Intergenerational Interventions in Gothenburg, Sweden: How is the Problem Represented?

This study focuses on how intergenerational interventions are represented in municipal policy documents. It concentrates on policy texts that regulate non-formal education and care in Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, between 2013 and 2022. The empirical material consists of three city budgets and nine strategic programs and action plans regarding social care, human rights, public health, culture promotion and social inclusion. The policy analysis builds on Foucault’s and Bacchi’s perspectives on the problem construct and subject positionalities. The results show that a major part of the local policies considers children and older adults to be the primary victims, but also the main sources, of age segregation. There is a paradox in which intergenerational interventions become monogenerational through an inherent focus on either older adults or children. This dualistic generational construct leads to intergenerational silence, where “age-friendly” and “child-friendly” approaches tend to operate in parallel rather than mutually support each other.