Allt som är fast förflyktigas - En berättelse om förorten

The purpose of this paper is to from a Marxist approach explore the function of the modernistic housing projects in the neoliberal economy. Through a case study of the area Herrgården in Rosengård, Malmö and the ongoing city development strategy områdesprogrammet I look at the areas origins and development. Herrgården is a part of miljonprogrammet; the largest Swedish housing project of all times. A project founded in the modernist thought of social relations in an area depending on the built environment. Miljonprogrammet was built at a turning point; in a shift from modernity to postmodernity, from industrial society to postindustrial society. Once miljonprogrammet was completed in 1975 the ideals that constructed it was already obsolete. Harvey argues that the economical and cultural shift is strongly related since modernity is the cultural reaction to the crises of the capitalist system. New forms of production need new forms of expression. When the industrial production left the western world in the 1970s as a result of time-space compression the function of cities in the world economy changed. The main purpose of cities shifted from managerialism to entrepreneurialism; from providing a redistributing welfare to attracting capital. This shift has resulted in an increased inequality between and within cities manifesting itself in poverty, segregation and exclusion; consequences that can be clearly observed in Herrgården.