Togetherness in Denmark: a view from the bridge

ABSTRACT

This article defines Danish togetherness, putting it in the context of Danish social and political history, and placing particular emphasis on the gradual development of Denmark’s homogeneity, on the growth of national awareness, on aspects of social capital, and on the central role of education as enlightenment in the process of democratisation. It describes the Danish school system as conceived by Grundtvig and presents ways in which togetherness is reflected there in everyday practice, contrasting it with schools in UK. Finally, it looks at multicultural challenges to togetherness, at the difficulties posed by migration for schools and for society as a whole and suggests how schools and communities might learn to cultivate a constructive sense of belonging. The viewpoint is that of a practitioner with an academic background and extensive experience of English and Danish education. This provides a metacultural perspective for understanding a very Danish phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Togetherness
• Denmark
• bonding/bridging social capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See Grundtvig’s song, Folkeligt skal alt nu være (quoted below).

2. Translations are my own throughout.

3. See, for example, Carsten Yndigegn ‘Bordering and borderwork: Protecting the Danish Border and National identity’, in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2018, pp. 411–432.

4. For the importance of trust for Danish prosperity, see G.L.H. Svendsen & G.T. Svendsen Trust Social Capital and the Danish Welfare State: Explaining the Flight of the Bumblebee, Edward Elgar, 2016.

5. See Ove Korsgaard’s article in this issue.

6. The average monthly fee for a free school is around $170 (€160).

7. It is significant that in South Korea, where schools have epitomised the performance-driven, competitive model, there is a strong move towards introducing ’efterskoler’ and adopting and adapting many of the underlying precepts of Danish free schools.

8. See also the annual Well-being surveys from the Ministry of Education. https://uvm.dk/folkeskolen/elevplaner-nationale-test-og-trivselsmaaling/trivselsmaaling.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Mason

John Mason lectured at the Independent Academy for Free School Teaching from 2010–18. He has coordinated the academy’s international activities, is founder and chair of IFFS (International Forum for Free Schools), and was organiser of international conferences in Denmark on ‘Togetherness as Motivation – a 21st century skill?’ in 2016 and ‘The Power of Belonging’ in 2018.

From 1998–2010 he was attached to the University of Southern Denmark as a lecturer in English, Communication Studies and Comparative Literature. Prior to that he was for many years a teacher and head of school in England.

He is also a writer and literary translator.