Urban competition and urban crisis. Urban politics in Denmark

Abstract

The essay discusses Danish urban politics and its present-day challenges in two partly separated sections: first, the intra-urban issues of social change, marginalisation and exclusion, and related problems; and secondly, inter-urban or regional development. Finally, the essay ends with a discussion of current trends in urban policy: are we on our way to more market domination and less state control? Urban policy is a quite broad topic, which cannot easily be defined. In this essay, urban policy is used more pragmatically. In general, it can be used in three different ways: as a policy directed towards steering and regulating cities and their internal conditions; as a sector policy targeted at specific urban phenomena, such as traffic policy, housing and planning policies; and as sector policies, such as financial or social policy with unintended urban effects. This essay will focus on the first, intended sort of urban policies, although others forms have had major impact on the shaping of urban conditions.