inter-disciplinary empirical knowledge, analytical models and theory on urban development and modes of multicultural citizenship; on the other hand, for stimulating enhanced communication and an exchange of policy-related experience and new perspectives on social inclusion through the agency of local participatory frameworks and citizens initiatives. Hence, backed by the long-term commitment of a number of national research teams, the intention of the project is to progressively make the research findings of the program relevant for policy development.

Therefore, the program will directly involve municipal policymakers and other urban "stakeholders" (including NGOs and ethnic associations). Co-operation will include the creation of actual links between the experience of policy initiatives within different cities and local communities included within the project (facilitated, for example, through regular reunions and the creation of co-operative networks among researchers, politicians, community workers, NGOs and informal citizens initiatives from different parts of Europe, the communication of "best practices", the setting up of twin-, or triple-cities relationships, etc.).

This approach is based on the central organizing hypothesis of this research project that political opportunity structures encountered in local urban contexts have a powerful conditioning impact on how immigrants and members of ethnic minority groups develop participatory forms or "modes of citizenship" (including collective identities, political tactics, strategies of social integration, etc.). Across Europe, a great variation of relevant political practices has already developed. Hence, a comparative study and analysis can promote an understanding of these emergent participatory forms, as well as diverse conditions under which they arise or conversely, are prevented to arise.

The central concern of the proposed project is, thus, to investigate participatory frameworks or the existence of participatory institutions. This means the existence of consultative bodies established to create forms of liaison between local governments and immigrant/ethnic minority groups. In different European poly-ethnic urban contexts we can find a diverse presence of such consultative institutions. An exchange of different experiences - through comparative research, as well as meetings between politicians, city leaders and immigrant associations - aim to communicate knowledge based on the best practices of participation and the inclusion of immigrants/ethnic minorities into the public decision-making.

This in turn is related to the comparative examination of the different (in a city context) modes of "local citizenship" and possibilities for improving forms of immigrant participation in policy domains in order to combat social exclusion. Following the recommendations of the Council of Europe's report on Community and Ethnic Relations in Europe we distinguish (concerning social exclusion, as well as inclusive modes of citizenship) between the following domains:

The legal domain (rights of residence and formal citizenship), linked to providing greater access to the electoral processes, education, housing, healthcare, social service, cultural and religious activities and particularly in regard to labour markets.

The socio-economic domain, which relates to structures and institutions supporting the gaining of "tools for integration" which encompass language training, education, special advice and employment agencies, vocational and re-qualification courses, monitoring employment, infrastructural provisions through urban renewal programs, etc.

The cultural domain, which refers to the improvement of public service with reference to linguistic provisions, mother-tongue instruction, sensitivity to cultural values, diverse religious practices and supportiveness in relation to organized ethnic associations and grassroots activities.

The political domain, which is concerned with the inclusion into local participatory frameworks and decision-making processes. It is the project's basic presupposition that this domain, i.e., that of "political citizenship", has a powerful conditioning effect concerning the inclusion of socially marginal migrant and ethnic minority groups into citizenship within the three preceding domains, and thus, for abating social exclusion as a whole and for increasing the cohesiveness, integration, and competitive social dynamics of local poly-ethnic urban communities.

In Sweden, although local and regional voting rights have been granted to foreign residents and long-term efforts have been made to stimulate the organization of migrants and minority groups of migrant origin, the degree of political participation among immigrants and ethnic minority groups is, by far, lower than among the majority of Swedes. There is, today, an increasing awareness of this problem, on the national level, as well as on the level of local urban government. The improvement of participatory frameworks and consultative procedures are, thus, for example, considered to be crucial, according to the Final Document of the governmental, so-called, Big City Report (Storstadsutredningen, SOU: 1990), the recommendations of which have been put forward under the impression of growing urban segregation, political marginalisation and discrimination on the labour market.

