The Danish Welfare City

The concept of the welfare city sets the political idea of the welfare state in relation to that state’s urban development. In a “welfare city,” form and structure stand in direct relation to welfare policies. Whilst its origins can be traced to the early 20th century, the Danish welfare state is a political narrative and system that still exists and continues to develop and transform in the present. In many ways, the urban development and architecture of the Danish welfare cities is similar to what is found in the development of other cities of the late-20th and early-21st centuries—even those that developed under other political systems. Its origins, after all, lie in the great acceleration experienced by industrialized western societies in the postwar period, a moment that was not unique to places with distinct welfare policies. As a product of the Nordic version of the welfare state that emerged in the Nordic countries—specifically, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which share a number of cultural and linguistic characteristics—during the postwar period, the Danish welfare city is similar to its counterparts in the other Nordic countries. Exceptions are for example the role of regional policy (Denmark is far smaller and much more densely urbanized than Sweden and Norway) and the relation to economic cycles (the Nordic countries differ in their focus on industrial sectors as a result of varying access to resources). In the following chapter I present a concise, linear history of the concept and built reality of the Danish welfare city; this history is structured in terms of three distinct phases (the planning and building of the welfare city, 1950–1970 ; the crisis of the industrial model of the welfare city, 1970–1990; and the welfare city in the competition state, 1990–2020). Following this overview, I also engage in a brief discussion of the future of the Danish welfare city in the light of possible adjustments demanded by pressing issues of sustainability (resource scarcity) and social equity.