Seeing Segregation Happen : The Assembling of Normative Space and Attribution of Normative-Spatial-Identities

Abstract: In view of the augmenting spatial, socio-economic and ethnic segregation in Sweden over the last 30 years, the purpose of this study is to examine, illustrate and enhance the understanding of mundane segregation processes by studying how social actors collaboratively interact in Swedish online forums regarding in which areas it is “good” or “bad” to live in. The theoretical and methodological framework used to guide the collection, coding and analysis of empirical data is based on ethnomethodology and its applied methods conversation analysis, discursive psychology and membership categorization analysis. This implies a data-driven approach in which the analysis is solely based on the observable-and-reportable understandings of the interactants themselves. The results of the study show that the participants collaboratively orient to and assemble normative spatial categories by connecting these with spatial identities. Simply put, “good places” are treated as inherently linked to “good people”, and vice versa. Because of the way in which interactants treat these spatial-social categories as both inherently and normatively linked, the thesis introduces the concept normative-spatial-identities, in order to facilitate the investigation of how social actors collaboratively make sense of,  orient to and assemble normative spatial boundaries and in this fashion, contribute to enhancing the understanding of everyday inclusion-and-exclusion practices.