The participatory frameworks of the two local areas in the Stockholm area selected for study in Sweden differ substantially from each other in a number of aspects (see below). These frameworks will be recorded and their development continuously followed throughout the six years of the project's duration, (1997-2003). This will take place based on a systematic mapping of the demographic and socio-economic configuration of multiethnic metropolitan Stockholm, as a whole.

Adopting the policy-recommendations of the Big City Report as a central policy assumption and the identification of "best practices" concerning the abatement of social exclusion through local participatory practices as the project's main analytical objective, we shall, in the following - with a particular focus on processes of segmentation and segregation in residential areas of metropolitan Stockholm - set out to motivate the choice of the particular residential areas picked out for the purpose of the planned longitudinal study. We shall outline a research plan and present the Swedish research team and its budget.

Immigration and Social Exclusion

Swedish immigration policy has passed through three phases in the last decade - the labour market era until the early 70s, family-reunification up to the mid 80s and the refugee claim stage from the mid 80s. During these decades social and economic conditions have changed dramatically in the country, not least concerning the problem of growing unemployment and social marginalisation, paired with accelerating ethnic residential segregation processes in the big cities. (Andersson, R. 1996a, 1996b, Andersson & Molina 1996, SOU 1996:55 ch. 8). Molina, (1997) discusses these developments in terms of the racialisation of Swedish cities.

We have chosen the Stockholm region as our field of investigation in this study for a number of reasons. Given its size and its social, economic, and cultural complexity, Stockholm is comparable to other European big cities included in the international study. The region is inhabited by approximately 1.7 million people distributed over 23 municipalities. It consists of a number of local housing markets and labour markets, which are inter-linked by a fairly good public transit system, giving opportunities to commute within the region. The region has undergone profound economic re-structuring during the last couple of decades, involving a dramatic decrease in manufacturing together with an increase in service sector activities, public and private (Andersson & Malmberg, 1988). The region is the Swedish "import harbour" for ideas, know-how, and high-tech, which is associated with the establishment of an increasing number of international main/head offices, predominantly located in the inner city of Stockholm. The Swedish capital is more and more taking on the character of a dynamic node in a global economic network.

This Globalization process is matched by international migration, extensive and increasingly global in character. For a long time, the Stockholm region has been the main region for immigrants in Sweden, with a great influx of immigrants and refugees from abroad, as well as through internal migration. A striking feature is the spatial distribution of immigrants to a great number of municipalities with high concentrations of immigrants. In contrast, in the Göteborg and Malmö regions the immigrants are mostly concentrated to core areas. The proportion of "immigrants", (i.e., "immigrants" are, according to official Swedish statistical criteria, foreign born and individuals with at least one foreign born parent) is, according to recent statistics, around 17 % in the Stockholm region as a whole. About 400,000 people, distributed over 19 major localities, live in areas considered to expose a "high density of immigrants " (i.e. > 30%). Finns, Turks, Yugoslavs and Chileans have long been among the most numerous groups, but during the 1980s and early 1990s a substantial and increasing number of immigrants (mainly refugees) from many different parts of Africa and Asia (other than Turkey) - have moved into the region - and they form a growing number of the population in disfavoured suburban areas.

The Globalization of the Stockholm region has, among other structural changes, given room for the development of a range of new occupational domains, filled by immigrants and new ethnic minorities. The growth of an ethnically structured economy has also given rise to a growing sector of so-called "ethnic business" (i.e., minority owned shops and enterprises), largely employing immigrant and ethnic minority labour. However, besides an increasingly ethnically structured and stratified labour market some highly conspicuous and worrying features of current Stockholm are the rapidly expanding processes of social exclusion and residential segregation. A racialisation of the "labour market and the housing market" (Rex, 1961; Rex & Moore, 1967), in which social and structural contradictions take on spatial and territorial forms, is also taking place in Sweden.

