Racism Shaping Consumption Spaces: Shopping in Sweden

Consumption spaces are culturally allegedly equally accessible to all, based on a person’s ability to spend money. Critical race studies in a North American context have shown, however, that consumption spaces are highly racialized. Racism in consumption spaces in northern Europe is an under-researched area. This article is based on interviews with individuals racialized as non-White about experiences of everyday racism in consumption places in Sweden. It aims to fill this research gap and answer the questions of how people respond to experiences of racism in consumption spaces, and how we can understand the spatial aspects of racism that are acted out and reproduced in spaces of consumption. As consumption is a central part of urban life, this understanding helps to further reveal the depth of social inequalities that in turn reinforce patterns of urban segregation and social spatial division. Theoretically, the spatialization of everyday racism and the notion of color-blindness that is prevalent in Sweden underlines how these experiences shape urban practices such as spatial exclusion and self-constraint.