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Recently, I came across a discussion about a proposal to restrict the wearing of religious headscarves in public spaces in Sweden. Like many public debates, it quickly became a discussion about what people wear, what they believe, and how they should fit into society. But while following the discussion, I found myself thinking about something else. Maybe we are debating symbols because we are struggling to answer a deeper question: What does it actually mean to belong? I was

One thing I have been thinking about recently is that communities can exist without being visible. Not invisible in a physical sense. Invisible in the sense that the people who might benefit from them do not know they are there. As someone who moved to Göteborg from another country, I have often discovered opportunities by accident rather than through a clear system. Looking back, I realised that many of the opportunities I found were not new. They had been there all along. I

When I first moved to Göteborg for my studies, I lived near Stigbergstorget, close to Majorna and Masthugget. For almost two and a half years, that became my understanding of Sweden. The area felt open, calm, and socially connected. In my student housing corridor, people from different backgrounds shared the same kitchen and everyday routines. Some were Swedish, some were from India, some were from African countries, different parts of Europe, and elsewhere. And somehow, it w

I often hear that cities need more housing. But when new homes are proposed, I also hear strong opposition to many of them. That tension seems to sit at the center of many housing debates. Build more homes. Protect existing neighborhoods. Move faster. Slow down. Meet climate goals. Keep life affordable. In practice, many of these tensions are real. But they are not always direct opposites. Quite often, they reflect different kinds of challenges being approached in the same wa

Many places are not empty. They are simply underused. Across cities and neighborhoods, many spaces physically exist. But they function weakly. A room with no clear purpose. A shared area people pass through quickly. A forgotten courtyard corner. A bench no one chooses. A passage avoided at night. A ground-floor unit left empty for years. These places rarely become urgent headlines. But they quietly shape how people experience everyday life. When such spaces finally gain atten