Stockholm is characterized by urban residential segregation in ways similar to those observed in several other European countries, reminding us, perhaps, most strikingly of the French banlieus and the type of problems they are currently experiencing (Grillo, 1985). New suburban towns were set up as part of the big welfare state programs, particularly in the Sixties and early Seventies. The inner city was cleared and rebuilt. Whilst business premises spread in central Stockholm, expensive new public housing estates were built in the satellite towns. Immigrants and people with low incomes were directed to the new housing in the suburbs. Here, many people became permanently dependent on public rent assistance and social welfare. New suburban areas evolved into stigmatized territories with the reputation of being social problem housing estates, mainly populated by socially marginalised Swedes and new ethnic minorities. A growing number of the suburbs in the outer city areas of Stockholm have, for quite some time now, found themselves in a situation where, particularly middle-class, ethnic Swedes are moving out while new immigrant groups are moving in. (Andersson 1997, Borgegård & Murdie, 1996)

The unemployment rate among immigrants has increased in the past 10 - 15 years, and quite dramatically during the 1990s. Among some minority groups, (as, for example, the Somalis) unemployment is almost 100%. The existence of a, possibly mostly, covert discrimination on the labour market is generally recognized even in official documents (AMS 1993). Labour market discrimination, unemployment and social marginality has a marked effect on impoverishment in terms of tax revenues and public budgets, on the municipalities with large proportions of immigrants. Hence, metropolitan Stockholm is facing a vicious circle where areas considered to be poor and inhabited by many immigrants and by ethnic minorities a decade ago, are becoming poorer in relative and absolute terms while new, (vulnerable and disfavoured) immigrant groups move in. At the same time, the well-off, middle-class part of the city, dominated by ethnic Swedes, is becoming more privileged and more ‘Swedish’ in this sense.

Local Authority Policies for Social Inclusion

At the same time, as processes of social exclusion and residential segregation are accelerating in Sweden’s big cities, they have become the object for increasing political concern. This holds true for the Stockholm region, as well as those of Göteborg and Malmö. However, in Stockholm, in contrast to Göteborg and Malmö, there has, so far, been no attempt to seriously examine and evaluate these concerns. This project, therefore, suggests a broad and comprehensive investigation concerning the set-up and the effects of the initiatives and action taken.

In Stockholm there are different policies and programs designed to deal with the problems of integration/segregation with reference to immigrant populations. These attempts are often aimed at breaking the prevailing trends concerning residential patterns, but there are also determined efforts aimed at changing the prevailing trends on the labour market. One of the more attentive attempts to "put things in order", although not due to its financial size, is the so-called "Blomman fund" (see Introduction). These government grants (1995-) represent a government program targeted at so-called "special actions" ("särskilda åtgärder") in Swedish municipalities with a substantial immigrant population. To meet the given criteria of the program, the municipalities are to present programs of action ("handlingsplan"), and within these show how overarching goals of equity - i.e., equal opportunities for immigrants/new minorities and majority Swedes - could be reached and how interventions concerned with these objectives should be conducted. The government granted the amount of SEK 125 million to eight municipalities in and surrounding the three largest cities in Sweden: the metropolitan regions of Stockholm (6 municipalities), Göteborg and Malmö. These attempts are examples of targeted government intervention in multiethnic areas. They have, however, a marginal impact on the complex structure of needs and opportunities in the context of larger municipalities, and could, so far, be regarded as rather symbolic interventions. However, we consider the "Blomman fund" to be a quite obvious part of what should be studied, evaluated and followed-up through the present study. The efforts made in the municipalities must be seen, however, as a whole, and they are typically financed by a range of agencies.

Different municipalities, (according to their applications for the "Blomman fund") demonstrate quite different intentions embodied in their particular programs of action concerning problems of ethnic social exclusion and involuntary segregation (cf. Andersson in SOU 1996:151). Some of the municipalities already had considerable experience with organized measures in this respect, while others had only recently started to formulate programs to counteract problems faced with growing exclusion and segregation. As already mentioned, there are six municipalities in the Stockholm metropolitan region, (including eight larger housing areas): two residential areas in the municipality of Stockholm, two areas in the municipality of Botkyrka, and one each in the municipalities of Solna, Södertälje, Haninge, and Huddinge. These are also the municipalities with the highest proportion of immigrants in the greater Stockholm region.

