The construction of the Danish ’ghetto’ in legislation, media and planning: The Skovvejen-Skovparken-case

This paper investigates how the Danish legislation on parallel societies impact media coverage, identity and the planning of the areas affected by this policy. The paper is part of the Regeneration of Danish Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods: Long-term Evaluation (2019-2028) and draws on case studies of 15 areas in two rounds, including media analyses of a 12-month period. To untangle the aspects of the construction of the Danish concept ‘ghetto’, the paper focuses mainly on the case of Skovvejen-Skovparken, a joint venture of two housing associations categorised as a Danish ghetto in 2019, after collaborating on social initiatives for years. The paper applies concepts of place reputation and territorial stigmatisation as well as media studies on disadvantaged housing areas. It shows the following: First, the media analysis shows that the annual Danish list of parallel societies and the media coverage of it confirms and constructs a common place identity that all areas on the list become subject to. Second, the list initiates an informal battle between the areas on the list, and an informal hierarchy is constructed. Third, the paper gives examples of how the ‘naming’ of parallel societies is confirmed by planning strategies and physical analysis. The paper concludes that the parallel society legislation may simultaneously reinforce the spatial problems that it aims at counteracting.