Delaktighet på kommunens villkor: En diskursanalys av medborgardelaktighet i planeringen av Järvaområdet

Sammanfattning

This study examines how citizen participation is presented and constructed in the planning of the Järva area in Stockholm. Through a discourse analysis, the study aims to uncover the power relations shaped in the interaction between the municipality and local residents, with a particular focus on how participation is framed in official documents and dialogue materials. The theoretical framework is based on concepts such as social sustainability, Susan Fainstein’s The Just City, and David Harvey’s right to the city. The results show that Järva is often constructed in planning discourse as a problem area characterized by socioeconomic challenges, low voter turnout, and a lack of trust in public authorities. This problem-oriented discourse is used to justify the need for special participation initiatives in which the municipality is positioned as the active party responsible for “activating” residents. The analysis of local dialogue processes highlights how citizens’ voices are neutralized through positive reframing. Through planning-oriented language, residents' lived experiences are recoded into technical categories such as “place identity” and “development proposals.” Criticism and local conflicts also tend to be neutralized by being framed within a positive vision of the “cohesive city,” creating an image of consensus that conceals underlying power structures. The study concludes that citizen participation in Järva largely takes place on the municipality’s terms. Despite stated ambitions of inclusion, the municipality retains interpretive authority over how the area and its needs are defined. As a result, participation risks functioning as a legitimizing tool for predetermined planning objectives rather than as a platform for genuine influence, leaving the right to the city as an institutionally constrained right.