“Identity Danish Modern”:
Trampoline House and the Prototyping of an Inclusive Denmark
Huda Alawa Anthropology 2015 Advisors:
Elif Babül Debbora Battaglia
Trampoline House
• Goal 1. Break the isolation immigrant users find themselves in; 2. Inform the Danish Public about asylum conditions for humane policies
• Member groups: o Staff o Volunteers o Immigrant Users
Trampoline House. (Trampoline House 2015)
Methodology
• A Day in the Field
Members socializing in the main room. (Trampoline House 2015)
Members in a Danish language lesson. (Trampoline House 2015)
Complexities of Subject Positioning
• Connecting to Immigrant Users
• Intersections with Danish Volunteers
• Detached Individual
(Dewalt, Dewalt & Wayland 1998)
Demonstration of positioning.
Re/Imagining Danishness
• Grundtvig: True Danish Identity o Imagined (Anderson 1991) o Rooted in “being Danish” (Jenkins 2012)
• Geographical Differences o Threat of Non-Westerners on Authentic Danishness
• Countering Exclusion: Trampoline House
Inclusiveness as an Encounter
[Trampoline House is] like a hole in the Danish atmosphere. [There] are some other norms in the House, they are just crossing over each other all the time.
-Astrid Interview
Danish Modern
Intersectionality at Trampoline House.
• Danish self as endless
becomings o Habitual performance
(Bourdieu; Beattie 2003) o Conscious cultural
performance (Beattie 2003) o Intersectionality(Beattie 2003)
• Intersecting Identities at
the House
Community Making: The Place of Religion
• Friday Dinners
Daily Dinner (Trampoline House 2015)
Friday dinner at Trampoline House. (Trampoline House 2015)
Inclusive “Family” Meals
I [am handed] a plate of food, which is customary for the dinner, as Tone wants to eat ‘family style’. Upon realizing that there is meat in it, I tell the user who had served me that I only eat halal. He replies, “We’re all Muslim, we eat halal here.”
- Field Notes, April 11
Intersectionalities of Sacred and Secular
“Is it okay if I drink this?” Basam gestures to a bottle of beer that he is holding… “Before I came to Denmark, I never used to drink … Now I don’t fast and I began to drink … but really only at the House.”
- Field Notes, April 25
Friday dancing. (Trampoline House 2015)
Taking Trampoline House Beyond the Walls
It is a temporary space but … it should be temporary because [we] are a bridge into society. When you come here, you will meet some Danes [and] they will take you out to a bar or party. And then suddenly [we] start to spread out into the rest of society.
- Morten Interview
Trampoline House: Spreading Outwards.
(Photos courtesy of Google Maps and Trampoline House [2015])
Many Thanks to: • Professor Debbora Battaglia – for her ongoing
support and guidance • Professor Elif Babül – for shaping my research over a
year ago • Trampoline House – for opening their arms and
welcoming me into their community
Top Related