Parallel societies

Yearly since 2010, the Danish authorities has revealed a listing of ‘parallel societies’ which identifies sure areas and neighbourhoods as ‘at risk’. Hørgården, the housing complicated made up of gray, modernist blocks within the southern a part of Sønderbro, was included within the controversial checklist in 2018 and 2019, beforehand known as the ‘ghetto list’, resulting in a regeneration drive that goals to be inclusive and rework the realm with the participation of the residents.

Nonetheless, resident participation in these city renewal initiatives has not been constant from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and, in accordance with Undertaking Supervisor, Niels Frisch Kjølholt, who works for Copenhagen’s Technical and Environmental Administration, Hørgården’s members are sometimes under-represented in conferences.

Ahmed, 27, lives in Hørgården and, like all residents of Sønderbro, was invited to participate in one of many conferences. He went to the primary assembly and from then on wasn’t very concerned. ‘It was just a bureaucratic meeting that went round in circles, talking about introducing a small lawn here or changing the car park there. That’s not what individuals want.’

In keeping with the most recent publication of the checklist, a ‘parallel society’ is outlined as a social housing space with a minimum of 1,000 residents, the place the proportion of immigrants and descendants from non-Western nations exceeds 50 per cent and the place a minimum of two of 4 standards regarding instructional attainment and employment, revenue and crime ranges are met.

Lately, Hørgården has been thought of a ‘prevention area’. Which means that though it’s now not on the checklist of ‘parallel societies’, it nonetheless has greater than 1,000 residents greater than 30 per cent of that are immigrants and descendants from non-Western nations. Below Danish legislation, a ‘Western’ nation is one in all ‘all 27 EU countries, the UK, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican City, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand’. Africa, Latin America, the Center East and Asia are all thought of non-Western.

Daniel Tomicic, 27, is without doubt one of the residents of Hørgården and has taken half in a number of the Sønderbro regeneration workforce’s initiatives. He doesn’t conceal his criticism or anger on the authorities’s checklist, which is revealed yearly. In his opinion, it solely embeds discrimination. ‘I can get a job, I can work, I’m educated, I don’t commit crimes, I even create artwork, which has ended up being my lifestyle, however my ancestry is one thing I used to be born with and I can by no means change it,’ he says. ‘The law basically states that non-Western ancestry means you live in a ghetto – it’s state racism.’

In keeping with Daniel, many have no idea what the regeneration venture entails; ‘All the young people I spoke to didn’t find out about it, or they weren’t as a result of no one defined why it ought to be so necessary to them.’

He views the neighbourhood as pleasant and sort and, although he doesn’t deny that there are some ‘negative stories’, he additionally stresses that there are a lot of ‘positive stories’, condemning the stigma that residents face due to the best way the neighbourhood’s issues are framed by the checklist.

For Henrik Gutzon Larsen, an city coverage researcher and co-author of the examine ‘Gentrification: Gentle or Traumatic? Urban Renewal Policies and Socioeconomic Transformations in Copenhagen’, situating an issue geographically is a quite common approach of approaching issues politically. ‘It’s a lot simpler to say that we have now an issue right here than that we have now an issue all over the place.’ Certainly, it’s true that there are particular locations that want to enhance providers to enhance high quality of life.

Nonetheless, he argues that the ‘parallel societies’ checklist has led to a change in discourse because the Nineteen Eighties, the place probably the most susceptible socio-economic teams dwelling in social housing have been problematized geographically, as a substitute of perceiving social issues equivalent to unemployment and the combination of immigrant teams at a nationwide stage.

Inclusionary or exceptionary insurance policies?

Within the 2018 plan known as ‘One Denmark without Parallel Societies: No Ghettos in 2030’, the then authorities proposed city growth initiatives to ‘restore and develop areas into attractive neighbourhoods with a mix of residents’ together with ‘the sale of existing buildings, targeted demolitions and new construction of private housing’ if an space remained on the checklist for 5 consecutive years, with a view to lowering the proportion of household social housing to a most of 40 per cent, in accordance with Legislation § 168 a.

To forestall areas from being on the checklist, Niels explains that, ‘we, the city, decided – or at least the politicians decided – to regenerate all the areas that appeared on the list, to try to keep those same areas off it in the future.’

