Den kreativa stadens fjärde stadsrum. En diskursanalytisk studie av det offentliga rummets förändring i Malmös skifte från industristad till kunskapsstad

Sammanfattning: During the latter half of the 20th century many cities have been characterized by a shiftfrom an industrial city to a knowledge based city, and so has also Malmö. Strategies toaccomplish this knowledge based community has under the last decades to a large extentbeen influenced by the theories of the creative class by Richard Florida. These theoriesconcern the creative class as the foundation of urban development and growth, which playsa big role in today’s prominent competition between cities and regions. The concept of thecreative class and the impacts it has on the city has been widely criticized, and this thesisaims to build on that critique.In today’s discourse we have identified the fourth place to be an important componentof the creative knowledge city. The fourth place is a development in the creative classpolicy and this thesis demonstrates what kind of public space is produced in this creativecity. Public spaces has an important history as a democratic arena and we believe that theconcept and implementation of the fourth place is changing that conception discursively.If the historical, democratic aspect of the public space is lost it is a matter of democraticloss for citizens and their right to the city.The thesis is based on a discourse analysis of a report that describes the fourth placein Malmö city. Features of the fourth place like the ambiguous boundaries and theinnovative atmosphere is recognized in Malmö Live, which is why we also have conductedobservations there. In this thesis we show that the public spaces in the knowledge city hasdifferent core values than the traditional ones we know, which also affects who feel theyhave access to them, and ultimately who has the right to the city.