"I feel Danish but...": a case study on national identity formation and ambivalence

• Main Authors: L. Koefoed, K. Simonsen
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2013-10-01
• Series: Geographica Helvetica
• Online Access: http://www.geogr-helv.net/68/213/2013/gh-68-213-2013.pdf

Non-western minorities in Europe, one can argue, are experiencing particularly vulnerable processes of subjectification and identification. They are often caught between double processes of inclusion/exclusion, integration/segregation or identification/estrangement. This article explores some of the complex and ambiguous processes of identification within this group, in connection with development of the spatial identity of Danishness. It starts with a short theoretical pinning down of the figure of "the stranger'' working as a basis for the empirical analysis. Organised in three sections, each interpreting a specific narrative of identification, the analysis subsequently explores processes and problems of identity formation within a minority group increasingly designated as "strangers'' within the Danish nation state. The article concludes on the different ways in which uncertainty and ambivalence infiltrate the identity formation.