Dahlstedt, Magnus, Reserverad demokrati : representation i ett mångetniskt Sverige. - 1. uppl. - Umeå : Boréa, 2005. - 362 s. : ill. – (Linköping studies in arts and science ; 305)
Sammanfattning på engelska med titeln: Reserved democracy

Abstract [English]:
The study explores the complex aspects of representation of “immigrants”, in informal as well as formal contexts. Based on fieldwork, participant observation, individual and focus group interviews carried out in a number of multi-ethnic suburbs throughout Sweden, as well as analysis of political documents and press material, the study explores different ways in which “immigrants” are represented in Swedish society. Issues of political agency are related to the context of dominantly negative representations of “immigrants” in political rhetoric, media and popular discourses.
The study examines dimensions of representation located both “front stage” and “backstage” of Swedish democracy. Party politics, news media and popular culture — all of them important “front stage” sites for the exercise of power — are the three arenas analysed. The dynamics of representation, however, also has it own “backstage” contexts, manifested in diverse forms of resistance, including withdrawal and non-voting. The main argument of the study is that Swedish democracy is hierarchically ordered and divided along ethnic lines.
Based on the problematic premise that the national community presupposes cultural homogeneity, a mono-cultural hegemony appears on the different arenas studied.
The study concludes that it is necessary to scrutinise both the “national imaginations” which legitimise this hegemony and the politics of “diversity management” put forward as a “solution” to the problems of representation confronting democracy in contemporary, multi-ethnic societies.
Keywords: Representation, Ethnicity, National Imagination, Swedish Democracy, Racism, Segregation, Politics, Multi-Ethnic Suburbs.

[Swedish]
Svensk demokrati ger, enligt lag, samtliga medborgare samma rätt att medverka i hur landet styrs. Men hur fungerar egentligen svensk demokrati i praktiken? Omfattar den alla eller är den förbehållen vissa?
Magnus Dahlstedt har studerat den svenska demokratin i ett mångetniskt sammanhang, i spänningsfältet mellan en heterogen befolkning och ideal om kulturell homogenitet. Han visar hur demokratin i samtidens Sverige är skiktad längs etniska linjer, där klyftor förstärks och återskapas.
Partipolitiken, nyhetsmedierna och populärkulturen demokratins skyltfönster analyseras i kontrast mot de mångetniska förortsmiljöer som allt mer kommit att utgöra demokratins bakgård. Demokratin är inte reserverad för alla, vilket leder till en reserverad inställning hos dem som inte inkluderas.
Magnus Dahlstedt doktorerade i januari 2005 vid Tema Etnicitet. Sedan 1998 ingår han i forskarnätverket PfMI, Partnerskap för Multietnisk Integration, där han har intresserat sig särskilt för processer av segregation och integration relaterat till den lokala demokratin.
Tillbaka till föregående sida