'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 playe d a less significant role in the national policy domain than have regional issues. The shift towards a greater emphasis on urban issues is based mainl y on arguments for equality, indeed on the same basic arguments that have b een pushed for decades by advocates of the regional policy domain. The conc ept of distance, however, is changing from notions of physical distance in regional policy to social distance in the field of urban policy. Three year s ago, the Swedish Social Democratic Government set up several committees a nd commissions. Their purpose was to analyse thoroughly issues concerning h ousing, immigration, immigrant policies, and social exclusion in the metrop olitan 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 recommendatio ns. 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 th at economic and social segregation-not ethnic-is the basic underlying natur e of the division of population groups. Some of the data analysed by the co mmission 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 empha sis being placed on selective policies, one of the selective programmes is presented-an area-based policy-that aims to counteract ethnic residential s egregation and social exclusion processes. Finally, issues of city planning in the production and reproduction of segregation processes in contemporar y Sweden ave discussed.