Art and the Management of the Racial Archipelago: What is Äga Rum in the Million Homes Programmes in Malmö?

Abstract

In 2015, the Swedish government allocated 130 million SEK to Äga rum ('Taking Place'): a three-year program of arts projects across Sweden to address low voter turnout in certain housing areas, but which, in effect, target the immigrants. We argue-through a short account of Foucault's take on the state, biopolitics, race, and governmentalisation-that this is an example of contemporary state racism, which is best understood as an inextricable part of biopolitical governmentalisation through forms of veridiction. We further analyse a specific governmental program (Äga rum) and a specific project (anonymised) within that program which takes place in two Miljonprogrammet housing areas in Malmö. Although both the program and the project have clear political agendas of empowerment and anti-exclusion, we argue that they nevertheless end up producing racial divisions and what we call a 'racial archipelago.'