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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines culturally sustainable modes by which the revitalization of a Danish American Grundtvigian heritage is reinterpreted and performed through narrative, song, and reminiscence at recent Danebod Folk Meetings, held virtually in the Danebod Folk School, Tyler, Minnesota.

Paper long abstract:

Danebod Folk High School was built in 1888 by Danish Grundtvigian immigrants in the 1870s in the pioneer settlement of Tyler, Minnesota. It closed during the Depression, but was revitalized during the mid-1930s as a reunion of older persons from the former Danish Grundtvigian synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church in the form of a "Danebod Fall Meeting." In that reformulation, it was held each year for five days with participants travelling to the old Danebod Folk School to listen to lectures in the foredragsal, sing songs in English and Danish from Højskolesangbogen, share meals, drink coffee, reminisce, and redefine and reinterpret their progressive heritage through narrative, song, and fellowship. During the mid-1980s, I conducted in-depth field documentation of this celebration and experienced how the group that gathered redefined, challenged and put into perspective aspects of a shared past that provided significance for them in an increasingly assimilated and often quite conservative American context. During the pandemic, the meeting has continued to meet on zoom for a few days each year. Referred to currently as the "Danebod Folk Meeting," the virtual gathering has found innovative and vigorous ways to practice and honor the group's continually reframed understanding of heritage and identity. This paper will examine the sustainable strategies by which this group, now further than ever from their immigrant past, strives to celebrate, renew, and articulate a shared identity at Danebod through the performance of familiar culturally expressive forms that provide meaning and sustenance for those who participate.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates conflicts about associational structure within the Danish movement Venligboerne. It argues that the question of organization is not just related to degree of formalization, but also to different understandings of equality and competing ideas about sociality.

Paper long abstract:

During the so-called refugee crisis in 2015 and beyond, several initiatives to welcome asylum seekers and assist refugees in their process of settlement developed in Northern Europe. In Denmark, a large part of these vernacular humanitarian activities took place through the newly established movement of Venligboerne [Friendly Neighbours].

A shared denominator across European refugee movements is the basic assumption that refugees need help. However, during my fieldwork with different Venligbo groups, I found that how Venligboerne help refugees is equally important. Despite their nationwide appearance, Venligboerne never developed a formal structure, but remained as individually organized groups that each negotiated approach, activities, and interactions. In several local groups, disagreements developed regarding whether it would be useful for them to establish themselves as voluntary associations or not.

In this paper, I will investigate how conflicts about formalization and institutionalization are related to ideas about what Venligboerne are and should be. I will show that the formalization of some groups is closely linked to the relationship between the state and civil society in Denmark. I further argue that the question of organization is not just related to degree of formalization, but also to different understandings of equality. In this way, struggles to avoid formalization can be considered as a kind of “prefigurative politics” because forms of organization express ideas about sociality. On a more general level, looking at refugee reception in Denmark both sheds light on developments in the field of voluntary activities and explores the cultural settings that frame them.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how residents in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark, re-negotiate political constructions of problem-places and re-define the narrative of their neighbourhood by articulating counter-narratives.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to explore how residents in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood challenge the political narrative of the neighbourhood.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark, designated as a "ghetto" by the Danish state and affected by interventions for social mix, this paper explores how political constructions of problem-places are re-negotiated by residents. The paper highlights how ethnographic methods offer a way to document counter-narratives and collective memories of marginalized groups.

With a reflexive approach, the paper goes beyond the migrant/citizen distinction and seeks to highlight the perspectives of those affected by policies. Defining 'residents' as the unit of analysis, while - at a second step - being sensitive to how ethnicity or migration background matters to lived experiences, this paper contributes to the de-migranticization of migration research.

The analysis highlights how residents live under a shared condition of evictability and un-homing, as they face the threat of displacement and eviction as the neighbourhood undergo physical and social transformation. It shows how residents get together and articulate a counter-narrative of their neighbourhood, for example as already being mixed and as a home-place. Hence, they challenge the dominating and dehumanizing political narrative of securitization, which is employed in legitimizing displacement and privatization of public housing.

Thus, this paper adds to previous research by exploring processes of homing and un-homing.