Study reveals racial discrimination persists in Swedish shops and malls
A new study documents how people of color face everyday racism in Swedish stores—from surveillance to exclusion—challenging the country's image as a color-blind society. The findings expose how consumption spaces, often viewed as neutral marketplaces, actively reproduce racial inequality and urban segregation, with implications for retailers, city planners, and policymakers tackling social division.
Originaltitel: Racism Shaping Consumption Spaces: Shopping in Sweden
<p>Consumption spaces are culturally allegedly equally accessible to all, based on a person’s abilityto spend money. Critical race studies in a North American context have shown, however, thatconsumption spaces are highly racialized. Racism in consumption spaces in northern Europe isan under-researched area. This article is based on interviews with individuals racialized as non-White about experiences of everyday racism in consumption places in Sweden. It aims to fillthis research gap and answer the questions of how people respond to experiences of racism inconsumption spaces, and how we can understand the spatial aspects of racism that are actedout and reproduced in spaces of consumption. As consumption is a central part of urban life,this understanding helps to further reveal the depth of social inequalities that in turn reinforcepatterns of urban segregation and social spatial division. Theoretically, the spatialization ofeveryday racism and the notion of color-blindness that is prevalent in Sweden underlines howthese experiences shape urban practices such as spatial exclusion and self-constraint.</p>