In 1995, 19 of the largest and most ‘immigrant dense’ residential areas comprised 20% of all foreign born residents in the county of Stockholm. Only 4% of the county's Sweden-born population resided in these areas. On the average, these 19 areas are inhabited by an equal share of Swedish-born and foreign-born people, (58,600 and 57,300, respectively). Furthermore, they are all highly multiethnic and the number of nationalities represent ranges from a low of 49 in Ronna (Södertälje municipality) to 127 in Rinkeby (Stockholm). In eight of the areas, 100 or more nationalities are represented. When viewed from an ethnic perspective, however, we may conclude that the residential pattern varies a great deal between different nationalities. While only 5% of all Norwegians and Germans and less then 10% of all the Finns in the region live in these large immigrant-dense residential areas we find more than half of the Turkey-born population concentrated to these areas. Many other nationalities, (for instance, people born in Iraq, Greece, Ethiopia, and Lebanon) show almost the same degree of concentration in these areas, (40-48%). (Andersson, 1997b).

The selection of areas for this study has, therefore, faced a range of relevant alternatives. The main arguments guiding the selection of our particular areas for the study have been the following:

• earlier experience concerning organized or spontaneous action stimulating the active participation of citizens in local community efforts targeting segregation
• the quality of current strategies to achieve goals related to this objective
• the existence of actual programs and actual conditions making these efforts realistic.

On the basis of these criteria we have delimited our studies to two areas: Järvafältet and Jordbro.

One important reason for selecting the area of Järvafältet, located in the municipality of Stockholm, is related to its size and its social complexity. Approximately 60,000 people live in the area, and we have found a high density of people with an immigrant background. Extensive investments have been pumped into the area in past decades. Studies of local community programs related to Järvafältet can illustrate the highly varied preconditions which must be taken into consideration in efforts to develop new inclusive strategies. Järvafältet comprises a range of suburbs with different qualities, as well as histories, and consequently poses different points of departure for developing sustainable local participatory frameworks. Here, it is important to stress that the "Blomman fund" mentioned above, is only a limited investment in this part of the municipality of Stockholm. Rather, these grants can be seen as supporting in various ways the already existing projects related to the more comprehensive larger Stockholm City program of action for the suburban areas, called the Ytterstadsprogrammet (i.e., "The Suburban Programme").

This holds true concerning Jordbro as well; a residential area located in the municipality of Haninge. But, while Järvafältet has a long tradition of different civil movements as well as official strategies concerning different aspects of these issues, the municipality of Haninge and Jordbro is distinguished by newly initiated programs targeted at enhancing social inclusion and community cohesion. In contrast to Haninge where the local program of action refers to measures conducted by local authorities oriented towards a single residential area, Jordbro, Järvafältet, in the municipality of Stockholm, addresses a more complex set of measures, targeted at spatially related, but socially highly different, residential areas marked by a variety of conditions concerning economic structure, social class, ethnic composition and residential patterns. Järvafältet will, therefore, be the main focus of our study. The reason for choosing Jordbro in Haninge as an additional case study, is due to the unusually elaborated character of its program of action, when compared to current Swedish efforts in general. The design of its program provides the framework for a detailed plan, in relation to which particular actions targeted at enhanced community integration, could supposedly be more accurately evaluated. A more detailed description of the two areas, and an extended argument for selecting them for detailed study are presented below.

