In this presentation the main arguments from the newly accepted article Reinforcing the Centaur state: Evictions, family policing and racism in Sweden (forthcoming in Critical and Radical Social Work) is presented.

The article explores how residents of Järva reflect on an eviction reform introduced by the Tidö Government to create safer neighborhoods.

The measure extends landlords’ power to evict families because of crime committed by a child in the household, and the study analyses how the policy expands criminal policy into the reproductive sphere, reshaping parenting, family relations, and trust in welfare institutions.

Residents’ accounts reveal how the threat of eviction operates as a form of reproductive racism, reinforcing authoritarian parenting, cultivating intra-family suspicion and undermining trust in social services.

Theoretically, by bringing Loïc Wacquant’s concept of the Centaur state into dialogue with Dorothy Roberts’ understanding of the family policing system, the article situates the eviction reform within the framework of a broader remodelling of the Nordic welfare state.

The seminar will be held in English.

Presenter

Leandro Schclarek Mulinari, associate professor and associate senior lecturer in social work with a policing focus at Södertörn University

Chair

Johanna Sixtensson, senior lecturer, Department of social work, Malmö University

Practical information

You are welcome to attend the seminar in person at Niagara. If you are not employed by the university, you need to register by emailing johanna.sixtensson@mau.se no later than the day before the seminar, as an access card is required to access the room.

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