Volume 28.

March 2004 68-85

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

City in Change: Globalization, Local Politics

and Urban Movements in Contemporary
Stockholm
ULF STAHRE

Global cities
International research on contemporary city change in the context of globalization is
extensive, covering many different fields. In the early 1980s Friedmann and Wolff
(1982) presented their fundamental and well-known thesis the world city
hypothesis that around thirty `world cities' or `global cities' are centres of the
global economy and have certain characteristics in common. The political economist
Saskia Sassen has thoroughly analysed the ongoing development of the economic
structure in global cities (1991; 1998). Sassen states that the most striking
development is the emergence and growth of transnational corporations, banks,
financial, information and specialized service companies and international organizations of all kinds. At the same time there is an increase in the service sector, which is
polarized into one highly qualified part and one part providing unqualified services,
often in the shape of an informal, unregulated economy with low-paid immigrants
from the third world. The `middle-economy' becomes less important, i.e. companies
without international contacts on the market or with employees in routine work and
industrial production, which is often decentralized from the global cities. To sum up,
Sassen agues that the global cities are: (1) decision-places where the global economy
is coordinated; and (2) production-places of the specific goods and services that are
needed to keep the global economy going. Sassen stresses that the consequences of
the economic development in global cities will be social and spatial polarization,
where economic success and prosperity are in stark contrast to a new kind of poverty.
This polarization results in a divided city, or dual city, as Mollenkopf and Castells
called it in their analysis of New York (1991).
The economic theories on global cities and the polarization thesis have been
criticized in various ways (Samers, 2002). An important objection is that endogenous
processes in the big cities are not sufficiently taken into account. Thus, the fact that
polarization, especially in European cities, is often not very extensive can be explained
by local factors such as cultural patterns, protest movements, national welfare systems,
social housing and labour market institutions (cf. Hamnet, 1996; Samers, 2002). In other
big cities the coexistence of different networks has considerable influence on the
structure of the city. In Kuala Lumpur modern economic networks and Islamic
networks have created a rather different city from the `information city' of the western
world (Allen, 1999). Another example of the importance of different networks and
cultures is Hong Kong. The theories on global cities are mostly focused on a minor set
of economic activities based in small parts of these cities. Other factors such as cultural,
ethnic, religious, historical and architectural influences and trends are not always taken
into account to the same extent. In this way there is a risk that the theories on global
cities result in a form of economic reductionism (Robinson, 2002).
However, it is still evident that there are similar trends in the world's big cities
leading to social and economic polarization, even if local conditions and reactions can
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Globalization, local politics and urban movements in Stockholm

69

modify it. As Appadurai has stated, globalization is, in fact, a `deeply historical, uneven
and even localising process' (1996: 17).
Friedmann and Wolff (1982) have described the polarization and division of the
global cities using the somewhat provocative metaphors of the citadel and the ghetto.
This description invokes a drastic vision of a future in which capital and the well-off are
entrenched against the outsiders and the poor.
In the urban landscapes of the big cities this is visible in different ways, notably by
the expansion of the citadel. Transnational corporations and organizations as well as the
finance sector build extensive and exclusive new office establishments created by top
architects in the most desirable locations of the cities, which monopolize or intrude on
attractive environments (Sudjic, 1992; Zukin, 1992; 1995). But the physical and social
structures of the big cities are to a great extent also affected by other kinds of change.
The older central areas are increasingly taken over by the upper layers of society, a
development usually called gentrification, a term coined by the English sociologist
Ruth Glass (1964). Exclusive shops, restaurants and malls are also part of this process.
In her now classic work Loft Living, the American sociologist Sharon Zukin (1982) has
described and analysed the ongoing gentrification in New York. The result is that
eventually people with low incomes are forced to move out from the attractive central
areas to find cheaper living conditions. A striking example of this is the rapid change of
central residential districts in East Berlin such as Prenzlauer Berg (Stahre, 1998). The
citadel expands and consolidates its positions in central urban areas also in other ways.
Another common feature of the development in contemporary big cities is the
restructuring of older, often centrally situated, industrial or harbour districts like
London Docklands into expensive new urban areas provided with postmodern
luminosity (Hall, 1996). A further expression of the expansion of the citadel is the
separation and entrenchment of residential areas into `gated communities' described by
Blakely and Snyder in Fortress America (1997). This reinforces the segregation that has
become increasingly pronounced in so many urban areas.
Polarization and segregation are just some of the signs of contemporary big cities.
Deregulation and cutbacks in the public sector are some other tendencies in
international development in line with the ongoing globalization and coordination of
the economic systems. There are, according to the German political scientist Margit
Mayer (2000), three contemporary trends in local politics of big cities: (1) the new
competitive forms of urban development; (2) the erosion of traditional welfare rights;
(3) the expansion of the urban political system, also described as a shift from
`government' to `governance'.
This neoliberal urban politics is frequently put into practice. The dark sides of the
ongoing development like begging, criminality, poverty and homelessness are now
increasingly visible in the streets of the big cities. This is sometimes very tangible in the
confrontations that emerge between society and outsiders. `Non-tolerance' has become
a means to manage problems in society. Where this trend may lead is illustrated by Neil
Smith's (1996) analysis of the contemporary restructuring of New York in terms of
`urban frontiers' and the `revanchist city'.
Since Friedmann and Wolf presented their world city hypothesis there have been
many attempts to identify those cities that can be regarded as `world cities' or `global
cities'. In most specifications of world cities Stockholm is not included. An exception is
Paul Knox (1995), who classifies Stockholm as a global city.1 However, the question of
whether Stockholm should be regarded as a true global city or not would not seem to be
a very fruitful line of enquiry. Instead, the important issue must be to investigate in
which ways a big city is influenced by the globalization processes. In the case of
Stockholm globalization trends are clearly evident in the structure and development of
the city, as will be illustrated in the following section.
1

Knox's classification is based on three major functions: (1) transnational business; (2) international
affairs; and (3) cultural centrality.

