Wetterlin - En plats som alla andra, men ändå inte. En undersökning om den inre och yttre bilden av ett bostadsområde

Abstract

How we perceive ourselves in relation to where we live is a matter of how the place we live in is perceived by society and other people. Ristilammi (1994) points out that neighbourhoods considered bad reflect badly on the people who live there which causes them also having to define themselves through the expectations other people have on them based on where they live. Thus if the place we live in is associated with negative symbols such as crime, garbage and drugs it will most likely have an affect on how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings. I have focused my study on the neighbourhood of Wetterlin in my hometown Falköping. The neighbourhood has for a long time been considered as a "bad neighbourhood", and has been associated with crime and unsafety. In order to gain an understanding of what kind of affect the negative discourses of a neighborhood can have on the people living there I have interviewed five people who reside in said neighbourhood. The material has been analyzed through discourse analysis as well as Sara Ahmed's theoretical frameworks for stickiness and emotions. The study has shown that people living in the neighbourhood of Wetterlin in different ways have had to adapt to the position that the discourse has appointed them. From this position they might have found it necessary to reject the discourse and try to neutralize it in conversation with others. The study also proves that the understanding of Wetterlin is complex and how one perceives certain aspects of the neighbourhood may differ depending on individual reasons.