Community In Denmark Research Articles

Growing up in the ‘Ghetto’: children's ambiguous attachment in racialised communities in Denmark

ABSTRACT This article examines the community attachments of children living in stigmatised non-profit housing estates in Denmark. Drawing on childhood studies’ emphasis on children's agency, the analysis explores how children shape their place attachments within urban landscapes. Methods include ethnographic fieldwork in two neighbourhoods, walk-along interviews and photo-elicitation. The findings reveal how architectural, material, and symbolic aspects of a neighbourhood may afford children's pluri-ethnic social relations and attachment practices to a local community, based on acts of care in everyday interactions. While these practices are common, the analysis also explores how the territorial stigma racialises children's social spaces and catalyses differentiations, both internally and beyond their neighbourhood. Thus, the study deepens our understanding of children's ambiguous perceptions of and reactions to growing up in stigmatised communities.

Dealing With Covid-19 in Casual Democracies

This article reports findings from an in-depth, autoethnographic study of local communities in Denmark and England left behind by local journalism. The study was conducted during—and is thematically framed by—the Covid-19 pandemic, and it investigates how news, information, and deliberation related to this crisis were facilitated in the communities. The article embarks from ideas of informed citizenship and problems of misinformation and free speech related to the pandemic, and it aims to uncover developments in local democracy in places left behind by local journalism and dominated by platforms. The article argues that “news desert” is not an accurate term describing such places. Instead, such places and their social media platform dependency constitute what is identified as “casual democracies.” In casual local democracies, who and what gets to dominate the local public spheres is difficult to predict, as are the credibility and trustworthiness of local news and information and the interests that local news and information providers serve. Such local democracies are, to a large degree, shaped by informal power structures, individual agency, and the infrastructure of platforms.

130 Years of Polish Emigration in Denmark

This article summarises the 130-year history of the Polish community in Denmark (the round anniversary is due in 2023). The first Poles in Denmark were seasonal workers who started arriving in the country in the late 19th century where they found employment in agriculture. The 1920s saw the development of Polish organisations in Denmark: the Association of Polish Workers (1925), later renamed the Association of Poles in Denmark, and numerous Polish Houses. The following decades brought further initiatives undertaken by members of the Polish community in Denmark concerning both their integration and the propagation of Polish culture.

Social reading and the public sphere in Nordic public libraries: a comparative study

This paper presents research on how public librarians in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden view the importance of social reading and related professional roles. Previous research findings from a questionnaire administered to public librarians are analysed in depth in order to identify trends that can be further investigated in a subsequent qualitative study. The previous findings broadly show variation in the importance of social reading activities and related professional roles at the country level. A detailed understanding of the variations is elicited through a more comprehensive analysis at the country and community levels. Social reading plays a more important role in Danish and Icelandic libraries than in Norwegian and Swedish libraries, however it is more important in larger communities in Iceland and Sweden and smaller communities in Denmark and Norway. The role of literary mediator appears to correspond highly to librarians’ professional role across all countries and community sizes whereas that of a literary critic somewhat less. The results establish a need for further research on social reading in public libraries, especially concerning the types and nature of activities generally included in social reading and the extent digital solutions are used.

Everyday Hospitality and Politics

The article explores everyday hospitality and politics through inclusive forms of integration initiatives in everyday life and urban communities in Denmark and Norway. It investigates how local initiatives and creative social strategies by local actors can empower and include refugees and immigrants in local communities. This article is based on participant observations of urban communities in Denmark and Norway working to welcome refugees and create new cross-cultural meeting places. We argue that people mobilize and take action when faced with emergency, and that the many welcome initiatives organized around theatre, food, dance and music can rework difference. The cases relate to the discussion of hospitality, the production of meaningful meeting places in a local context and the embodied encounters promoted by these activities. This article discusses everyday hospitality and politics in light of the transition in the Nordic welfare states, which has made the debate around inclusion of refugees and immigrants in local communities and the welfare state centre.

Feasibility of a culturally tailored dementia information program for minority ethnic communities in Denmark.

ObjectivesProactive efforts that take language and cultural barriers into consideration may be needed to raise awareness of dementia and improve access to services in minority ethnic communities. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a culturally tailored dementia information program and the immediate effects on participants' intention to seek help for memory problems, their knowledge and beliefs about dementia, and their knowledge about options for support.MethodsA novel dementia information program, consisting of one 2‐h session, was developed through a collaborative research process with primary care dementia coordinators and multicultural link workers as co‐researchers. It provides basic knowledge about dementia to minority ethnic communities and can be delivered in a community setting by non‐specialists.ResultsSix information program sessions were conducted with a total of 110 participants; 65 Turkish, 19 Pakistani, 20 Arabic‐speaking, and 6 with another minority ethnic heritage. The program had a significant effect on participants' immediate knowledge and beliefs about dementia as measured with a quiz (z = −2.02, p = 0.04, d = 0.90). In a post‐program focus group meeting, facilitating multicultural link workers reported satisfaction with facilitator training, adopted recruitment strategies, and content and delivery of the information sessions and provided feedback on improving the program.ConclusionsThe results provide support for the feasibility of the culturally tailored dementia information program. The program has the potential to improve knowledge and beliefs about dementia and options for formal support in minority ethnic communities and seems easily implemented in existing services, and at a low cost.

