The complexity of neighbourhood relations in a multiethnic social housing project in Copenhagen

Abstract

This article examines the nature of coexistence in a multiethnic social housing project in Copenhagen, focusing on neighbourhood relations between majority Danes and ethnic minorities. Despite the general assumption that ethnic majorities and minorities have no neighbourhood relations, this case study reveals multifarious ways of relationship-making. Whereas the residents tended to emphasise separation between ethnic groups, their everyday practices indicated coexistence. These contrasts reflect the residents’ affirmations and contestations of the public national discourse about immigration, social integration and urban life. The variety of neighbourhood practices illustrates a complex social reality characterised by contrasts and ambivalences that represent different orders of identification and interaction and constitute coexisting tendencies of boundary maintenance and conviviality.

Keywords:

• diversity
• integration
• ghettoisation
• coexistence
• neighbourhood relations

Acknowledgement

I thank Nina Glick Schiller, Garbi Schmidt, Anne Sigfrid Grønseth and the anonymous referees for their useful comments on the first draft of this article.

Additional information

Funding

I thank the Danish Strategic Research Council for funding of this project.