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City change and city politics in Stockholm

For some decades there has been a conscious effort to give the city of Stockholm a more
prominent place on the European and, to some extent, also the global map. However,
Stockholm's role in the global economy has not been especially important, neither seen
from the point of view of the wider world nor regarding the actual circumstances. The
emergence of a vital IT-economy has, in recent years, partly changed this image, as will
be shown later. In a 1999 poll of 500 top executives in large European companies on the
best `business-city' in Europe, Stockholm was ranked eighteenth, first of the Nordic big
cities, however (Dagens Nyheter, 25 October 1999). That Stockholm's image really is
changing is shown by later rankings made by the international consultancy company
Jones Lang Lasalle. In the year 2000 Stockholm was ranked as the 4th strongest
expansive region in Europe. In 2001 it was ranked only 11th due to the crisis in the ITsector (Finanstidningen, 26 September 2001).
Stockholm's many regional planning publications present their own view of the role
of the region.2 Here, the Stockholm region is described as not very large and with a
geographical location far from the centre of Europe. But the region has several
advantages: a strategic location in the Baltic region, a developed infrastructure for data
and telecommunications, the research-dense corridor Uppsala-Stockholm-Sodertalje,
the urban and natural environment and a multi-ethnic population. Moreover, the
Stockholm region has seen strong economic growth, even from a European perspective.
Stockholm's economy has undergone a development similar to that of global cities
(cf. Sassen, 1991; 1998). In the Stockholm region there is a concentration on the
advanced service sector, such as media, marketing, finance, information and
communications technologies, all typical activities in contemporary global cities. The
rapid development in the Stockholm region has had the result that more than half the
economic growth in Sweden occurs there. The fast expanding IT-sector has been
concentrated in Stockholm due to the need for close contact with an efficient finance
market with venture capital. The IT-sector has become so dynamic, expansive and large
that Stockholm and Sweden itself are fast growing into the role of a global IT-centre.
The development in Stockholm with growth in sectors with highly qualified employees
has had consequences. Thus, there have at times been shortages of qualified people to
employ. At the same time there have been large numbers of unemployed with
insufficient qualifications. This nascent polarization on the labour market is a typical
feature of global city change. Another negative consequence of the extensive growth in
Stockholm is a problematic shortage in the housing sector.3
As mentioned, the image of Stockholm began to change in a very positive way toward
the end of the 1990s.4 Sweden's and Stockholm's importance as an IT-region has been
increasingly recognized. Global IT-corporations like Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola,
Nokia and Siemens have established research and development departments in Stockholm.
The image of Sweden and Stockholm has radically changed in a very short time. In the
international press the rapid Swedish IT-expansion has been written about and discussed.
In reports and interviews in magazines and newspapers such as The Financial Times,
Fortune, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Wired the favourable winds of
change in Sweden have been described. In an article in the American newsmagazine
Newsweek (7th February 2000), for instance, Sweden was appointed internet capital of
Europe, and described as place brimming with creativity, dynamism and culture.
The recent international and Swedish setback in the IT and telecommunications
economy may have altered this luminous image of `shining Stockholm' (ibid.) a little.
r arbetet att fra
mja Ekonomisk tillva
xt, fo
rnyelse och integration i
2 See, among others Program fo
Stockholmsregionen (1999: 6).
3 See Dagens Nyheter (3 September and 4 November 1999) containing interviews with officials in
Stockholm. Regarding the housing shortage, communications and economic life, see articles in
Dagens Nyheter (29 February 2000).
4 See, for instance, Dagens Nyheter (1 and 9 February 2000) and Ny Teknik (no. 6 2000).
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71

In particular, Ericsson one of the largest corporations in Sweden has had severe
problems, which in a number of ways has affected the whole Swedish IT and telecom
sector.5
The tendency toward polarization of the contemporary big city into a divided city is a
common feature of international big cities. However, this is for the time being a fairly
distant prospect in Stockholm even if it is visible in the urban landscape of the
Stockholm region.
The expansion of transnational corporations and the financial sector with new office
buildings which monopolize or intrude on attractive environments is evident also in the
urban landscape of Stockholm, albeit on a smaller scale than in many other big cities
(cf. Zukin, 1992; 1995). The culturally important areas directly to the north of the
central city district have been particularly attractive in this respect.
More important to the urban structure of Stockholm as a whole is the ongoing
transformation of the centre. Increasingly, the upper levels of society are taking over the
central parts of the city. New apartments with very high rents, the conversion of rental
flats into owned flats and the rapidly increasing prices of owner-occupied flats mean
that people with low incomes find it difficult to remain in the city centre and are forced
to move out to the suburbs. This gentrification process is particularly visible in districts
like Sodermalm, south of the Old Town. The transformation and gentrification of the
central parts of the city also means the emergence of shops, malls, restaurants and
services with ever increasing exclusivity an exclusivity that shuts many out.
In the Stockholm region there has long existed a geographical pattern of residence
which has been difficult to change. This pattern has a character of segregation along
ethnic and class lines, which has tended to increase. An impression of the development
is obtained by statistics of the proportion of immigrants in Stockholm's city districts.6
The three districts with the largest proportion of immigrants in 2002 were all in
northwest Stockholm: in Rinkeby 68% of residents were (first generation) immigrants,
in Kista 47% and in Spanga-Tensta 40%. Next came city districts in southern suburbs,
while the central town and older more central suburbs showed the smallest percentage.
Districts with many immigrants also had among the lowest incomes in the same year
and consequently the highest proportion of social allowances. Comparisons over time
show that the segregation increased during the 1990s, both in terms of the proportion of
immigrants and income levels. However, this trend seems to have halted more recently.
In the socially conscious society that Sweden and Stockholm still is, problems of
homelessness and begging have attracted much attention in the media and in public
debate. According to investigations by the City council, there were in 1997 just under
3,000 homeless people in the city (Dagens Nyheter, 7 July 1999).7 Internationally
regarded, this figure is very modest. However, 76% of the homeless in Stockholm were
also drug addicts. No fewer than 42% suffered some form of mental illness. This latter
figure represents a dramatic rise since 1993, when only 17% of such cases were
recorded. The reason for this can be attributed to the psychiatric reform of 1995, which
meant that mental hospitals were closed and many patients were directed to other forms
of medical care, which were insufficient or even non-existent. Social minister Lars
Engqvist later described the psychiatric reform as `one of the century's great sociorer (29 October 2001) and Ny Teknik (no. 24 2002).
5 See, for instance, Veckans Affa
6 The discussion about segregation builds on, among others, articles in Dagens Nyheter (31 August
1998; 23 April 1999). The statistics come from City of Stockholm (Statistik- och utredningskontoret,
www.usk.stockholm.se). First generation immigrants include foreign citizens and Swedish citizens
nga-Tensta also includes large areas with single-family houses
born abroad. The city district of Spa
nga. The incomes are disposable family-incomes.
in Spa
7 According to later investigations undertaken by Socialstyrelsen (The Swedish National Board of
Health and Welfare), the number of homeless in Sweden remained relatively constant in 1993 and
1999 (Dagens Nyheter, 17 January 2000). Later statistics show a decrease in the number of
homeless, which may be explained by the fact that many of them have lost contact with the
authorities (Dagens Nyheter 2 March 2002).
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Ulf Stahre

