Social Imaginaries and Egalitarian Practices in the Era of Neoliberalization

How is social equality created, enacted and reproduced in practice in local welfare institutions in the Nordic countries that claim to hold equality and egalitarianism as central political and social values? How are these practices linked to social imaginaries of an egalitarian society? And how does an increasing neoliberalization within the last fifteen years affect such egalitarian practices and social imaginaries in concrete social institutions? These overall questions are discussed in this chapter based on ethnographic and historical material from fieldwork in Danish housing cooperatives. Housing cooperatives and their role in meeting citizens' right to housing in Denmark are explored as an instance of welfare institutions that transgress the conceptual boundaries between state, market and civil society, but that have recently been challenged by neoliberal housing policies.