Juan Velasquez is recognizing the difficulties that frame the fight against discrimination, segregation and racism in Sweden. Gender mainstreaming and anti-discrimination work usually go for disparate roads, in spite that growing racism, homophobia and antifeminism require bigger unification between civil society, administrators and the scientific community. To articulate these actors Velasquez proposes transversal politics. He has studied this type of transversal work within the frame of a research project conducted in the multicultural community of Fittja, Botkyka municipality in the metropolitan region of Stockholm. To advance this work he has developed a perspective based on participatory research that has turned into a transversal research. From the interaction among municipal officials, women’s networks and researcher, Velasquez seeks to make two fundamental contributions to the discussion on transversal politics. The first one is to engage in the local community. Transversal politics has been lifted as a perspective to build feminist alliances to overcome global patriarchal structures, and case studies on micropolitics related to that discourse are still few. Both the way in which women performed diversity as well as the search for community among them is subject to a series of conditions that frame what Velasquez in the context of a multicultural suburb in the Swedish welfare state calls a suburban feminism. The second contribution is based on a study how women in a place like Fittja overcome the conditions that frame their political underrepresentation. Velasquez shows how women practice what feminist scholars named ”rooting” to analyse their subordinate condition, advancing dialogues where the use of affections and feelings are fundamental. These affections have been important to make ”shifting”, to go from the understanding of subordination to the construction of a local alliance to face the patriarchal outline that concern them. The understanding of the conditions that frame the construction of local feminist alliances is also analyzed in relation to the problems that urban governance can generate, when a transversal frame between women networks, the public administration and researcher is established in order to empower underrepresented groups among women.

By studying a place or a phenomena research contributes to the creation of the image of the thing that he or she studies. Also, planning is seen as a democratic tool, a way to ”make” democracy. In order to see what democratic ideals that is being express it becomes important to study the research about democracy in Botkyrka. It is from this thinking this study about democracy and research has been formed. The study is a mapping of the research about democracy work in Botkyrka between the years 1997-2014. Through explorative approach, the research has been identified and thematized. The method used is mapping with influences from qualitative content analysis and narrative approach. The research is analyzed by the theoretical concept of democracy and theories about representative-, participatory- and deliberative democracy are used. In this way the research’s story about Botkyrkas democracy work is captured. A total of 22 pieces of research projects has been identified and thematized. The thematization were based on the study's research questions and theoretical perspectives. The themes can be understood from two aspects, the first is about the research methodology and premises and the other about the content of the research. Ten themes were identified, analysed and discussed. Based on thematization the general research question about what democratic ideals the research expresses is being answered. The story of the research about the democracy work in Botkyrka contains a variety of expressions. Everything from classical democracy problems to stimulating research perspective is being processed and shifts between democratic ideals can be seen. Some research uses innovative methods and different theoretical approaches which indicates that the researchers want to explore new aspects of the concept of democracy. / Forskning bidrar till skapandet av bilden av platser och fenomen, forskaren är således medskapare av den verklighet han eller hon studerar. Samtidigt kan planering ses som ett sätt att göra demokrati, ett demokratiskt instrument. Att studera forskningen kring demokrati i Botkyrka blir därmed viktigt för att kunna se vilka demokratiska ideal denna ger uttryck för, då den påverkar hur samhället formas. Utifrån resonemanget växte denna studie om demokrati och forskning fram. Studien är en kartläggning över forskning kring Botkyrkas arbete med demokrati och delaktighet. Genom explorativ metod har forskningen identifierats och tematiserats. De metodologiska utgångspunkterna har varit i den kvalitativa innehållsanalysen, också element av narrativ metod har använts. Materialinsamlingen har genomgående präglats av det studerade objektet. Syftet med studien har varit att kartlägga forskning i Botkyrka inom ämnet demokrati och delaktighet mellan åren 1997-2014. Materialet har sedan analyserats utifrån begreppet demokrati med en fördjupning i de tre demokratiskolorna valdemokrati, deltagardemokrati och samtalsdemokrati. På så sätt fångas forskningens berättelse om Botkyrkas demokratiarbete. Sammanlagt har 22 forskningsalster identifierats och tematiserats. Tematiseringarna gjordes med utgångspunkt i studiens frågeställningar och teoretiska perspektiv. Temana kan förstås utifrån två olika aspekter, där den första handlar om forskningens metod och utgångspunkter och den andra om innehållet i forskningen. Totalt har tio teman skapats. Utifrån temana besvaras den övergripande frågeställningen om vilka demokratiska ideal forskningen ger uttryck för. Berättelsen om Botkyrkas demokratiarbete innehåller en variation av uttryck. Alltifrån klassiska demokratiproblem till utvecklande forskningsperspektiv behandlas och glidningar mellan olika demokratiska ideal kan ses. Några forskningsprojekt använder sig av nytänkande metoder och annorlunda teoretiska utgångspunkter vilket kan ses som ett tecken på att forskarna vill utforska nya aspekter av demokratin.