Fragmenting Cities

Hardback

Fragmenting Cities

The State, Territorial Stigmatization and Urban Marginality

9781789906936 Edward Elgar Publishing
Troels Schultz Larsen, Department of Social Sciences and Business and Kristian Nagel Delica, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Denmark
Publication Date: December 2024 ISBN: 978 1 78990 693 6 Extent: 274 pp
Fragmenting Cities offers a conceptionally innovative and empirically detailed analysis of the surprising acceptance and normalization of state-based stigmatization and discrimination based on place. It does this by drawing on the example of the first state-sanctioned definition of “ghetto”, the controversial “ghetto list” produced by the Danish government.

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Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
Fragmenting Cities offers a conceptionally innovative and empirically detailed analysis of the surprising acceptance and normalization of state-based stigmatization and discrimination based on place. It does this by drawing on the example of the first state-sanctioned definition of “ghetto”, the controversial “ghetto list” produced by the Danish government.
Troels Schultz Larsen and Kristian Nagel Delica introduce policy schizophrenia as a concept to describe instances where the state simultaneously stigmatizes people from the top while engaging in urban renewal at the bottom, deepening the fragmentation of the city. They develop a meticulously researched neo-Bourdieusian model of the state as nested fields, designed for empirical confrontation and comparative analysis. Through comprehensive socio-historical analysis, this book demonstrates how marked urban and political changes over the past four decades constituted a symbolic revolution, radically upending the fundamentals of not-for-profit housing.

Investigating relationships that have been neglected in contemporary governance research, urban studies, and critical political geography, this book is an essential read for academics, researchers and students of human geography, sociology, urban studies, planning, and governance. Additionally, it is an accessible and innovative resource for policymakers in the field.
Critical Acclaim
‘This book is a dazzling, compelling analysis of the urban ramifications of the disturbing re-shaping of the Danish welfare state. Taking inspiration from Bourdieusian sociology, the authors articulate with sparkling clarity how state-based stigmatization and discrimination based on place has served to fragment and divide a society commonly associated with human rights and tolerance. It is a book of profound importance that will help guard against the spread of symbolic violence.’
– Tom Slater, Columbia University, USA

‘Troels Schultz Larsen and Kristian Nagel Delica shed an original and essential light on the “ghetto problem”. Rather than taking this representation / category as granted, they direct our attention to those who have imposed it in the Danish public sphere. Elucidating the complex processes that fabricate territorial and racial stigmatization is crucial for new progressive perspectives to emerge. That is exactly what this book achieves.’
– Sylvie Tissot, University of Paris-8, France

‘Fragmenting Cities is a bold and original contribution to the political sociology of urban marginality inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and grounded in a deep historical case study of the making and unmaking of the so-called “ghettos” of Denmark. It is packed with sharp observations, smart theorizing and lucid policy elaborations reaching far beyond its national borders: in short, a must-read for serious students of the neoliberal metropolis.’
– Loïc Wacquant, University of California, Berkeley, US

Contents
Contents
Preface
1 Researching policy schizophrenia, the state, and the city
2 A neo-Bourdieusian model of the state as nested fields
geared for empirical confrontation and comparative research
3 The welfare state-city in crisis
4 The fragmentation of the policy-field of not-for-profit housing
5 The invention and institutionalization of the ghetto list
6 Parallel societies and the fragmentation of the city
7 The state of policy schizophrenia and the fragmenting city
References
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