Work

State-led stigmatisation of place and the politics of the exception

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Ghetto area’ has become an official categorisation in Danish housing policy. This article investigates how this stigmatising spatialisation of politics and policy has emerged through evolving storylines for particular housing estates, which gradually have come to structure political debate and become institutionalised in official policy. While political actors can draw on different storylines, it is argued that a range of storylines and associated quantifiable criteria combine to produce a generic ‘ghetto place’ in Danish politics. This scale-framing and objectification have enabled a politics of the exception, making it possible to apply extraordinary measures to particular places. This has significant effects for inhabitants in these places and the cities in which they are located, and it is proposed that, in the longer term, the politics of the exception could also become a battering ram against the collectively owned non-profit housing sector in Denmark.

Source: Environment and Planning C Politics and Space

DOI: 10.1177/23996544221119387

Authors: Sara Høier Olsen, Henrik Gutzon Larsen

Institution: Lund University

Language: English

Topic: Urban Planning and Governance

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Sustainable cities and communities, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,250