ABSTRACT
The North West was one of those outer districts surrounding Copenhagen, which the municipality of Copenhagen annexed around 1900 and which rose as a working-class neighbourhood hand in hand with the city’s industrialisation and urbanisation in the first half of the century. However, in the wake of de-industrialisation and suburbanisation, the North West became known as the worst place in country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, urban regeneration, local organisation, and the overall gentrification of Copenhagen have combined to produce a new socio-symbolic structure, highlighting the North West as a diverse and inclusive neighbourhood.
Part I focuses on the spatial, social, and symbolic making of the North West by the state and other experts in symbolic representation (from urban planners and politicians to the media) as well as singular individuals and organisations. I focus on the symbolic strategies applied by these agents and institutions who struggle to classify the North West and its residents. Thus, in this part of the book, I analyse how the state classifies and stratifies as it inculcates social divisions into the built environment and attaches authoritative classifications to place and people alike from around 1900 through today.
