Challenging Notions of Sustainability – Counteracting the De-Politicisation of Sustainability with Perspectives from Everyday Life A Case Study of the City of Helsingborg - the Urban District of Planteringen

Sammanfattning: In the city of Helsingborg, Sweden, sustainable urban development is currently permeating the municipality’s work on all levels. The current understanding of sustainability in Helsingborg aims at simultaneously counteracting the ecological crisis contributing to economic growth and social justice. In line with Erik Swyngedouw’s theories, this thesis shows that the current conceptualisation of sustainability in Helsingborg is de-politicised. The definition and use of sustainability are fuzzy and lack concrete prioritisations and responsibilities. Sustainability is consensually conceptualised by experts. The efficiency of the decision-making processes is prioritised over maintaining democratic spaces for the city’s residents to contribute to conceptualising and contest the content of sustainability. Moreover, this thesis investigates the potential for a politicisation of sustainability from bottom up. The meanings and experiences of activities, practices, space/place where everyday life takes place, are investigated with residents in the peripherally situated and marginalised neighbourhood Planteringen. The case study concludes that the residents have distinct suggestions and visions for their local community and neighbourhood. Such visions can be debated and contested and thus politicised. As the residents claim space in their everyday life and speak up regarding what the community needs, they are subjects of spatial politics. From an everyday life perspective socio-ecological alternative arrangements can be envisioned and the de-politicisation of sustainability counteracted.