“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