But, as Niels explains, ‘in principle, urban regeneration can be separated from gentrification, but in reality they are often very closely related and almost impossible to disentangle from one another.’ In keeping with Niels, these initiatives promoted by the state goal to create built-in societies with a mixture of social demographics, the place it’s acknowledged that they’ll ‘try to come up with a greater social mix or some variant of that word, saying that we have a neighbourhood here with challenges that relate to that specific socio-economic group and it would be good to bring in some people who perhaps have a stronger socio-economic profile’.

He explains, nonetheless, ‘there is often an unspoken rule, that if you bring someone in, you need to kick someone out or you need to create more space and, if you manage to bring in a new group, this could drive out the old group in any case, for example through price rises,’ he says.

In keeping with Rasmus Anderson, the architect accountable for the renovation of Hørgården and the area close to the borders of Sundholm, within the northern a part of Sønderbro, Sønderbro’s regeneration is not going to result in a special socio-economic combine. Nonetheless, this city renewal drive comprises two initiatives inside Hørgårde’s Regeneration Plan named ‘Possible Densification in Hørgården – new types of housing for more people’ and ‘Infrastructure Projects in Hørgården – from closed residential area to an open, green and active one’.

Because the Regeneration Plan mentions, these two initiatives, that are the accountability of the housing affiliation 3B that owns the Hørgården housing complicated, ‘are not directly part of the Sønderbro Area Renewal Plan, but the Area Renewal Plan will, as far as possible, support projects and support improved traffic and connections between the residential area, Hørgården, and the surrounding city.’

So as to add one other layer of complexity to this regeneration drive, as Hørgården is a ‘prevention area’, versatile renting remains to be in place. This measure, utilized particularly to areas coated by the checklist, permits the Metropolis Council to work with housing associations in order that vacant houses in a housing block are rented out in accordance with particular standards. Which means that candidates who meet sure standards, equivalent to employment standing or instructional attainment, should be on the entrance of the queue.

Daniel Tomicic declares with some anger: ‘They’re constructing low-income housing, however they’re making entry tough for individuals on low incomes.’ In his opinion, the checklist is just transferring the issue elsewhere. When he moved to the neighbourhood just a few years in the past, the place he lives alone in a flat, he needed to present paperwork that proved that he was learning and had no legal document. ‘You can no longer move into the area if you don’t have the right paperwork,’ he says.

Additionally it is value noting that the checklist focuses on social housing. ‘It takes a narrow view, only looking at social housing and not at private renting. If you expand it to account for private rental properties, then you would identify problems in other areas’ explains researcher Henrik Gutzon Larsen.

Within the writer’s view, the rhetoric utilized by right-wing events concerning the ‘parallel societies’ checklist has paved the best way for the demonisation of social housing constructed within the ‘golden age’ of the Danish welfare state, mentioning that 20 per cent of Danish actual property nonetheless belongs to not-for-profit housing associations.

On 21 March 2023, in accordance with the Regeneration Plan for Hørgården, the residents of Hørgården voted to proceed with the densification venture. This proposed densification is meant to construct non-public housing alongside new social housing for the aged, producing a ‘more mixed composition of residents’. The neighbourhood’s present ‘temporary civic centre’ containing amenities for youngsters and youngsters and a ‘worn-out square’ the place residents have a small market, a bar, and a pizzeria, will likely be demolished if this densification plan goes forward.

Regardless of not being very concerned within the neighbourhood’s regeneration, Mohammed, an worker at Hørgården’s youth centre, which is positioned subsequent to this space, remembers a vote on promoting the plot across the youth centre and probably even the realm that features the youth centre. ‘No one has come to talk to us here, so we don’t actually know what’s going to occur to this place. I simply know that it was an odd vote, individuals didn’t actually know what they had been voting for and just a few individuals had been there, in order that they don’t characterize everybody.’

For Henrik Gutzon Larsen, ‘framing the management of this issue in ethnicized politics, particularly in this type of housing, could conceal a different kind of objective: selling social housing.’ Attributing distinctive issues to those areas, ‘makes actions that would have been unheard of before, like getting rid of social housing, possible.’

Unsure future

Mohammed has been an worker of Hørgården’s youth membership for 20 years, the place the place Daniel and Ahmed frolicked as youngsters after college. Adjoining to the recycling centre, this area for younger individuals aged 13 to 18 to satisfy after college is a spot for socializing, protecting younger individuals off the streets and making ready them for the long run.