political failures' (Dagens Nyheter, 4 January 2000). How many of the homeless must
also actually sleep outside is difficult to estimate. The complex problems of the
homeless have made it hard to work out sustainable solutions. Voluntary organizations
such as Stadsmissionen (The City Mission of the Church of Sweden) and the Salvation
Army have taken a great part of the responsibility for the situation of the homeless.
They have managed to make better contacts with the homeless than the city council.8
That the situation of the homeless has attracted so much attention lately, although
their numbers have not increased, is probably due to the fact that they have become
more visible in the city. The homeless have in very marked ways disturbed the visible
order of the city and have made people feel provoked. Begging, which earlier was not
very common, has in the latter half of the 1990s become a regular means for homeless
and drug addicts to make money.9 Why the mental resistance to begging has so
suddenly disappeared is not easy to explain. Particularly in the underground begging
has become rather disturbing and given rise to demands for stricter regulations in order
to make it illegal in the underground and on suburban trains.
One way to handle the increasingly visible misery of the `ghetto' is, as often
discussed, to rebuild the problem environments (cf. Newman, 1972; Smith, 1996). It is
possible to privatize public places, e.g. to rebuild them into malls and thus transform the
responsibility from the city to private entrepreneurs. After that the unwanted can easily
be thrown out into the cold. Another way is to make begging a criminal offence. A
somewhat extreme measure is to build specially designed public areas in order to
maintain law and order. The installation of new seats in Katarina Bangata street is a first
sign of such a trend. The seats, which were designed at the Konstfack School of Design,
were placed there in 1998 in one of the bar and restaurant areas of Sodermalm in central
Stockholm. The narrow curved seats and lack of backs make it impossible to lie and
sleep on them. `The aim was to remove people who were lying here. People living in
the neighbourhood and the City Administration wanted that', says the responsible
architect, somewhat apologetically (Dagens Nyheter, 7 January 2000).
The new major trends in urban local politics are, as mentioned earlier: (1) the new
competitive forms of urban development; (2) the erosion of traditional welfare rights; and
(3) the expansion of the urban political system, also described as a shift from
`government' to `governance'. These three trends are also very visible in Stockholm.
As Margit Mayer has shown, it is not only in Sweden that this development is obvious and
also debated (cf. Mayer, 1999; 2000). At a time when countries are becoming increasingly
connected with the wider world in terms of politics, economics and culture, it is almost
inevitable that local politics in big cities in the western world will show similar tendencies.
In Stockholm a major aim has long been to increase Stockholm's competitiveness
compared to other regions in Europe. In various ways the government, the county
council and Stockholm city council have tried to promote this. The most important
method to achieve this has been to improve the infrastructure in different fields in a
strategic effort to transform Stockholm into a global city. For many years the
infrastructure of Stockholm had been a problem when it concerned traffic routes and
railways. A comprehensive plan for the extension of traffic routes and railways was
worked out in an agreement of 1991/1992 steered by Bengt Dennis, former director of
the Bank of Sweden, the so-called `Dennis-package'. The agreement included large
investments in communications and was signed by representatives of the three largest
political parties of the City of Stockholm.
The City of Stockholm has in different ways tried to support private investments.
Just some of the more striking examples will be mentioned here. The huge indoor arena
8 On the psychiatric reform see Dagens Nyheter (10 October 1999; 4 January 2000). For estimates of
the number of people sleeping outside see Dagens Nyheter (23 December 1998), Svenska Dagbladet
(4 December 1998; 9 August 1999) and Aftonbladet (12 January 1999). Regarding voluntary
organizations see Aftonbladet (23 December 1998) and Dagens Nyheter (19 May 1999).
9 Regarding begging see Aftonbladet (26 November 1999), Dagens Nyheter (4 and 5 December 1998;
7 May 1999) and Svenska Dagbladet (6 May 1999).
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73

`Globen' (the Globe) was, for instance, a result of so-called `forhandlingsplanering'

negotiation planning between the City of Stockholm and real estate companies. In
this way the accomplishing of the project and the undertaking of those involved were
regulated in connection with a new plan drawn up for the area. Norrtull Centre at Lake
Brunnsviken was an international project in collaboration with Japanese companies,
which was similarly supported by the City of Stockholm, even if in the end it didn't
materialize. The main office of SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) was allowed to be built at
one of the best locations in the Stockholm area on the edge of Lake Brunnsviken, close
to the Royal Park Haga.
An important element of the competition with the world at large has been festivals
and other big events, with the aim of attracting attention to Stockholm and creating a
good image of the city (cf. Haussermann and Siebel, 1993). A variety of high profile
and expensive events have been organized in recent years. Initiating this trend was the
construction of Globen, which amounted to a cost of 239 million Swedish crowns and
opened with the Ice-hockey World Championship of 1989. The first of the yearly Water
Festivals took place in 1991, with the most extravagant fireworks in Europe and the
largest outdoor party in Scandinavia. In 1994 1.5 million people visited the Water
Festival. In 1997 the City of Stockholm bid to host the Olympic Games in 2004 with a
74 million campaign that nevertheless failed in the end. In 1998 Stockholm was
appointed Cultural Capital of Europe and the extensive arrangements were carried
through with a budget of 460 million crowns. The Millennium celebrations featured a
large festival concentrated in the Old Town, with Europe's longest outdoor bar and a
new-year toast by the king from the castle. In global television broadcasts the events in
the world cities could be watched and compared. In June 2002 it was time for the next
big celebration the 750th anniversary of Stockholm. The main theme was now the
history of the city. Different periods were brought to life in the old parts of central
Stockholm with the help of sponsors from trade and industry.10
The first trend in contemporary local politics in Stockholm, as in other big cities, has
thus been to support economic life by improving infrastructure, supporting private
investments and marketing Stockholm with the help of big events. The second and third
major trends work in the opposite direction. The city has decreased its funding in some
of the former core areas like medical care, social welfare and public transport. One
reason for this has been lack of resources at a time of economic recession and
unemployment; another has been a consciously changed politics characterized by
deregulation and privatization.
In Stockholm the transformation of local politics was initiated in 1986 when the city
opened up possibilities for private alternatives to child welfare. Since then this
development has continued.11 In the social sector private entrepreneurs have
increasingly taken over child welfare and care for the elderly. At the beginning of
2000 40% of elderly care was run mainly by three large companies: Partena Care,
Carema and ISS Care. The amount of children in private day nurseries varied between
the city districts from 7% to 51% (Skarholmen and Maria/Gamla Stan respectively).
The number of private `free-schools' has increased. Other sectors have been subject to
competition by purchasing, e.g. public transport and street-maintenance. The city's
energy-company has been transformed and partly sold.
The general election of 1998 resulted in a coalition dominated by the conservatives
who gained a majority in Stockholm city council and the county council. The neoliberal
political agenda was firmly continued and the management of the hospital St Goran was
taken over by the private company Bure Halso- och sjukvard AB. In the autumn of 1999
the management of underground transport was taken over by Connex Tunnelbanan AB,
to a major extent French-owned. Some months later the management of suburban
10 The section on Stockholm's big events derives from Aftonbladet (31 December 1999), Dagens
Nyheter (21 April and 24 July 1999), Expressen (1 January 2000) and Svenska Dagbladet
(27 December 1999).
11 On city politics, see Dagens Nyheter (6 May 1999; 12 January 2000; 5, 15 and 17 February 2000).
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railway transport was taken over by the French-English-Swedish consortium