Domestication of Difference: Practices of Civic Engagement among Middle Eastern Christians in Denmark

This article employs Hage’s concept of “domestication” as a lens for understanding how various forms of civic engagement among Coptic, Assyrian, and Chaldean Christian migrant communities in Denmark reproduce and contest a Danish model of citizenship, a particular construction of both the national subject and its Others. While churches are a primary place for civic engagement among Middle Eastern Christians as an ethnoreligious group, internally in the communities three modalities of civic engagement—serving, committing, and consuming—are practiced. Each produces different manifestations of citizenship because they engage with the local, national, and transnational differently. Christians of Middle Eastern origin are not publicly visible as political or activist groups as they, along with other immigrant groups, are expected to immerse themselves into the Danish model where ethnic and cultural differences are acknowledged but disregarded of their original context and its power relations.

In What Sense is Islamic Religious Law Legally Recognised in Denmark?

Following recent scholarly discussions on what kinds of religious law are accepted and recognised by state and the secular legal order, this article examines and discusses if and how sharia – understood as Islamic law, ethics and practice – may be considered legally recognised in Denmark. The question has both scholarly, legal and political implications, as well as a long history. The Danish context of recognition of religious communities is introduced, with some historical remarks, but this article takes a practical and empirical point of view in recent Danish legislation of recognition of religious communities and examines the specific articles of association and supporting documents that form the basis of legal recognition. The article introduces a short conceptual and theoretical discussion of what legal recognition implies and how to understand legal recognition as the mutual establishment of legal facts. The articles tests the question of legal recognition looking at empirical case evidence, key aspects and analysis of Islamic religious law in 25 recognised Islamic religious communities in Denmark. Legal recognition has important but limited implication, which should not be overstated, but the article does conclude that sharia is recognised as part of the material basis of the recognition regime in Denmark.

The need for alternative plant species interaction models

Abstract Aims The limitations of classical Lotka–Volterra models for analyzing and interpreting competitive interactions among plant species have become increasingly clear in recent years. Three of the problems that have been identified are (i) the absence of frequency-dependence, which is important for long-term coexistence of species, (ii) the need to take unmeasured (often unmeasurable) variables influencing individual performance into account (e.g. spatial variation in soil nutrients or pathogens) and (iii) the need to separate measurement error from biological variation. Methods We modified the classical Lotka–Volterra competition models to address these limitations. We fitted eight alternative models to pin-point cover data on Festuca ovina and Agrostis capillaris over 3 years in an herbaceous plant community in Denmark. A Bayesian modeling framework was used to ascertain whether the model amendments improve the performance of the models and increase their ability to predict community dynamics and to test hypotheses. Important Findings Inclusion of frequency-dependence and measurement error, but not unmeasured variables, improved model performance greatly. Our results emphasize the importance of comparing alternative models in quantitative studies of plant community dynamics. Only by considering possible alternative models can we identify the forces driving community assembly and change, and improve our ability to predict the behavior of plant communities.

Targeting preventive home visits to older adults in disadvantaged communities: Perspectives of professionals.

This study explored the implementation of multidimensional preventive home visits targeted to older adults living in a disadvantaged community in Denmark. The intervention was adapted to include the following key components: involvement of community members in recruitment processes; a combination of individual and group-based dissemination; adaptation of materials to overcome language barriers; and diversity-sensitivity training for professionals. The study took place over 12months between August 2016 and August 2017 and used various data sources: registry-based data, participant observations, combined with individual and focus group interviews with the target population (n=22) and relevant health care professionals (n=8). Here, we report on findings pertaining to implementation barriers and facilitators as seen from the perspective of professionals. Socioeconomic vulnerability was prominent, and uptake of health care services was low, indicating under-utilisation. Implementation facilitators and barriers were identified including potentials in nurturing local partnerships and proximity during recruitment; overcoming language barriers; offering diversity-sensitivity training for professionals; and a need for a more multidisciplinary, comprehensive scope of preventive visits for diverse older adults in disadvantaged communities. Thus, more focus on participatory, comprehensive and community-based health promotion are needed to ensure healthy ageing in the context of social inequality and ethnic diversity.

