Social Investment Policies in Urban Planning: An Argumentative Discourse Analysis of the Regeneration Dialogue in Lindängen, Malmö

Sammanfattning: This thesis presents an argumentative discourse analysis of the municipal-led urban regeneration initiative the Regeneration Dialogue in Lindängen, Malmö, Sweden. As suggested by the so-called Malmö Commission, the Regeneration Dialogue attempts to establish extensive regeneration of a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhood without producing negative outcomes of current residents. With the aid of Maarten Hajer’s conceptualisation of argumentative discourse analysis, this thesis discerns a discourse-coalition enabled by shared storylines arguing for regeneration of Lindängen. These storylines are: a deterioration storyline, a social mobilisation storyline, and an investment fund storyline. Moreover, this thesis shows how the discourse-coalition is particularly informed by a social investment discourse. This thesis concludes that the Regeneration Dialogue is said to deflect regeneration-induced negative outcomes through social mobilisation and the implementation of an area-based investment fund. However, The implementation of an investment fund is contested and is thus not considered to contribute to the coherence of the discourse-coalition.