Between the City and the Rural: Negotiating Place and Identity in a Danish Suburban Housing Area

Abstract

Usually, Danish suburban history is told as a journey towards light, airy, green spaces. However, suburban housing areas can be seen in the context of processes of urbanization, where the boundary between urban and rural is dissolving. What does this mean for residential identities? This article explores residential identities in a new housing area in the metropolitan region of greater Copenhagen in this context, based on a qualitative study drawing on qualitative interviews and photos taken by residents. It is argued that identity should be understood through notions of reflexive identity, as well as the concepts of elective belonging and the aesthetic. In a qualitative study with residents, it is shown how multiple and varied practices and stories are generated. In residents' articulation of identity in terms of centre‐periphery relations, this was re‐configured not as a linear relationship of a move from urban to non‐urban areas (although it was also expressed as this), but as generating various practices. Residents' experiences and negotiations emerged under the following themes: between the aesthetic and the pragmatic, being connected or suburban, and simulated or authentic nature. The article also shows that not all residents use such reflexivity, suggesting that it may be unevenly distributed.