Citypendeln. In 1999 the city started to sell its houses and in this way transformed
rental flats into owned flats. Social assistance was cut as well as support to adult
education and associations, while the charges were raised in open medical care, public
transport and taxi services for the disabled.
The political domination of the conservative party and neoliberalism in Stockholm
resulted in a reaction at the general election in September 2002. The social democrats
then came into power in the city council, marking the beginning of a new politics that
will try to regulate and neutralize some of the effects of the free market.
To sum up, it is clear that the contemporary situation in Stockholm displays many of
the typical features that in the discourse on global cities are seen as representative of
those cities. Whether Stockholm can be labelled a global city is not a matter of great
importance. As shown above, the development of the Swedish IT-economy has a vital
importance to Stockholm's position in the world. Another important factor is the
development in the Baltic region, where the enlargement of the European Union could
bring a vast range of possibilities to Stockholm.
The polarization processes that are undoubtedly going on in Stockholm have been
much modified by local factors. Most important is the long tradition of welfare-state
politics in Sweden and the consensus around it. Social housing, social security in
various ways, and labour market institutions still function very well. One should also
not forget the deeply ingrained cultural pattern of social equality between citizens in
Sweden. Neoliberalism has certainly had a major impact on the development in
Stockholm in the last decade. However, the return of the social democrats into power in
Stockholm in 2002 most certainly means that a new politics will try to strengthen the
welfare system in Stockholm against unwanted consequences of globalization.
The case of Stockholm clearly shows how globalization can be changed and
modified by local actors, conditions and traditions. This local impact on globalization
transforms it into what Roland Robertson (1992) has called `glocalization'.
Important actors that have contributed to modifying globalization in the Stockholm
area are the urban social movements, which have been very active in different periods
since the 1960s. They can mainly be characterized as local movements, but global
trends and global movements have had a growing influence on them. In recent years
global movements have also come to Stockholm. The Swedish movements have at the
same time increasingly focused their actions against the consequences of globalization.
The urban movements in Stockholm are described and discussed in the next sections.

The movements of the 1960s

The history of Stockholm's urban movements starts with the environmental movement
in the 1960s, a movement that was much influenced by its era but also had many typical
Swedish features.
In the 1960s a new kind of social movement very rapidly emerged all over the
western world: the so-called `new social movements'. These movements had many
common features, some of which have been described by the anthropologists Gerlach
and Hine in their classic investigation People, Power, Change (1970). They found that
the structure of the movements had three main characteristics: (1) it was segmented, i.e.
divided into many groups with varying size and aims; (2) it was decentralized and
polycephalous, i.e. the various groups had many competitive leaders; and (3) it was
reticulated, i.e. it formed a network-structure of different groups, which was
continuously changing. This structure was very typical of the new movements of the
1960s and 1970s, but is still to be found in contemporary more radical movements (cf.
Melucci, 1996: 344). Another typical feature of the movements was that they were
greatly influenced by the New Left. Thus, their internal work was normally
characterized by participatory democracy and anti-authoritarian ideas. The movements'
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participatory democracy structure was, as David Held has argued, not only an
organizational model but also a way of life (Held, 1996). The New Left and the new
movements created a vital, intensely political culture in the 1960s and 1970s (cf. Stahre,
1999: 70; 2001).
However, the `new-social-movements' theories gradually seemed less relevant. In the
1980s the new movements decreased in size and became less important, a decline which
is difficult to explain (Touraine, 1995). It was also argued that the `new movements'
were not so new at all, but instead had historical connections with older movements, and
that they were changing in a more conventional direction (Tarrow, 1991). Furthermore,
new, quite different movements emerged, such as the democracy movement of 1989 in
Eastern Europe, the rise of the far right and Islamic fundamentalism.
As in the rest of the western world, the 1960s and 1970s were a time of radicalism and
new movements in Sweden. In Stockholm a pronounced urban movement very rapidly
emerged in 1968, mainly as a reaction against the ongoing radical restructuring of the
city. The so-called `Byalagsrorelsen', which may be translated as the `neighbourhood
movement', had all the typical features of the movements of the 1960s (Stahre, 1999;
2001). An exceptional feature of the movement was that it succeeded in bringing together
broad categories of the population of different ages and different political opinions.
However, the core of the groups consisted of young leftist activists, often students or
academics. The movement's ideology and vision of an alternative city included demands
for a more `human' urban environment and participation in city planning, but also a
vision of cooperation and fellowship among people in the city districts.
In the beginning the movement had considerable success, most notably the
internationally famous battle to save a group of elms in Kungstradgarden in central
Stockholm in 1971. Other victories were some major road projects in the central town,
which were stopped or delayed by the movement's protests. A change in city planning
politics then occurred in the early 1970s due to an economic recession in the Stockholm
region. This resulted in most of the controversial projects being abandoned. What
impact the neighbourhood movement had on this is difficult to estimate. The movement
came to an end around 1980 at a time when no more threats to the city's environment
seemed to remain.
The neighbourhood movement was clearly influenced by the political trends and
other `new' movements of that time. In other respects it was a very Swedish movement.
An important part of its ideology was based on traditions from the old peasant society
where cooperation among farmers in the villages was of vital importance. The
cooperative organization for this, the byalag, even gave the movement its name
Byalagsrorelsen. A fundamental principle was that such cooperation should be
introduced in the city. In line with this it was considered important to start with children
so that they learned to play and work together. These visions of cooperation,
community and fellowship were never to be realized. In their efforts to protect their
neighbourhoods, the movement's separate groups can also be considered `NIMBY' (not
in my backyard) groups. The movement had its correspondences in some other
countries at the same time, e.g. Denmark's `beboergrupper' and Germany's
`Buergerinitiative', which was the initial core of the German Green party.
The new movements of the 1960s as well as the neighbourhood movement
undoubtedly had an impact on society and politics in Sweden, but it is somewhat
difficult to evaluate their importance. However, it is possible to point to some
substantial progress towards an increased participatory democracy. In 1976 a new law
was passed on employee participation in decision-making, which regulated decisions in
all kinds of private and official organizations. Decisions on environmental issues got
similar regulations, notably in a new act on planning and building.12 The right to
participate in planning and to appeal against decisions was extended to tenants and
others. A similar regulation had earlier been made in an act on clearance of residential
properties.
12 The act was passed in 1987 after 19 years of investigations and debate.
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In Stockholm the protests against city planning also resulted in an increased

