Jonas Lindström

PhD in sociology and senior lecturer in social work. My research areas mainly concern questions about the city, urban development and residential segregation. The aim is to shed light on inclusion and exclusion processes and how these can be read in a spatial context. In my research, I am interested in how images and perceptions about the city's different areas and places are constructed and are linked to reasoning about discursive power. The question for whom is the city becomes important from this perspective.

In my dissertation Dreaming of the New City - Urban Renewal in Post-Soviet Riga (2012), I put emphasis on how visions and dreams are produced in a struggle between different notions of the present and the future, where the past is the main component. In the dissertation, I highlight three tendencies – de-Sovietization, globalization and lettification – and how these together produce a new identity for the city. At the same time, these three completely different directions of development lead to an urban renewal that lacks overview and a unified vision.

In addition, I have conducted several research evaluations of various projects aimed to prevent segregation. The experiences and insights from these evaluations have formed the basis for popular science publications such as Segregation (2019) and educational publications such as Segregation – en viktig samhällsfråga (2023).