Järvafältet refers to a conglomeration of residential areas in the northern part of the municipality of Stockholm. Järvafältet, as a whole, is marked by a specific mixture of "rich" and "poor" areas, rare within the rest of the greater Stockholm region. Some of the suburban localities of Järvafältet have become known for their very high rates of unemployment among individuals with an immigrant background. On the one hand, these localities are characterized by their constant lack of resources, particularly local community funds, and labour market opportunities. On the other hand, there are other suburban areas in Järvafältet revealing a quite contrastive situation: they house a relatively, (above average for Stockholm) large middle-class and educated population, many of them foreign-born, and comprehensive opportunities on the local labour market, related to the presence of enterprises and industries, in advanced micro-electronics, and other high-tech branches.

The intention of the targeted programs of sustainable urban development which we find in Järvafältet, display a marked concern with labour market issues, and they comprise various projects where issues of work and education are intertwined. These measures penetrate different local institutional sectors of local communities, starting off already at the level of pre-school activities. Some of the larger projects, like, for example, the so-called "House of Enterprises" (Swedish: Företagens Hus) are concerned with counteracting long-term unemployment, and with support targeted at the enhancement of self-employment among immigrants. Others, like the "Rinkeby Language Centre" (Swedish: Rinkeby språkcentrum), which is a centre engaging in education and research, aim at making use of the verified, actually existing, but under-utilized, language skills in the area. Others again, as for example the project "Livstycket", have in focus immigrant women, who are trained in handicraft skills, as well as in language, mathematics and social science. All together, different projects are focused on combating unemployment through more proficient utilization of existing local competence.

Due to its joint administration it should be stressed that Järvafältet should be seen as a single unit. The geographical distance is small between its different constituent areas, and the wider city administration is held responsible for initiating and co-ordinating and monitoring joint schemes of action. Still, there are some important differences in the context of Järvafältet. Such measures meet, however, a reality marked by strikingly contrasting social and economic conditions, located within a range of a few kilometres. Here we shall, for the purpose of illustration, make a brief comparison of the local administrational units of Rinkeby and Kista.

Rinkeby is considered to be a "poor" suburb by general Stockholm standards. It is, at the same time, probably the most famous suburb in all of Sweden, which is due to the rich diversity of its population originating in more than 100 countries. The population consists of roughly 14,000 inhabitants and the foreign born part currently amounts to 62 percent of the total (far more if we include the ‘second generation immigrants’). The unemployment rate is much higher than the average, however, the income standard is far below, and the level of education relatively low. There exists here an extensive local tradition in working with issues of community integration and social inclusion, particularly targeted at certain "immigrant" and low income sections among the population. Community efforts in the area represent, to a large extent, "bottom-up" initiatives. This displays the tradition of this local community, marked by very active, locally based leaders, who have long pushed issues of racism and ethnically marked marginalisation and exclusion. In Rinkeby, with its strongly mixed population, there are, today, relatively few reports of open street level racism and overt locally based institutional discrimination, and these issues cannot be said to be at the core of the suburb's social problem.

Kista, on the other hand, is actually comprised of three linked local areas Kista, Husby and Akalla with a total population of approx. 28,000, among which 40 percent are of foreign-born origin. The locality of Kista has an extensive infrastructure when it comes to the local labour market. The suburb is famous for its large high-tech and electronic industry. It has a population of approximately 9,000, among which the foreign-born part is below 30% (in 1994 it was 26%). Kista has a considerable middle-class population and has become particularly popular as a residential choice for middle-class individuals with an immigrant background. The locality has all the economic and labour market related opportunities that Rinkeby lacks, but still a substantial part of the foreign-born population remains unemployed. It is also obvious that a part of the problem of social exclusion in Kista is found in the neighbouring Husby, more or less lacking the opportunities found in Kista and with a considerable higher rate of unemployment and social problems. Husby has a population of roughly 10,500 people and 55 percent of the population are foreign-born. In the local area related to Kista, Akalla, the composition of the population (in terms of immigrant background) is somewhere between Kista and Husby, and the same holds true for job opportunities.