Mobility and belonging – A case from provincial Denmark

Abstract Young people in rural areas are gradually convinced that they have to leave their homes for education. They move, and hereby amplify the problem of local economic and demographic decline. The article explores the role of education as well as the social dynamics behind this process in a minor community in Denmark. Drawing on children and young people’s perspectives, the article examines how children gradually come to doubt on the local opportunities and become alienated to local lifeforms. Based on an anthropological fieldwork, the authors show how day-care institutions, schools and youth education play an important role in this process.

Troubling norms? Adults and teenagers with a life-limiting impairment in Denmark and England talk about their lives, support and future plans

ABSTRACT There are an increasing number of young people with a range of life-limiting impairments in our schools, colleges, universities and communities. One of these impairments is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a rare, life-limiting genetic muscle-wasting impairment that affects predominantly males. Twenty years ago, most people with DMD did not live past the age of twenty years, but now due to a range of treatments they are living longer. However, education and social care services are often yet to catch up with this improved prognosis. The aim of this paper is to compare the findings from structured conversations with members of the DMD community in Denmark and England. Historically, adults in Denmark have reported a good quality of life with an optimal health care programme and generous social care, whereas adults with DMD in England have reported poor transition to adulthood planning leading to social isolation as an adult. Findings identified three key themes: the existence of normative goals; expertise from lived experience, and the meaning of independence for someone with a complex impairment. These themes are further discussed through the lens of ‘post-human thinking’, and implications for practice are explored.

Exploring the mediatization of organizational communication by religious communities in digital media

This article presents an exploratory study of some of the ways in which religious communities communicate as organizations in digital spaces. Based on previous research, the article examines the extent to which processes of mediatization are visible in the digital spaces utilized by religious communities in Denmark today.The study is based on data from websites and Facebook groups from ten Christian churches: five ELCD (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark) parishes and five free churches. Data was collected using methods particularly designed for collecting digital data, with due consideration of the ethical implications of researching religious identity online. The data collection represents a follow-up study to the research project Religion in Aarhus 2013. Based on our findings, we suggest that mediatization processes progress more slowly in institutional religious communication because of the way in which they are organized. Furthermore, we demonstrate that there are some patterns in the way Christian communities express themselves online, and that these patterns to some extent depend on whether an ELCD parish or a free church is involved.

Denmark: The Rise of Fascism and the Decline of the Nordic Model

Contrary to its conventional image as a social-democratic paragon, the Danish welfare state has, in recent decades, been undergoing significant changes as a response to the intrusion into the social sphere by self-regulating markets and a final departure from Keynesian politics of universalism and solidarity. This article examines the evident decline of the Nordic model as a result of neoliberal globalisation and establishes an association between the erosion of the welfare state and the emergence of fascist political sentiment in Denmark. An analysis of the Danish People's party and its growing public support among the disenfranchised working class communities in Denmark demonstrates how those overlooked by the free market and unrepresented by the liberal left become increasingly more receptive to the proposed social agendas of the far right campaigns.

Sacrificial victim: taking the nation apart in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt

ABSTRACTThomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt (2012) transforms a homogeneous rural community in Denmark into a violent space where Lucas, an innocent man wrongly accused of indecent exposure, suffers physical violence and ostracism. The article analyses the film as an intervention in a ‘culture war’ and as a warning against New Nationalisms, or populist nationalism in the European Union and the United States. The film is contextualized within Danish film and political culture. The village’s peculiar construction as an isolated community is discussed in regard to the role that the countryside occupies in the Danish national imaginary. By linking the village community to both historical constructions of the Danish national community as well as articulations of the nation by New Nationalisms, the article proposes to read the film as a warning against the ideals of purity and homogeneity espoused by contemporary populist nationalisms and as a problematic national allegory. In the film, Lucas occupies the space of the Other of all the subjectivities excluded by neo-nationalist discourse. The violence and ostracism to which his neighbours and friends subject him signals the physical and discursive violence of New Nationalisms.

Transient Multilingual Communities as a Field of Investigation: Challenges and Opportunities

A key assumption in linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics has traditionally been that interaction within communities tends to proceed on the basis of some degree of shared understanding of social and linguistic norms. However, in transient multilingual communities, defined here as social configurations where people from diverse sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds come together (physically or otherwise) for a limited period of time around a shared activity, such shared assumptions cannot be assumed to be in placea priori. By examining the social and linguistic processes that characterize transient communities, researchers are invited to analyze and theorize meaning‐making in ways that hold the potential to enrich current work at the interface between sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. The article aims to take a first step in this direction by offering a definition and a discussion of the notion of transient multilingual communities, exemplified by data from an international student community in Denmark, and by discussing some of the general methodological challenges and opportunities involved in research that focuses on transient multilingual communities. The article is concluded by a brief discussion of how the notion of transient communities may be utilized in a research agenda concerned with sociolinguistic change.

