The context of the rental housing market in Sweden has changed substantially in recent decades as neoliberal housing policies have been introduced. One prominent example is the 2011 “Allbolagen” reform that reframed the conditions of the public housing sector whilst destabilising the collective bargaining system for rent-setting. In effect, ”business-like principles” now define the rules for housing provision. Nevertheless, existing housing institutions, specifically the Swedish Union of Tenants (SUT), continue to be crucial national stakeholders and hold central positions in shaping the direction of housing policy. It is critical to widen the understanding of these ongoing developments in relation to a broader global neoliberal scheme and address how the very democratic idea of housing as fulfilling a greater public purpose can arguably be discursively dismantled from within, and moreover, the possibilities and constraints political actors have in defining such direction. Thus, this thesis aims to explore the role of the Swedish Union of Tenants in shaping the direction of housing policy in relation to this globalised neoliberal landscape. The thesis presents a qualitative study of the negotiation and consultation process (2005-2010) that led up to the new Allbolagen legislation in 2011. Building on officially stated positions and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the SUT, the key analytical findings suggest that the organisation’s significant role in shaping the outcome can be understood through the ways they opposed the neoliberal form of reasoning. The result influenced by the SUT ought to be better understood through their emphasis on the political, the language of collective power and tenants’ rights as citizens’ rights, that challenged the economised rationality that had paved for a reform. In so doing, it is making visible inherent power struggles in the Swedish housing realm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-54909 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Kolarby, Lisa |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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