From housing segregation to integration in public space

In Sweden, urban design and spatial planning is rarely addressed in anti-segregation initiatives. Architectural issues have more or less been confined to matters regarding housing policy. Although segregation is an inherently spatial concept, its spatial dimension is analysed using quite simple spatial models and weak theories on the relation between spatial and social phenomena, methods that provide few analytical insights from an urban design perspective. The Swedish cityscape is to a large extent characterized by post war development, strongly influenced by neighbourhood planning ideas. What is conspicuous in many of these areas is the extreme segregation of public space and that many neighbourhoods are relatively spatially isolated from the city as a whole. Since prevailing approaches are giving weak guidance for urban design there will be an attempt in this paper to in part re-conceptualise the issue and possible generate new ideas on how to approach social segregation in a more spatially relevant way. This paper investigates how configurational theories and methods can contribute to more nuanced descriptions of spatial relations within different neighbourhoods and in the city as a whole. The result shows that the space syntax approach has the ability to shed light on essential configurational differences between neighbourhoods, even differences between neighborhoods that generally are ascribed similar characteristics, for example areas included in national antisegregation initiatives. If social segregation is related to segregation in public space it is essential that an approach is used that has the ability to capture such configurational properties. In this study it is found that more nuanced descriptions give valuable insight regarding the spatial conditions which opens for new possibilities for how policies in urban design can address the segregation problem and that this could be articulated with more efficient anti-segregation interventions, both on a neighbourhood level and on a city level. 1. Increasing segregation in metropolitan areas In Sweden, social segregation has been the subject of far-reaching political initiatives. Social and ethnic segregation, unequal living conditions, and unequal availability to services and to the labour market are commonplace and considered major social problems. It is stated that the negative outcome of segregation in some vulnerable areas limits possibilities for both individuals and neighbourhoods, difficulties that in the long run negatively can influence even national development and economical growth (SOU 2007:104). There has been an ever-increasing polarization between the most and the least attractive housing areas since 1970 (Öresjö 1997: 43) and it is stated that the inequality regarding the living conditions in different geographical areas has increased during the 1990s (SOU 2005:29). From an urban design perspective, a relevant question is how urban form influences these conditions, which calls for a better understanding of the social logic of the modern Swedish cityscape of today. Since the mid 1990s, the Swedish government has worked with different area-based programmes to counteract segregation and to improve the conditions for a long-term sustainable growth (SOU 2007:104). The aims of the Metropolitan Initiative, running for a five year period from 1999, was to promote sustainable economical growth, promote equal living conditions for the inhabitants, and to break social, ethnic, and discriminating segregation. Common to the large housing estates