(Re)searching Gothenburg : Essays on a changing city

Equipped with one of Europe's biggest ports, Gothenburg rapidly became a leading industrial city. Today, after the shutdown of the shipyards and with the car industry in the midst of a crisis, Gothenburg is the Swedish city where the transition to a postindustrial condition is most evident. Should this transformation primarily be understood through the local history of Gothenburg, or in relation to a more general global development? Could one even deal with worldwide urban changes by researching Gothenburg? (Re)searching Gothenburg is an ambitious attempt to bridge the gap between academic urban research and the public debate on urban transformation. Scholars from a number of disciplines were invited to write a text that would not require previous knowledge of Gothenburg, but at the same time would offer native Gothenburgers new perspectives on their city. The result is not only a nuanced representation of a city in transition, but also a more wide-ranging discussion of modern and postmodern public space and urbanity. In 37 comprehensible and initiated texts the gentrification of city space, the city's colonial past, the mythical "Gothenburg spirit", homosexual meeting points, the fire catastrophe on Hisingen, the riots during the EU-summit meeting and a lot more is discussed. Never before has post-industrial Gothenburg been exposed to such a many-sided survey.