participation of citizens. This was realized in a remarkable project, the so-called `Traffic
Consultation', which was carried out in 1973/74 (cf. Miller, 1988). Here, all interested
citizens and more than 500 organizations in all parts of the city were invited to help draw
up a new plan for car traffic in Stockholm. This very extensive and expensive project was
an experiment in democracy but was never repeated. Another notable result in Stockholm
was that no large traffic routes were planned or built for more than fifteen years. It is
likely that this can be explained by the neighbourhood movement's activities. The lack of
road building gave the politicians in Stockholm a reputation for being passive.
However, maybe the movement's most important achievement in the end was that it
contributed to greater awareness of the value of a good urban environment and older
buildings. This was an important factor behind the rapid mobilization of new
environmental protests in the 1990s.

The urban environmental movement in Stockholm of the 1990s

In her analyses of contemporary urban movements Margit Mayer has distinguished
between three main categories of movements (Mayer, 1999; cf. Hamel et al., 2000):
(1) movements in opposition to the new competitive urban politics, involving several
different kinds of movements; (2) movements that act against the erosion of the welfare
state; and (3) movements engaged in cooperation with the local state.
In Stockholm the urban movements that emerged from around 1990 and afterwards
belonged to the first category. Thus, they protested against the new politics even though
their reasons were rather different. The first of the movements acted explicitly to protect
the urban environment and in that respect was similar to the neighbourhood movement
of the 1960s. But there were also great differences. This environmental movement shall
now be described.
The 1980s were a calm period in Stockholm with respect to urban conflicts. The
neighbourhood movement had come to an end and no other movements showed signs of
activity. However, the 1990s saw a radical change and became a period full of conflicts
around issues concerning the physical environment of the City of Stockholm (Stahre,
2001; 2002).13 The reason for this can be found in the strategic efforts to transform
Stockholm into a global city by improving the infrastructure of communications by the
aforementioned very comprehensive, so-called Dennis Package.
The planned traffic routes and railways of this `package' were considered by many to
threaten valuable urban areas and parks in the city. Furthermore, certain areas were
under threat by large office projects, many of which were related to the increasingly
global economy. Very soon a protest movement emerged against the ongoing and
planned change of the city. The rapid formation of the movement was, among other
things, due to the fact that the movement was to a great extent based on existing
organizations, like local history and nature conservation organizations and youth
organizations, which were mostly political.
The conflicts over the environment focused on three different issues: the construction
of a system of ring roads around central Stockholm; the expansion of the railway on the
west side of the Old Town at Riddarholmen; and different office building projects in the
valuable cultural areas around Lake Brunnsviken, with its royal parks, unique natural
beauty and central location close to the northern part of central Stockholm.
The movement of the 1990s was very heterogeneous and reflected some features of
today's society: fragmentation, individualization and globalization. The fragmentation
13 The sections on `The urban environmental movement of the 1990s' and `New movements' build upon
a number of interviews, collected written material and newspaper articles. The results have been
published in Stahre (1999; 2001; 2004). There are no detailed references to much of this material in
the present article.
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of the movement was apparent in the very large number of active organizations, which
also had very different characters. During the period 199296, there were 120 different
organizations in Stockholm which were in some way associated with the protestmovement (Wohlgemuth, 1997). These organizations ranged from the extreme left to
those characterized by rather conservative values. In addition, there were identity-based
organizations such as youth groups and groups of pensioners. There were groups
practising participatory democracy and others with a more traditional hierarchical
structure. Finally there were reactive, ad hoc organizations and those that had
permanent platforms.
Individualization occurred on different levels. There were a number of people,
mostly highly qualified, who carried out campaigns of their own, often through debate
articles in the press or through other initiatives. Furthermore, there was a group of key
persons who held important positions in two or more organizations simultaneously.
There were also examples of organizations that were very close to individual projects.
Globalization was only visible within some parts of the movement. Global contacts
existed mainly in certain organizations like, for example, `Alternativ stad' that had a
close connection with the global organization `Friends of the Earth'. In other groups
there were international contacts through specific activists. This occurred mainly within
leftist or ecological groups where the internet was an important resource for
internationalization. That the activists in these groups were mainly young implies that
global contacts to a great extent are a matter of generation.
The movement had, in principle, the same network structure that was typical of the
new movements of the 1960s, even if several of the participating organizations were
based on traditional hierarchical structures (cf. Gerlach and Hine, 1970). However, the
urban environmental movement of the 1990s had one element that was very different
from the earlier movement model: cooperation involving various forms of coalitions
and umbrella organizations. This kind of cooperation was very typical of the movement
of the 1990s and took place among different constellations of organizations, which
formed networks on various issues, often also with a coordinating umbrella
organization. These were formed mainly in the first part of the 1990s. On one hand
there were cooperations concentrating on more overarching issues, on the other hand
there existed geographically-based cooperations focused on specific road projects or
other issues.
The difficulties specific organizations had organizing large manifestations on their
own was obvious. A solution to the problem was to form these networks/coalitions,
often but not always with a coordinating umbrella organization. These cooperations had
great strategic advantages and appeared to function well and to be long-lasting. It can be
seen as a measure of the strength of the movement that so many functional cooperations
could be carried through. Cooperation in the form of networks of groups and umbrella
organizations seems generally to be an innovation of contemporary social movements
compared to the movements of the 1960s (Tarrow, 1998: 134; Klandermans, 1997:
143). These networks were of great importance to the environmental movement of the
1990s in Stockholm.
In general there are three different ways of exerting pressure on authorities in nonparliamentary activism: through creation of public opinion, consultation (lobbying,
petitions, etc.) and confrontation (Gidlund, 1978: 78). Creation of favourable public
opinion was the most important strategy for the movement of the 1990s and this took
different forms: publicity in the mass media, demonstrations and other public
manifestations, in some cases with spectacular elements, written public information and
exhibitions. Consultation was also frequent. Confrontation was unusual, but occurred in
the form of occasional occupations and some sabotage actions, the latter carried out by the
anarchistic group `Socialekologisk Aktion' (Social Ecological Action).
This is not the place to describe the long course of events of the urban environmental
conflicts, the activities of the movement, the creation of public opinion and the political
decisions. However, the result of a process lasting many years was that the movement
achieved some remarkable success through a number of political decisions in 1996 and
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1997, which can be summarized as follows: (1) the most controversial road projects
were stopped; (2) it was agreed that an alternative location for the railway through a
tunnel at Riddarholmen would be analysed; and (3) the area around Lake Brunnsviken
as well as Djurgarden was given legal protection and declared a National Urban Park.
The impact the urban environmental movement of the 1990s had on these results is
not so easy to estimate. It is quite clear that it was a changed attitude among the
decision-makers that led to a reconsideration of the Dennis Package and the commercial
exploitation of the Brunnsviken area. The more direct impact the movement had on this
changed attitude remains to be investigated. Nevertheless, a fair judgement is that the
extensive protests had considerable importance. This assumption is somewhat
confirmed in an article by the responsible minister of the Swedish government at that
time, Gorel Thurdin (1995). She describes how she met the environmental groups that
defended the Brunnsviken area and gradually became aware of how valuable its nature
and culture was. At last she came to the decision that Brunnsviken and its surroundings
needed to have legal protection. Furthermore, there is, according to interviews and
collected papers, some evidence of internal opposition to the proposed projects in the
Social Democratic Party. This opposition emerged with the help of active social
democrats in the protest movement and it may have had vital importance to the final
decisions. As mentioned before, the party had a leading position in Swedish as well as
local politics.
The new politics of opposition to the controversial projects and the turning point of
1996/1997 had the logical consequence that the activities of the urban environmental
movement decreased. The minority of organizations that had emerged directly as a
reaction to the city building projects that threatened the urban environment for the most
part ceased their activities. The majority of groups involved in the movement were
mainly programmatic and consequently had a more stable basis to continue their work,
which often focused on issues other than the urban environment. Such groups could
therefore live on with a renewed concentration on their original aims. This illustrates
the complexity of contemporary social movements; how organizations go in and out of
different movements and also how organizations can take part in two or more
movements at the same time.
In sum, it can be stated that the urban environmental movement of the 1990s to a
great extent ceased to be active in the years after 1997. At the same time, most of the
participating organizations were still in existence. Even if they no longer actively
focused on the urban environment, they still worked on with other issues. For the most
part they returned to their original core activities. Some organizations and numerous
active participants instead started to become active in a rather different movement that
now emerged.

