The Green City and Social Injustice

Abstract

Copenhagen is often portrayed as a sustainable and livable city, echoing Denmark’s longstanding reputation as a leader in environmental and social welfare protections, including affordable housing. Yet, neoliberal and racializing trends at the national level are undermining social and environmental justice across the country. In Copenhagen, these intertwining trends manifest in the dominance of a green growth rhetoric in the city’s urban sustainability and livability agendas alongside the dismantling of housing protections, leading to skyrocketing prices and the uprooting of more vulnerable residents. Focusing on the Nørrebro neighborhood, this chapter sheds light on local manifestations of national trends through several recent struggles over the right to the neighborhood. These struggles illustrate how processes of ecological gentrifcation are shaped by broader trends of neoliberal and racializing politics that manifest in urban governance, but that the tireless efforts of resident-activists may stem the tide and avoid the co-option of urban green spaces.

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