Urban B/ordering: An Ethnographic Study of the Ghetto Package in Denmark

At a time when migration is increasing, many EU countries still struggle with fully accepting migrants and other minorities.

In this context, increasingly, member states introduce laws and regulations that police borders and reinforce social boundaries, and as a result, undermine the idea of liberal democracy. These practices, often labelled b/ordering, constitute attempts to control and order the unknown or undesired subjects.

While much literature has dealt with this, it remains understudied how b/ordering works in and through urban planning and housing.

The proposed project addresses this lacuna through an interdisciplinary analysis of such a practice of urban b/ordering: the Ghetto Package in Denmark, i.e. a set of laws implemented to break up migrant parallel societies and enforce social mix.The proposed project further develops existing studies dealing with b/ordering by linking three scientific strands of literature: anthropological criminology, urban studies and migration.

Methodologically, it will rely on participant observation, focus groups, life-histories, and semi-structured interviews in two different housing areas affected by the Ghetto Package in Denmark.

This way, it will complement the existing analyses on the normative and discursive elements of b/ordering with an ethnographic account of its implementation and social and political consequences.

Likewise, focusing on an iconic liberal democracy like Denmark will elicit knowledge on potential societal effects regarding citizenship and belonging in the EU.

Academically, the project will benefit from the placement at the University of Copenhagen, the prominent research centre, the Centre for Global Criminology, and a Secondment at the inspiring research environment at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research, University of Amsterdam.