Holding it: Navigating public toilet provision and negotiating one’s right to the city in Lund
(2025) SGEM08 20251Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- Public toilets are recognized by the United Nations as a basic human right, but the Swedish government is currently not fulfilling their duty to ensure right-holders’ equal and universal access to public toilets. Responsibility has then, by default, fallen to local authorities. In the case of Lund, this is the municipality. Adequate sanitation has been identified by some as a vital criteria for what must be provided by the city in order for inhabitants' right to the city to be upheld. This further justifies employing a local, place-specific perspective on the issue of public toilet provision, which is done through the case study of Lund. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to examine the access to public toilets in Lund through the... (More)
- Public toilets are recognized by the United Nations as a basic human right, but the Swedish government is currently not fulfilling their duty to ensure right-holders’ equal and universal access to public toilets. Responsibility has then, by default, fallen to local authorities. In the case of Lund, this is the municipality. Adequate sanitation has been identified by some as a vital criteria for what must be provided by the city in order for inhabitants' right to the city to be upheld. This further justifies employing a local, place-specific perspective on the issue of public toilet provision, which is done through the case study of Lund. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to examine the access to public toilets in Lund through the theoretical perspective of the right to the city, which was considered alongside the concept of public space. The study was guided by two research questions:
1. How is the provision of public toilets in Lund organized?
2. How does public toilet provision in Lund affect residents' right to the city?
To understand the organisation of Lunds public toilet provision I performed document analysis and field visits. I conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with residents, which facilitated an exploration of the ways in which residents' daily life and their right to the city is shaped by public toilet provision. My findings suggest that the organisation of Lund’s public toilet provision is fragmented. This is largely due to the absence of national legislation that would mandate a universal public toilet provision and assign clear governance responsibilities among local authorities. As an extension of this fragmented organisation, Lund municipality’s communication of information to the public regarding toilet access is argued to be inadequate. Public toilet provision in Lund was found to shape residents' right to the city. Interviewees’ described the subtle and unsubtle ways they negotiated their presence in the city through adjustments to behavior and movement. Further, a lack of knowledge and a perceived scarcity of public toilets was heightened by negative social attitudes towards public toilets. As a result, many interviewees depended on publicly available toilets (i.e. commercial toilets). My findings highlight the conditional and sometimes exclusionary nature of such alternatives, and support the idea that publicly available toilets do not fulfill either citizens' right to sanitation and by extension, to the city. In conclusion, this thesis found that residents’ negotiate their right to the city on a daily basis through their use of its toilets. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9196544
- author
- Oskarsson, Agnes LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SGEM08 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Human Geography, Public toilets, Public space, The right to the city, Sanitation
- language
- English
- id
- 9196544
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-12 15:26:00
- date last changed
- 2025-06-12 15:26:00
@misc{9196544,
abstract = {{Public toilets are recognized by the United Nations as a basic human right, but the Swedish government is currently not fulfilling their duty to ensure right-holders’ equal and universal access to public toilets. Responsibility has then, by default, fallen to local authorities. In the case of Lund, this is the municipality. Adequate sanitation has been identified by some as a vital criteria for what must be provided by the city in order for inhabitants' right to the city to be upheld. This further justifies employing a local, place-specific perspective on the issue of public toilet provision, which is done through the case study of Lund. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to examine the access to public toilets in Lund through the theoretical perspective of the right to the city, which was considered alongside the concept of public space. The study was guided by two research questions:
1. How is the provision of public toilets in Lund organized?
2. How does public toilet provision in Lund affect residents' right to the city?
To understand the organisation of Lunds public toilet provision I performed document analysis and field visits. I conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with residents, which facilitated an exploration of the ways in which residents' daily life and their right to the city is shaped by public toilet provision. My findings suggest that the organisation of Lund’s public toilet provision is fragmented. This is largely due to the absence of national legislation that would mandate a universal public toilet provision and assign clear governance responsibilities among local authorities. As an extension of this fragmented organisation, Lund municipality’s communication of information to the public regarding toilet access is argued to be inadequate. Public toilet provision in Lund was found to shape residents' right to the city. Interviewees’ described the subtle and unsubtle ways they negotiated their presence in the city through adjustments to behavior and movement. Further, a lack of knowledge and a perceived scarcity of public toilets was heightened by negative social attitudes towards public toilets. As a result, many interviewees depended on publicly available toilets (i.e. commercial toilets). My findings highlight the conditional and sometimes exclusionary nature of such alternatives, and support the idea that publicly available toilets do not fulfill either citizens' right to sanitation and by extension, to the city. In conclusion, this thesis found that residents’ negotiate their right to the city on a daily basis through their use of its toilets.}},
author = {{Oskarsson, Agnes}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Holding it: Navigating public toilet provision and negotiating one’s right to the city in Lund}},
year = {{2025}},
}