The new contemporary urban movement in Stockholm

At the end of the 1990s new organizations were formed which were connected with the
urban environmental movement, and emerged from it, but worked with quite different
issues. This new urban movement has, according to Mayer's classification, acted
against the new competitive urban politics but in a different way from that of the
environmental movement (cf. Mayer, 1999). More precisely, this new movement
protested against the neoliberal tendencies in local politics, but also against the social
and spatial polarization that has become so obvious in the Stockholm region. Its critique
has been formulated primarily from radical leftist or environmental points of view.
Principally there have been two streams, which have certain characteristics in
common. The first of these two streams is characterized by its critique of the
development of society and has had an explicitly political approach towards local
politics in Stockholm. It can be regarded as a non-parliamentary political leftist
movement. The protests have been focused on the neoliberal politics of the city.
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Three organizations have, from different points of view, put the critique forward.
Most important has been the network `Stockholm Inte Till Salu' (Stockholm Not For
Sale), which was formed in 1999 in order to strengthen resistance to `the neoliberal
change of system that forms the basis of a new class-society characterized by social and
ethnic segregation' (demonstration flier, 25 November 1999). Composed of about
twenty organizations on the left wing, the network has opposed the current trends of
privatization in the public sector and gentrification of the city. The environmental
organizations Alternativ Stad (Alternative City) and Socialekologisk Aktion have been
very active, especially in initiating the formation of the network.
In 1997 activists from the anti-authoritarian left formed the network `Mot
Marknadens Diktatur' (Against the Dictatorship of the Market). The organization was
somewhat diffuse in its structure and actions, but can be regarded as an ideological
organization with an aim to inform and agitate against extreme expressions of the
market economy. The network did not only focus on issues concerning Stockholm, it
had a very broad perspective and worked with both global and local issues. Its main
purpose was to protest against the market-economy. The alternative was `the people's
power and resistance' in order to create `a society built on justice, solidarity and
internationalism' (demonstration flier, 1 April 2000). The network ceased to exist after
some years. In January 2001 the Swedish branch of the anti-globalization organization
Attac was founded, which more or less replaced the network.
Finally, `Kollektivtrafikant Stockholm' (Public Transport Travellers Stockholm) was
formed in 1997 with the aim of trying to improve public transport. Contrary to the two
networks mentioned above, Kollektivtrafikant Stockholm has been a solid organization
with a limited and precisely defined purpose. It can be regarded as a pressure group for
users of public transport. The organization has worked in a rather traditional way and
has also been more politically neutral than the other organizations.
The second of the two streams of urban movements to emerge drew inspiration from
the UK London organization `Reclaim the Streets' (RTS) and soon developed into a
pronounced youth movement. The strategy of the UK group has been to arrange `street
parties' in order to demonstrate their aim to `reclaim' the city and its streets from the
commercialized and globalized economy and society. The ideas of RTS soon spread to
other countries. On 16 May 1998, international, so-called `Global Street Parties' were
organized in about thirty big cities, mainly in Europe, and were repeated on the same
date for some years.
With the street parties as a political weapon, RTS has revitalized an expressive
political tradition with roots in the French revolution and medieval carnivals. The
carnivals were a temporary liberation from the pressure of the existing order. At the
same time power, order, law and rules were challenged. All of which is not so dissimilar
to the street parties of present times.
On Alternativ Stad's initiative a Global Street Party was also arranged in Stockholm.
In connection with this an independent Swedish group was formed with the name
`Reclaim the Streets'. This group arranged a second street party on 16 May the
following year. The street parties were very peaceful and cheerful events.
These events inspired others also. In 1999 a new group was formed called `Reclaim
the City' (RTC). RTC was an independent group which took the name because they
`thought it was a good name' as one of the initiators said (Dagens Nyheter, 21 September
1999). The core group later took the name `Gatans Parlament' (The Parliament of the
Street). Reclaim the City started its activities by arranging a street party at Gotgatan in
central Stockholm in September of that year. The street party was a protest against
motor-traffic, non-tolerance, racism and violence. It passed off with much music, dance,
food, fires, and jugglers amongst banners and slogans painted on the street. However,
the street party was dissolved in a violent police action, which attracted much attention
and led to heated debate in the media. Many participants in the street party afterwards
gave evidence of police brutality and an act of outrage on a totally peaceful
demonstration/street party. Swedish security police, however, wrote in their annual
report:
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In September 1999 a group within the autonomous network, which call themselves ``Reclaim
the City'', arranged a demonstration without permission a so-called street party in
central Stockholm. The purpose was to protest against motor-traffic and capitalism. The
manifestation turned into a violent riot, which resulted in the arrest of 243 people. Five of
them are now suspected to have initiated the riot.

