Racist Police Practices, Mobilities, and the Production of Urban Space : Power, Resistance, and Subjectification in the City of Malmö

Sammanfattning: This study aims to explore the relationship between racist police practices and the production of space in the city of Malmö, Sweden. Acknowledging the systemic inequalities inherent in Nordic welfarism and how past Swedish colonialist efforts inform such systems, it presupposes that racist police practices should be considered structural rather than dependent on individual actors. To holistically explore how intersections of essentialist categorizations such as race, gender, and class are imposed on individuals, it focuses on the intertwined concepts of space, mobility, power, resistance, and subjectification. Building on three interviews with racialized men with different ethnical backgrounds and class affiliations living in Malmö, the study suggests that the impacts of racist police practices on the informants’ everyday lives are profound. Such practices do not merely restrict and determine physical movement but also shape the production and perception of space, both public and private. While room to maneuver is limited, it is important to recognize that resistance, too, is an element in the production of space. The experiences and narratives of the informants highlight both explicit and implicit acts of resistance as well as self-protection, challenging dominant narratives and protecting them from the gaze and sometimes the violence of the police, and reclaiming space and mobility. Moreover, racist police practices significantly impact processes of self-formation, as racializing and criminalizing stereotypes are internalized through conforming to society’s expectations and through challenging such expectations. In mitigating the impacts of police encounters, the informants modify their daily actions and appearances.