Unemployment among immigrants and ethnically profiled social exclusion is, however, a problem which the three Kista localities together share with the rest of Sweden and these, therefore, have high priority concerning city administration and local community efforts. The actions in Kista, as a whole, thus, focus on generating enhanced job opportunities, particularly for immigrants. The intent is to increase the number of locally based employees in Kista, and to increase the social mobility of the local population. These attempts include projects trying to find ways of co-operating with the enterprises in the area, and to enhance the educational level among individuals having an immigrant or ethnic minority background, in ways which will match the types of education and skills required by the local economy. The Kista projects represent generally more or less "top-down" initiatives, mainly designed and organised by administrators and professionals.

Haninge/Jordbro

The municipality of Haninge, to the south of Stockholm, displays the intention of integrating immigrants through programs related to labour market issues, education and institutional care ("vård och omsorg"). Financial support is mainly targeted at building up various so-called "resource centres" launched by a recently initiated project called the "Jordbroprojektet". It has been developed in the residential locality of Jordbro, chosen as the second case for detailed examination and follow-up in the Swedish National Study. Considerable means tied to different projects (SEK 1.9 million) have been earmarked as resources for institutional monitoring: i.e., co-ordination "from above". Given the relatively short experience concerning publicly organized attempts at counteracting segregation and marginalisation of its inhabitants, the municipal program has been ambitiously prepared and outlined (Andersson in SOU 1996:151).

The overarching goal here is to "achieve a permanent breaking away from the condition of municipal housing segregation in Jordbro", (Jordbroprojektet, handlingsplan p 4). Another goal is to break the trend of high unemployment, (well above 20 %) which particularly hits the large foreign-born population, (37 % of the total population in Jordbro, 49% if we include second generation immigrants). Given the well-defined and prepared program initiated by the local authorities, Jordbro might offer a good example of how top down strategies work when it comes to issues of participatory frameworks and the engagement of local ethnic communities in projects for reconstruction and social inclusion.

The official rationale of the Jordbroprojektet is to increase the well-being and social security (Swedish: trygghet) of its residents, while at the same time doing this in ways that will stimulate the growth of local participatory frameworks and enhance the "quality of life" according to a range of criteria, ("livskvaliteten"). In contrast to Järvafältet in Stockholm, (see above), and particularly the Kista area, the action programs of the municipality of Haninge are more marginally concerned with the labour market as such. Instead, the project in Jordbro claims to run a three-pronged strategy aimed at "building bridges" ("bygga broar"); "to build together with those who live here" ("bygga med dem som finns"), and "to build on the basis of what exists" ("bygga med det som finns") (Lindberg 1996:115).

In a recent publication, Lindberg (1996) refers to the program in Jordbro as creating "bridges" linking various "cultures", "generations" and "youth-groups" with one another, as links between work, school, leisure and housing, ("boende"). Included are also ideas of bridging the present and common future visions about what the area could be, as well as linking the present to the local history, in order to create some kind of local identity. This bridge building is to create "meeting-points" ("mötesplatser") and a safe and diverse environment, to reduce barriers between different types of areas, etc. The bridges are to rest on trust in "what already exists", ("det som finns") by taking into account and exploiting existent resources, like for instance "qualities in the existent physical environment", the competence believed today to exist among, for instance, the unemployed, the creative energy believed to reside among the combined resources ("samlade resurser") among local stakeholders like youth, the elderly, local administrations, municipal authorities and various producers of services ((p 116).

