ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with discourses on youth in suburban areas in Sweden, with a particular focus on different ways of conceptualising the problem of social exclusion and the possible means of addressing this problem. Analytically, the chapter draws on Carol Bacchi’s (1999) concept of problematisation, highlighting the ways in which phenomena, domains, or subjects are described as problematic – and thus in need of intervention. Empirically, the chapter is based on interviews and texts such as policy reports and debate articles. Interviews were conducted with local actors working in three suburban areas, including representatives from the police, schools, social services, and locally based projects, as well as youth living in these areas. Among local actors, on the one hand, the main focus is put on the “area of exclusion” and its inhabitants, as causing the problems of social exclusion. Among youth, on the other hand, the main focus is put on the mechanisms of social exclusion, in terms of current problematisations of the suburb and its inhabitants, and the interventions they make possible. These conflicting ways of conceptualising the problem of social exclusion, in turn, make possible certain ways of thinking about the future as well as about social change.
