Research project Urban riots
A comparative study of Stockholm and London.
This project investigates the socio-spatial production and mobilisation of urban political subjectivities through the comparative study of the London (2011) and Stockholm (2013) riots. These urban insurgencies were linked to differential experiences of multiscalar patterns of global neoliberalisation in the two cities, and a comparative study allows for a more nuanced understanding of their significance. Existing literatures emphasise the macro political-economic inequalities and segregation that contribute to urban riots, but they are not attentive to the low-level, everyday infrapolitics of the neighbourhoods affected.
Project description
Scholars have also failed to analyse the relationships between urban riots and broader practices of public life, creating a stark conceptual and normative division between riots and civil society, and this research interrogates the truth of this dichotomy. By repositioning riots as embedded in an interwoven continuum of diverse political actors, this project seeks to make major theoretical and empirical progress in understanding the socio-spatial dynamics of urban civil society in general, and the possibilities for creating more ´just´ and democratic cities. The project employs a comparative urban studies framework, chiefly incorporating interview and ethnographic material. This qualitative data will be analysed primarily through discourse and content analysis, supported by relevant conceptual tools in geographical and broader social science fields.
Project members
Project managers
Ilda Maria Lourenco Lindell
Senior Lecturer, Docent
More about this project
Researchers
Ilda Lindell
Anthony Ince (Cardiff University)
Thomas Borén