It was late afternoon once I visited the youth centre. Courses had already began and it was a group dinner night. Hassan, the centre’s different social employee and one other Hørgården resident, was already within the kitchen along with his apron and a few younger individuals had already arrived. In the event that they need to, they can assist put together dinner in order that they don’t need to pay. ‘But since it’s solely 10 Danish kroner (€1.34) for dinner’, says Mohammed, ‘most people pay.’ Some had been within the laptop room, others had been taking part in Ps, others had been on the sofas, distracted by their cell phones, and there have been nonetheless some very fastidiously tending to the tomato plant within the small backyard on the entrance to the centre.

The youth centre is a ‘safe haven’ the place younger individuals can calm down after college or on vacation and be ‘themselves’, in Mohammed’s phrases, however that’s not all. It’s additionally a spot for recommendation and preparation for grownup life, particularly ‘in a neighbourhood that was, and still is, a problem area where most young people hang out on the streets and do things they shouldn’t do,’ in accordance with Hassan, a social employee who has been on the centre for 11 years.

Earlier than they flip 18, there’s a checklist of issues that staff attempt to educate them. It’s a checklist that brings collectively sensible data that’s usually unknown to some households within the neighbourhood. ‘We help them with the things they need to know, the basics. For example, dentistry is free until you’re 18, and when our younger individuals are 17, we remind them to get their final check-ups earlier than it prices them,’ Hassan explains.

In addition they assist them to use for a residence card in the event that they don’t have already got a passport, a course of that has grow to be harder over time, they help them in making use of for social housing lists in order that they’ll have a long-term flat at inexpensive costs, and so they additionally organise visits to some firms or establishments in order that they’ll get an thought of the educational and/or skilled path they want to comply with.

In the meanwhile, Mohammed isn’t apprehensive concerning the younger individuals he sees and works with. He says ‘they’re heading in the right direction with college and work.’ They play sports activities. ‘There’s no crime, no gangs’ and he says it’s a pleasure to be working there. However the vote on 21 March 2023 on the sale of the area owned by 3B, the housing affiliation that owns all social housing in Hørgården and Sundholm Syd, and is accountable for the densification venture within the Hørgården neighbourhood, has upset the apple cart. The uncertainty about the way forward for the youth centre’s present premises is felt not solely by employees, but in addition by former members Ahmed and Daniel.

‘The only thing I know is that they’re going to promote’, says Mohammed, and that ‘some private companies might buy.’ The red-roofed buildings subsequent door – the ‘temporary civic centre’ talked about within the Hørgården Regeneration Plan – make up establishments for youngsters and adolescents.

As Mohammed says, the realm is engaging, it’s near town centre, it’s properly related with the metro and bus community and ‘Copenhagen doesn’t have many locations to construct anymore’. ‘They did it next door in Urbanplanen, where they also built private housing, so I think it’s the identical factor that can occur right here. In twenty years’ time, solely individuals with cash will stay right here.’

Hassan can be very happy if the establishments there have been renovated and supplied the identical providers, however ‘if they remove the centre from here and move it elsewhere, it will be difficult for us to establish a strong relationship with our young people and children.’

Along with uncertainty over its premises, the youth centre’s price range, supplied by the Municipality of Copenhagen, has been reduce over time. Ahmed, who helps with translation, intervenes: ‘Every year they provide a bit less, but it’s nonetheless a sufficiently small reduce for nobody to actually combat it as a result of it’s not that drastic. They’ve to put off employees yearly or do much less of one thing. They will’t finance themselves and ultimately they’ll get so little cash that there’s no-one left to complain,’ Ahmed explains.

Not understanding the destiny of the centre, which is a ‘safe haven’ for the neighbourhood’s younger individuals and youngsters, breeds a way of hesitation, insecurity and loss, particularly for the younger individuals who complain that there’s ‘nowhere to go’ within the neighbourhood.

In keeping with Ahmed, the dearth of assets for households within the neighbourhood not solely impacts mother and father, but in addition younger individuals dwelling within the space. ‘Many families don’t have a lot cash, so there isn’t at all times a lot to do at residence. Many mother and father find yourself being away more often than not. So for those who take away all of the soccer pitches or the playgrounds or something  else, they’re simply left to wander round.’

Breaking down invisible borders

Daniel was at all times informed to not cross the road the place Hørgården bodily and mentally ends. Sundholm may be seen to the north with the brand new 3B flats – Sundholm Syd – and, above that, the imposing yellow buildings from the early twentieth century that function help establishments for round 200 to 300 homeless individuals.

After I was youthful, I used to be afraid to go there. I’d hear tales from older individuals concerning the homeless individuals who lived there and the substance abuse on the streets. The juvenile jail can be within the space, so it at all times appeared to him to be an ‘isolated and segregated’ space.

