Rum för missbruk? Förhandlingar om stadsrummets användning i Göteborg

Abstract

This paper explores how conceptions of safety in visions and strategies for public space in the city of Gothenburg result in measures aimed at reducing the visibility of certain behaviors that causes feelings of insecurity in parts of the population. In Gothenburg one such measure has been to build wind breaks intended for alcohol and drug users placed in the city’s marginal spaces. In this article I have focused on two cases where this particular measure has been carried out, namely the city districts Angered and Frölunda. By analyzing public documents and narratives of public officials through the orienting concepts of ordered-/appropriated space, inclusion/exclusion and borders I have identified three diagnostic frames that are being used in descriptions of problems associated with the visibility of drug and alcohol abuse in public spaces as well as in the process of formulating measures to solve these problems. These frames concern the appropriation of public space, threatful behavior and a wish to cherish the children and are to a varying extent represented in the decision processes that resulted in the wind breaks being built in Angered and Frölunda. The wind breaks are indicators of the apparent gap between vision and practice regarding the openness of public space, and also symbolizes the exclusion of marginalized parts of the population in the negotiations regarding the appropriate use of public space.