A state within reach? An ethnographic case study on the relocation of a government workplace from Copenhagen to a small town in rural Denmark

Abstract

Exploring the redistribution of state jobs from Copenhagen to provincial Denmark, this article draws upon an ethnographic case study involving the relocation of a government workplace, Nota, to the small town of Nakskov (12,500 inhabitants) on the rural island of Lolland. Taking up residence in the town's central square, the article examines the everyday social and economic expectations and norms Nota encounters in this new locale. Based on social scientific theories of practice communities and local economic circles, the analysis illustrates how the state institution must navigate two parallel and opposing economic circuits: that of the state, marked by inflexibility and uniformity, and that of the local town community, grounded in pragmatism and adaptability. The state's standardising central-economic line of procedure is shown to hinder the relocated workplace in becoming part of and contributing to the new host town's own local-economic systems of exchange. In conclusion, the article argues that in daily life a fundamental conflict of interests between state-economic rules and local-economic norms emerges on the ground, meaning that, despite being introduced as decentralisation, when seen from the perspective of the site of relocation, the redistribution of state jobs in Denmark remains bound by logic of centralisation.