'Divided cities' as a policy-based notion in Sweden

It is argued in this paper that Swedish policies are undergoing changes in relation to 'geographical thinking'. Traditionally, urban issues have played a less significant role in the national policy domain than have regional issues. The shift towards a greater emphasis on urban issues is based mainly on arguments for equality, indeed on the same basic arguments that have been pushed for decades by advocates of the regional policy domain. The concept of distance, however, is changing from notions of physical distance in regional policy to social distance in the field of urban policy. Three years ago, the Swedish Social Democratic Government set up several committees and commissions. Their purpose was to analyse thoroughly issues concerning housing, immigration, immigrant policies, and social exclusion in the metropolitan areas. These commissions comprised Members of Parliament and experts from universities and central and local public authorities. Most of these commissions have now finalised the work and made their policy recommendations. One of the commissions-the Commission on Metropolitan Areas-called its latest report, published in September 1997, Divided Cities. The commission's main conclusion was that the three major metropolitan areas in Sweden are clearly segregated according to ethnic and socio-economic criteria, but that economic and social segregation-not ethnic-is the basic underlying nature of the division of population groups. Some of the data analysed by the commission are presented here, but some further empirical findings have been added that place their analyses into a different perspective. As we are now witnessing a partial retreat from general welfare policies with more emphasis being placed on selective policies, one of the selective programmes is presented-an area-based policy-that aims to counteract ethnic residential segregation and social exclusion processes. Finally, issues of city planning in the production and reproduction of segregation processes in contemporary Sweden ave discussed.