To counteract the isolation of the realm, close to the intersection of Sundholm and Hørgården, Sønderbro’s regeneration plan proposes ‘a social meeting point for the whole neighbourhood,’ says Rasmus, the architect accountable for the venture.

In keeping with him, this area ought to embrace the homeless individuals dwelling on Sundholm – ‘a very vulnerable group’ -, the residents of Sundholm Syd, the residents of Hørgården, and in addition the kids of two particular wants colleges which might be positioned proper subsequent door. He admits that the realm may be very complicated, however he says that the ‘space needs to be able to contain different types of uses without excluding certain groups’.

Thought-about a ‘romanticized’ venture by some individuals within the venture conferences, this initiative is the embodiment of the soul of city regeneration in Copenhagen.

Jørgen moved to Sundholm in 2015 when 3B opened the housing competitors for the newly constructed flats in entrance of Hørgården. Known as Sundholm Syd, it was when he occurred to cycle previous on his technique to work that he found a sort of ‘lottery’ for a flat within the growth.

In Niels’ phrases, this growth was a ‘way of attracting wealthier residents than those who already lived in Hørgården’. And certainly, since 2015, 48 new households have arrived within the neighbourhood, belonging to a stronger socio-economic demographic.

Conscious of the goal of this housing to encourage range within the neighbourhood and create a social combine, in accordance with Jørgen, all the brand new residents had been conscious of the compromises this concerned: ‘The homeless who sometimes make noise, the youth prison next door where young people set off fireworks and cry in the middle of the night. It’s a bit annoying, however it’s what it’s. A few of us got here with an understanding of, please don’t cry, don’t steal, behave usually and we’ll all be joyful, however that’s not the world we had been put into.’ (Most of the younger inmates at Sønderbro’s juvenile jail have mates within the neighbourhood, and it’s they who set off fireworks outdoors to entertain their mates inside).

Nonetheless, since Jørgen arrived within the neighbourhood in 2015, he admits that the assorted social teams don’t work together each day.

He doesn’t share Rasmus’ enthusiasm for the realm as a social assembly level for individuals within the neighbourhood, however he additionally confesses that he’s not very concerned within the strategy of renovating the neighbourhood. He thinks there must be a better goal for individuals to begin interacting with the method. ‘If it’s to take away the automobile park, add a little bit of grass and a few benches, I don’t see that doing something.’

Daniel additionally agrees that there must be a cause for the individuals of Hørgården to make use of that a part of the neighbourhood. In his opinion, the opening of some cultural venues, a youth centre and even ‘some shops and cafés’ may make the realm much less remoted, and he would view that venture with some optimism.

For his half, Ahmed reveals some concern for the gentrification of the neighbourhood, for instance when he thinks about the way forward for the outdated barn subsequent to the area about to be regenerated. ‘They’re going to current it as inclusive, everyone seems to be welcome, however nobody goes to ask us. It’s going to be a excessive tradition factor that individuals from outdoors are going to make use of rather a lot.’

Rasmus says that, within the renovation workforce, the chance of gentrification is ‘something we take seriously’, however he doesn’t assume it ought to be too nice a priority.

Nonetheless, Lars Lindegaard Gregersen, Inventive Advisor at Glimt Amager, one of many organisations based mostly in Sønderbro, believes that the neighbourhood ‘could very well go down that path.’ In keeping with him, all of it will depend on the establishments or cultural actions that exist there, ‘because if it is designed to try to get more of the rest of the city to come to Sundholm, with things exclusively for people who live in neighbouring areas, then it could easily foster a conflict with Sundholm residents who feel their space is not really their own.’

In my final dialog with Rasmus, the architect maintained a hopeful tone, believing that small steps had been taken in the appropriate route. At the start of September, the regeneration workforce organized a social occasion that included a group dinner. Round eighty individuals attended and, in accordance with their calculations, thirty to forty of the individuals had been homeless individuals dwelling in Sundholm.

Everybody shared the identical meal collectively.

That is simply the beginning for Sønderbro’s regeneration, which, as many others have earlier than it, guarantees to create a extra built-in neighbourhood. But the query stays: will Sønderbro be an instance of true inclusion or only a half-realized promise?

 

This text was written inside the mentorship programme of the EU-funded Come Collectively venture leveraging current knowledge from group media group in six totally different nations to foster progressive approaches.