On the website of the left-radical Inform an interview was made with activists from
Reclaim the City shortly before the street party took place. The purpose of the action
was explained as follows:
With this excellent street party RTC will also say something. They want to say that we have a
right to have fun in our own city, free of charge, without it being dependent on age or sex if
you have fun or not. They want to say that the city and the streets belong to us, the children,
the women, the workers, the immigrants and the homosexuals not the banks, the cars and
definitely not the rich. They want to show that in our streets we have the right to do what we
want, if we want to dance and sing we shall do it! They are taking this action because there is
a need for more life and more happy people in the city, because people of different ages and
from different places will be able to join in and have fun together. See the possibilities of a
good city our city. Everyone will be able to participate in deciding what the city should
look like, not just a few privileged people.14

Peaceful Stockholm had seen a dramatic outburst in the streets of the city. Police nontolerance was here confronted with youthful anarchism and festivity. The unfounded
violent end to the street party became a sensational event that witnessed something new
and inexplicable.
The following year, on 1 May 2000, a second street party was arranged with the
motto Reclaim the City. This time it passed off without confrontations with the police.
Reclaim the City street parties on the 1st of May became a tradition, but a tradition with
problems. The street party in 2003 resulted in much destruction in central Stockholm. It
ended in uncontrolled mayhem in which young teenagers started to run around
smashing shop windows.
With Swedish Reclaim the Streets and Reclaim the City and their actions a new
element has been added to the urban movements. The participants have to a large extent
been young people, many but not all of whom have had a background in the
anarchist youth circles in Stockholm. These circles form what the Swedish security
police call `the autonomous network'. This new movement is a synthesis of youth
cultural movements directed towards festivities, dance and music, and against the current
development of society in Stockholm along the lines of neoliberalism and non-tolerance.
At the same time, this movement has linked up with a somewhat older tradition. In
1990 a number of so-called `culture-clashes' took place in Stockholm and other
Swedish cities (Stahre, 1999: 219). Intersections of streets in town centres were blocked
in rush hours by sitting demonstrators, while musicians, comics, actors and dancers
entertained in the middle of the intersection. The demonstrators were mainly young,
even if they belonged to established organizations, some of which were simply youth
organizations.15 According to unverified information from contemporary environmental
activists in Stockholm, this inspired Reclaim the Streets in London to take the initiative
to their own `street parties'.
The short history of Reclaim the Streets very clearly illustrates the contemporary
globalization of many movements and the importance of the internet. The American
radical environmental organization Earth First! came to England in 1991, where it
mainly became a movement against motorways and other traffic-routes (Wall, 1999).
One of the new independent groups in London called itself Reclaim the Streets (RTS).
In the mid-1990s RTS started to arrange `street parties', which at the beginning were
14 Inform describes itself as an `organ of the non-parliamentary left in Stockholm' (www.motkraft.net/
inform/).
ltbiologerna, Stockholms
15 The culture-clashes in Stockholm were joint actions by Alternativ stad, Fa
n ungdom (Green youth, the youth organization of the Green party).
anarkister and Gro
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mostly focused on motor-traffic and motorways. One of the most successful occurred in
July 1996 on the M41 motorway in West London, where 6,000 participants took over
the motorway for nine hours in a street party.16 Later on RTS increasingly concentrated
its work and actions on fierce criticism of capitalist society in general and especially its
expressions in cities, although the streets remain the focus for the movement's
activities. Thus, RTS London now declares on the internet: `Ultimately it is in the
streets that power must be dissolved: for the streets where daily life is endured, suffered
and eroded, and where power is confronted and fought, must be turned into the domain
where daily life is enjoyed, created and nourished'.
In connection with the earlier mentioned Global Street Parties, in 1998 new RTS
groups were formed in several big cities, which inaugurated a global spread of the
movement. RTS now exists in many other parts of the world where street parties
consequently are also arranged. These new groups are quite independent from each
other and from RTS London, even if this organization has acted as a `catalyst'. RTS
London is trying to compile an internet-archive of what happens around the world and
therefore urges on its home site: `The Reclaim the Streets idea has grown up and left
home. Street parties and suchlike often happen without anyone in RTS London hearing
about them until afterwards, if at all . . . so do tell'.
Earth First! has spread in a similar way to many other countries. The global reach of
RTS and Earth First! has been very much inspired and informed by the internet. The
website of Reclaim the Streets in London, where detailed information can be found on
how to arrange street parties and on successful events in the history of RTS, has been
particularly influential. Another important resource for environmental issues are radical
publications, such as the American Earth First! Journal and the British Earth First!
Acton Update and Do or Die, among others, which are available on the internet.
The RTS and RTC in Stockholm are thus parts of a global network of independent
groups mainly connected through the internet. The advantage of this structure is
obviously the very rapid distribution of ideas and news. At the same time, the lack of a
firm organization makes the whole network of groups as well as the groups themselves
very diffuse and unstable. This is underlined by the centrality of colourful events such
as the street parties. The street parties constitute, as a matter of fact, much of the
movement. The combination of urban protests and parties with music, dance and joy
makes the movement very attractive to broad categories of young people, which means
that the street parties often become more parties than political manifestations. There is
much uncertainty among the authorities and the police on how to handle such a
movement. It is a new kind of movement a movement of an era of fast globalization.

