Talk:Greater Malmö

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[edit] Title of this article

I wonder if Metropolitan Malmö is a good choice. Söderslätt between Malmö and Trelleborg doesn't really strike me as metropolitan.

There are many problems involved. Living in Malmö, I am somewhat aware of kind of a General Scanianism that clearly excludes "the Metropol" (Copenhagen) from themselves. Then there is the perpetual division between the different towns and villages, which makes it hard for me to conceptualize people outside of Malmö to use a phrase as "Metropolitan Malmö" to include their own town.

I think Tuomas made a good move to change the title from being Malmö-related to Southwestern Scania. That fits better with my understanding of how people herearound think and speak. ...and not only the natives.

Generally, I wonder if there has been a deflation in the usage of the words town, city, and metropol since I learned English some 15 years ago.

--Ruhrjung 15:14, 2004 Aug 25 (UTC)

The article was moved in order to introduce a simple and transparent structure regarding the three metropolitan areas in Sweden. The articles Metropolitan Malmö, Metropolitan Gothenburg and Metropolitan Stockholm intends to imply that they are metropolitan areas having their centres in each of the three largest cities of Sweden. Corresponding to the articles there are also the three categories Category:Metropolitan Malmö, Category:Metropolitan Gothenburg and Category:Metropolitan Stockholm, for the municipalities contained in each area. (The municipalities of the cities after which these areas are named have no special status as such.)
Regarding Skåne County there exist the three divisions South Skåne, West Skåne and North-East Skåne, where South and West (North-West) correspond to the former Malmöhus County and North-East correspond to Kristanstad County.
From my prespective the article ought to be named in way which empasizes the connection and similarity of the situation to the other two metropolitan areas, and at the same time avoids confusion with other existing divisions in Skåne. -- Mic 07:35, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Having thought for a while, ...and exchanged thoughts with inborn locals, I believe one of my initial hunches to be rather well founded. Locals, not even from Malmö, probably even less so people from the surroundings (like Bjärred, Dalby, Staffanstorp and Svedala), do not think of it as a "Malmö-region" or extended part of Malmö, but as a Scanian region, the most densely populated corner of Scania.
I put out the question, How would you explain where you live for someone from a foreign country? and learned that people didn't believe Malmö to be big or important enough to be known abroad. Answers can, chiefly, be categorized in three alternatives:
  • South-western/Western Scania
  • close to Copenhagen
  • the southernmost tip of Scandinavia
...all alternatives inviting to a brief lecturing on Northern European geography. ;->
In Swedish, Malmö-området seemingly covers a much smaller area than this article. Lomma (the "town", not the affluent northern parts of the municipality), Arlöv, Bara, and Oxie may possibly be included, and with a stretch even Vellinge–Höllviksnäs, but the southern, eastern and northern parts of area are still outside. As a rule, the villa-suburbs seem not to be intuitively counted to Malmö, even in a widest sense.
At an Erasmus student exchange godfather gathering, I also made attempts to get a few people use the word metropolitan area, but didn't succeed. People expressed themselves in phrases like almost as at the continent, in Germany, in Holland.
I often perceive the general attitude in Malmö as exaggeratedly cock-sure, but with respect to the own city's or province's importance, people here strike me as surpricingly humble, ...almost as if they'd been Finns. ;-) My conclusion is that as Wikipedia oughtn't try to create new language, but adhere to existing one, and the link and Category:Metropolitan Malmö is bound for much more misinterpretation and "friction" from editors who wouldn't really agree on phrases like "Lund lies in the Malmö metropolitan area", it would be best to find a more "neutral" and all-encompassing phrase. I fail to see how a Category:South West Scania Metropolitan Area would have capacity to produce any real problem. In particular not as Sydvästra Skåne is a notion that people really use, and without much ambiguity. People agree, that Eslöv isn't included, but that Trelleborg is.
For foreigners the current headline is not helpful.
/Tuomas 22:53, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

This article is obviously written by a chauvinist from Malmö. It could, in my sincerest opinion, best be erased as the number of questionable statements exceeds the relevant information. This includes, but is not limited to, the coloring of Malmö and Lund, but not of Trelleborg; the inclusion of Trelleborg in a "metropolitan area" as noted by "Ruhrjung" above; and the irrelevant information on municipality-area where town-area could have been of SOME interest. --Family Olofsson 15:23, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I fail to see why Trelleborg should be coloured. [[User:Sverdrup|❝Sverdrup❞]] 15:44, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)