Risk factors for extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli urinary tract infection in the community in Denmark: a case–control study

ObjectiveTo verify the role of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and nitrofurantoin, which have appeared as novel risk factors for carriage of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) -producing Escherichia coli, as risk factors for ESBL E. coli urinary tract infection (UTI). We included known risk factors to ascertain whether our findings are comparable with those of previous studies. MethodsPopulation-based case–control study including 339 cases with community-onset ESBL E. coli UTI in 2007–2012, 3390 non-ESBL E. coli UTI controls and 3390 population controls. We investigated potential risk factors by estimating ORs and 95% CIs adjusting for sex, age and co-morbidity. ResultsComparing cases with non-ESBL E. coli UTI, PPI use yielded an OR of 1.6 (95% CI 1.2–2.0) and antibiotic exposure gave an OR of 1.4 (95% CI 1.1–1.8); these were driven by nitrofurantoin (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.3–2.6) and macrolides (OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2–2.3). Other risk factors included previous hospitalization with one or two and more than two hospitalizations versus none yielding ORs of 1.9 (95% CI 1.4–2.5) and 4.6 (95% CI 3.2–6.8), recent surgery (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.5–2.8), renal disease (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.4–3.4), chronic pulmonary disease (OR 1.4; 95% CI 1.0–2.0) and cancer (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.1–2.1). Comparing cases with population controls, we found that most risk factors were also risk factors for non-ESBL UTI. ConclusionsESBL E. coli UTI were associated with previous hospitalization and surgery. Nitrofurantoin and macrolides augmented the risk. PPIs had a moderate effect but may be important facilitators of ESBL carriage due to their widespread use.

Climate change effects on lowland stream flood regimes and riparian rich fen vegetation communities in Denmark

ABSTRACTThere is growing awareness that an intensification of the hydrological cycle associated with climate change in many parts of the world will have profound implications for river ecosystem structure and functions. In the present study we link an ensemble of regional climate model projections to a hydrological model with the aim to predict climate driven changes in flooding regimes in lowland riparian areas. Our specific aims were to (1) predict effects of climate change on flood frequencies and magnitudes in riparian areas by using an ensemble of six climate models and (2) combine the obtained predictions with the distribution of rich fen communities to explore whether these are likely to be subjected to increased flooding by a climate change induced increase in river runoff. We found that all regional climate models in the ensemble showed increases in mean annual runoff and that the increase continued through the two scenario periods, i.e. 2035–2065 and 2070–2099. We found concomitant increases in flood levels and flood frequencies. Flood levels and frequencies increased at sites both where the maximum water level was governed directly by river water runoff and where it was governed by river flow roughness (weed cover). We did not find evidence that the present flooding regime was an overall key factor determining the distribution of fen vegetation. However, with the predicted changes in flooding frequencies in the investigated areas we expect to see changes in species compositional patterns within the fen areas under a future climate that may affect the conservation value of these.EDITOR Z.W. Kundzewicz ASSOCIATE EDITOR T. Okruszko

Cross-cultural efficacy of the Cool Kids programme for child and adolescent anxiety

ABSTRACT FROM: Arendt K, Thastum M, Hougaard E. Efficacy of a Danish version of the Cool Kids program: a randomized wait-list controlled trial. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2015. Published Online First....

Experience the difference: the competitive strategies of food‐related entrepreneurs in rural denmark

As food production becomes increasingly integrated, globalized and competitive, small‐scale food‐related enterprises in many European countries are struggling to market and monetize their products. Although these struggles have been well documented, few studies have considered the ways in which food‐related entrepreneurs in rural contexts are adapting to and overcoming these challenges. In particular, little is known about how they differentiate and add value to their products. This article focuses on the development and implementation of new and hybrid commercial strategies by food‐related entrepreneurs in three rural communities in Denmark. These strategies add experiential elements to the longstanding practice of commodifying myths associated with rural settings and identities. Although harnessing culture and experiences to sell things is nothing new, we demonstrate that some Danish entrepreneurs are responding to market competition by tweaking and extending these concepts. In particular, it is argued that entrepreneurs use different experiences with varying levels of intensity and consumer engagement for different purposes. Whereas passive experiences such as storytelling are used to educate consumers about the specific qualities of products, more active and participatory experiences are sold as add‐ons and standalone products. The findings contribute to our understanding of food‐related entrepreneurship in rural contexts, consumption, value creation and the experience of economy more broadly.