Community involvement in mixed-income transformation in Copenhagen, Denmark

Mixed-income transformation is a widely used strategy that aims to redevelop marginalized housing estates into socially mixed neighborhoods. However, studies suggest that such transformations, which are typically imposed from above and designed to attract higher-income newcomers, often fail to cater to existing communities’ needs and aspirations. Drawing on a case study from Copenhagen, Denmark, this paper explores the role of community involvement in state-led mixed-income transformations. Relative to other countries, the Danish nonprofit housing sector has a high degree of local autonomy and resident self-governance through its acclaimed tenant democracy system. We aim to explore the implications that institutionalized tenant representation may have for community involvement. We find that despite strong tenant institutions, residents are often positioned in a reactive and obstructive role with limited creative input and limited influence on transformation processes. Furthermore, the tenant democracy system itself risks suppressing other forms of participation and thus reproducing divisions between residents in the private and nonprofit housing sectors.