The Violent and Dangerous Suburb : A Qualitative Study of Suburban Youth View of Exclusion, Suburbs, and Suburban Problems

Abstract: This study examines the perspectives of five young individuals on marginalization, suburbs, and suburban issues. All participants are male and between the ages of 16 and 20 years old, residing and growing up in the suburb of Nydala in Malmö County. The suburb is stigmatized as problematic by mainstream society, and this structure is reinforced by the participants' expressions of feeling excluded from society due to prevailing attitudes outside of their suburb. It is important to engage with these young individuals to shed light on the other side of the issue surrounding marginalization, suburbs, and suburban issues. The participants are also asked about potential solutions to contribute to the societal debate on suburban issues. Mainstream society reinforces the discourse on suburban issues by framing the suburb through a median perspective. The media distorts the image of the suburb and portrays it as a problematic "area of exclusion," according to the participants. This is done on erroneous grounds and does not consider the underlying factors that lead to the alleged problems. The subject can be analysed from different perspectives, the theoretical framework for this study is the Chicago school, terms like exklusion and deviance by Howard Becker.