The program’s aim is, thus, to mobilize a dormant creativity supposedly residing among those living and acting in the area, ("building with those who exist"). But, to pick-up good ideas and transform these into actions demands mobilization and co-ordination, it is argued (Lindberg 1996:117). This task is supposed to be co-ordinated and monitored chiefly by six different "resource centres" ("resurscentrum"): a so-called "Health Centre", an "Educational Centre", a "Democracy Centre", an "Information Centre", a "Development Centre" ("Utvecklingscentrum"), and a so-called "House of Youth". In contrast to the markedly "bottom up" initiatives marking the locality of Rinkeby in the municipality of Stockholm, discussed above, (one of the localities of the Järvafältet), the ambitious program in Jordbro represents a "top-down" perspective intended to invoke a "bottom-up" response. In Jordbro the program organizers, moreover, maintain that the effects of these actions should have a measurable quality. This should be realized by gathering data supposed to mirror the "well-being" ("trivsel") and "security" ("trygghet") of the people living and working in the area, the distribution of information between various groups, the socio-economic development in the area, the health status of the residents, etc.

Summary

By selecting the two areas belonging to the greater Stockholm region described above, we believe that we will be able to study important patterns of social exclusion in Sweden today, as well as attempt to counteract them. Both Järvafältet, (in the municipality of Stockholm) - with the notable exception of Kista - and Jordbro in Haninge are becoming "poorer" areas and areas that increasingly suffer from the effects of forms of social exclusion rapidly expanding in Sweden, today. The area of Kista has a different record due to its relatively favourable opportunities, but at the same time it is obvious that the trend manifested in a growing unemployed population with an immigrant background has to be broken. Otherwise, Kista could come to face a situation of socio-economic deterioration and increasing social exclusion like Husby and Rinkeby. At the same time, we meet a number of quite different strategies in the case study areas intended to counteract the many obvious problems associated with social exclusion. The municipality of Stockholm chiefly invests its efforts in actions related to the labour market, while Haninge is trying to stimulate social processes believed to increase a sense of social security, to build local participatory frameworks, and enhance the quality of life of its population. Rinkeby has an established tradition of coping with problems of social exclusion and discrimination, representing a markedly "bottom-up" strategy. Here, Jordbro represents an extreme opposite, "top-down" approach for the building up of participatory frameworks. We do not find the same long experience with active civil society involvement here as in Rinkeby, and the current strategies are being monitored by local authorities.

Tasks and Methods

One basic task of the Swedish national team is to collect and analyze background data concerning the Stockholm region. This includes current official statistics of the Stockholm metropolitan region, as well as other empirical material compiled in government reports and earlier studies, as well as the compilation of detailed data concerning the two local areas chosen for the case studies: Järvafeltet and Jordbro. Data from the areas will be analyzed from a complex comparative perspective and the complex internal differentiation within each area described. The project already has access to one of the most advanced databases existing outside Statistics Sweden and such databases have been used in a number of studies of segregation-related issues, not least, in connection with the parliamentary commission on Immigrant Policy. These databases will have to be updated and further improved.

A second long-term task of the researchers is to elucidate interaction between local policy-makers, organizations, NGOs, informal citizens' initiatives and individuals. The task of the researchers is to assess the development and interplay of both "bottom up", (community group led) and "top-down", (municipally led) initiatives, institutions and structures as represented within the local areas and communities in question. Special concern will be given to the participation of migrants and ethnic minorities, their associations and networks, and informal initiatives.

A third important task is related to the generation of "results": i.e., the production of theoretical knowledge and policy relevant recommendations concerning best practices and strategies for the participatory inclusion of immigrants into the various spheres of public decision-making. This task will be effectuated through systematic networking and co-operation involving researchers, politicians, civil servants and NGOs. These issues should be jointly covered by the research team.

The methods of research are mainly qualitative. Against a background of a solid and statistically based mapping of a number of indicators in the Stockholm area in general, and the chosen urban contexts in particular, (demography, socio-economic structure, labour market involvement, education, health, residential patterns and processes of segregation etc.), an extensive collection of data through the employment of various qualitative methods will take place: This will include individual interviews, group discussions, participant observation in public meetings and community activities, network analyses, situation analyses and discourse analyses concerning policy statements, programs and the special local "projects" financed by the Swedish governmental initiative against segregation targeted at the integration of population groups with an immigrant background.

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