Conclusions
Stockholm has many of the typical features that can be seen in today's global cities
even if it cannot be called a `global city': an expanding international economy,
especially in the IT-sector; a growing polarization of the city, with gentrification as well
as segregation and poverty; neoliberal local politics and political efforts to increase the
city's attractiveness through large infrastructure-projects and spectacular events. Many
of the ongoing economic, social and cultural changes that take place in the big cities
today can also be seen in Stockholm.
At the same time, Stockholm remains different in several ways due to local
structures. Most important is the long tradition of welfare-state politics in Sweden and
the consensus around it, with its old rhetoric and ultimate symbolic goal: to build a
`folkhem' (peoples home). Historically there is a deep-rooted pattern of social equality
between citizens in Swedish society and culture. Furthermore, institutions like social
housing, social security in various ways and labour market institutions still function
16 The information on Reclaim the Streets in London is from www.gn.apc.org/rts/ and Wall (1999).
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very well. Important actors in favour of the values of the welfare system are the Social
Democratic Party and their allies, the trade unions. With some interruptions they have
long dominated politics in Sweden and Stockholm. The situation and present
development in Stockholm shows how globalization can be changed and modified by
local actors, conditions and traditions. Thus, the polarization that has become so clearly
visible in many big cities around the world is comparatively less extensive in
Stockholm due to the above-mentioned local factors. The local modifying impact on
globalization is obvious.
Other important actors that contribute to this modifying development are the urban
social movements in Stockholm. They have been active since the 1960s and have
increasingly protested against the consequences of globalization. The environmental
movement of the 1990s has fiercely contested the proposed large infrastructure projects.
To some extent the earlier neighbourhood movement already took action against such
projects. The movement emerging at the end of the 1990s has instead protested against
the polarization of the city, the global market economy and the new local politics. The
three movements in Stockholm have also in themselves showed different signs of
globalization. Thus, the neighbourhood movements of the 1960s had the same structure
and much of the ideology of the movements in the western world at that time. The
environmental movement of the 1990s was characterized more by Swedish conditions,
although some of the more radical groups had extensive international contacts,
predominantly through the internet. The movement emerging at the end of the 1990s has
been especially with respect to the street parties part of a transnational movement.
As Guidry et al. (2000) have pointed out, globalization offers `contradictory
possibilities' to social movements as the capacity of states to assume regulation
decreases on their own territory. This means that international linkages and partnerships
become more important to movements, which can make them less independent. On the
other hand, globalization provides new opportunities for influencing both states and
non-state actors. In the case of Stockholm the urban movements have not yet taken
much advantage of these new possibilities. Until the end of the 1990s they were mainly
focused on urban physical environmental issues. In these conflicts hardly any attempts
were made to get support or put pressure on the authorities from abroad. The new
contemporary movements of the end of the 1990s have, in some ways, a different
strategy. Their main actions are focused on the new issues of the global city, especially
neoliberal city politics. They have increasingly taken advantage of the growing
`transnational public sphere' and its communications networks (ibid). Thus, some of its
organizations and participants have been variously engaged in the global movement
against economic globalization and have also taken part in actions against the EU and
EMU. In this process some of the more radical organizations have made alliances or
joined transnational movements like Friends of the Earth, Reclaim the Streets, Attac
and Peoples Global Action. This development has just started and it has not yet put any
noticeable pressure on local politics in Stockholm.
The global and local dimensions of local conflicts and struggles are not always selfevident or apparent. The urban movements in Stockholm have been influenced as much
by their milieu and environment as by global flows. This global impact has obviously
considerably increased over the last four decades. An important question is the extent to
which the contributions of the urban movements in Stockholm are original, or
connected to transnational and global influences. There are two main features of the
Swedish movements that are without doubt original.
1 Very clearly original was the ideology of the neighbourhood movement of the 1960s,
which took up traditions from the former Swedish peasant society and its organized
cooperation of independent farmers. This ideological vision aimed to create a new kind
of community, cooperation and fellowship among citizens in city-districts, blocks and
houses with the ultimate goal the Alternative City. In order to realize this vision, and
in the long run change people's behaviour, it was considered important to change
children's schooling and play environments so they learned to work and play together.
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2 Another element in the history of Stockholm's movements that must be regarded as

original appears with the emergence of the environmental movement of the 1990s.
The surprisingly rapid emergence of this movement was due to the fact that it was to
a great extent based on a large number of existing organizations. The many voluntary
organizations are a typical feature of the Swedish society and have long been a vital
base for a functioning democracy (cf. Putnam, 1992). Especially important in the
case of Stockholm was the existence of several local organizations all over the urban
area, which were focused on nature conservation and local history. Equally important
were a number of youth organizations, mostly political.
The history of Stockholm over the decades and the emergence of the urban movements
show how globalization has become increasingly important in the development of a big
city like Stockholm. The urban movements have been part of this process and they have
had a significant impact on it in certain areas.
In this article I have tried to sum up the results of my studies of the different social
movements in Stockholm from around 1968 up to today (Stahre, 1999; 2001; 2004).
With the help of interviews, written sources, newspapers, etc. it has been possible to
describe and understand the movements from various aspects. A much more difficult
task is to analyse the impact of the movements in Stockholm on politics and society. It
is generally the case that even if a movement's activities are an important factor behind
political decisions, this is seldom recognized in official documents. How and why
decisions are made in reality is seldom transparent. A movement can also achieve
unknown `silent victories'; i.e. projects that were never shown to the public because of
feared opposition. The simplest way to measure a movement's impact is probably by
analysing the concrete effects of its activities. However, it is necessary to separate the
movement's impact from that of other factors.
The neighbourhood movement of the 1960s illustrates this. Thus, although in the end
the movement achieved many of its goals regarding city planning, this was to a large
extent due to the fact that there was an economic recession at the same time. This makes
it difficult to quantify the specific impact of the movement on city planning at that time.
One has to go a step further in the analysis. In later years there were several signs that
the neighbourhood movement had substantial effects on city planning in Stockholm and
Sweden. Changes in the legislation on planning and building were made so citizens
could have more influence. Extensive efforts were also carried out in Stockholm to let
citizens take part in practical planning in all city districts. Another result was that no
large traffic routes were planned or built for more than fifteen years. Lastly, as I have
argued earlier, maybe in the end the movement's most important achievement was that
it contributed to shaping a greater consciousness of the value of a good urban
environment and older buildings.
I outlined earlier the achievements of the environmental movement of the 1990s.
Some of this later movement's goals were in the end obtained. Compared to the results
of the neighbourhood movement, the impact of the later movement is in some ways
easier to estimate, since there was no economic recession in the 1990s that could
explain what happened. A changed attitude among the decision-makers is, of course, the
most obvious explanation for the reconsideration of both the Dennis Package and the
exploitation of the Brunnsviken area. The impact the movement had on this changed
attitude remains to be researched, although the movement's protests were certainly of
vital importance. A written account from a responsible minister indicates this as well as
an emerging opposition in the Social democrat party.
What impact the new contemporary movements will have is not possible to foresee
now. The movements have raised new urban issues compared to previous movements
and above all actualized the fundamental question about Stockholm: whose city should
it be? Where this will end remains to be seen.
teborg University,
Ulf Stahre (ulf.stahre@hem.utfors.se), Department of Ethnology, Go
teborg, Sweden.
Box 200, 40530 Go
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Ulf Stahre

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