- We have a rather over-dramatic rhetoric in politics and the media. You set it up much like the world was divided into two different groups. That I think we should be very careful about, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Immigration is a hot issue

In the US and the United Kingdom, it is reported that the polarized political climate leads to fragmentation within the circles of friends, families and even among married couples. In Sweden, this phenomenon is more uncommon, at least so far.

Trädgårdh believes that there is almost consensus in Swedish politics on the basic issues.

- There is no one who wants to abolish the welfare state, statutory order or democracy in Sweden. Without what we have are some areas where it has become very hot. And it is above all immigration and integration, he says.

Negative trends

But there are clear signs of increased fragmentation in Sweden. Trägårdh has led the research project the confidence barometer, which has looked at social cohesion and trust over time and in different parts of the country.

- We see a tendency towards increased inequality, difference between city and country, a variation in trust and security. This is something we must take very seriously.

The center decreases, the outer edges grow

The SOM Institute in Gothenburg has also seen trends towards increased polarization, including greater differences in confidence in news media due to party sympathy. And that the political center in Sweden is declining.

School, military service and media

Ethnic and social housing segregation and social media logic make meetings between people with different views and experiences more difficult. Lars Trägårdh also mentions the closure of three institutions, which have historically created social cohesion.

- One was the general public school, which was a place where people could meet, learn a common language and a common reality. The other was the rag, where young men were allowed to meet across class boundaries. And then we had the media. We had a common media, not least public service, as we call it today. All these three institutions have in recent years been abolished or pluralized in different ways. And we have no compensation institutions that can actually get people to meet, he says.

This article is part of the project Sweden meets. You can read more about the initiative on Sweden's homepage.