In the year of 1933, a large housing survey was carried out in Sweden, which was carried out against the background of the large housing shortage in the country, but most of all in the big cities such as Stockholm and Gothenburg. The results of the survey showed that the country needed housebuilding but foremost modern new houses and apartments which suited a modern lifestyle. In the song Rågsved (1963) the main protagonist is telling a story about the nice life in the new modern Swedish suburbs. Despite the optimism of the modern Swedish welfare state there are still those how oppose it as an example in the song Lyckliga Gatan (1967) by singer Anna-Lena Löfgren. 

One of the new housing projects that were introduced was the upbringing of the so-called ABC-town. In the novel City in the World (1968) the Swedish author Per Anders Fogelström describes through the eyes of the character Erik Karge how Stockholm has grown and how Eriks family are moving into Vällingby as a way of living the dream of the modern lifestyle. In the same spirit as Fogelströms Erik in the author Lena Anderssons novel Sveas son (2018) we get to know the modern practical family man in Ragnar Johansson. First Ragnar builds his own house in which he and the family lives until he divorces his wife and moves to Vällingby with his new girlfriend Ingrid. 

In 1964, the government of Sweden despite the success of the ABC-town decides to build a million new homes for families in a period of 10 years. In the documentary Children of Jordbro (1975) the director Rainer Hartleb follows a group of young children living their ordinary lives in the suburbs. In the following film Living in Jordbro (1981) the children are young adults who discusses the future in the suburbs at the same time as the world are in the middle of the big oil crises. In the town of Rågsved, the punk group Ebba Grön released their single Were only in it for the drugs no. 1 (1979) as a protest of the city in Vantör which has decided to move the culture association of Oasen from the public building. A year prior to Ebba Gröns hit single the progressive rock and theater group Nationalteatern released their hit Barn av vår tid (Children of our time) as a way of protest the lack of activities for young adults in the suburbs of Gothenburg. 

The essays focus on how Sweden went from a land in crisis to a welfare state despite the growing segregation of the suburbs and how that was reflected through cultural expressions.