Praxis development in relation to gang conflicts in Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

The primary question addressed in this article is how to understand and produce praxis
development in the complex and contentious field of street communities of young marginalized
men, an area highlighted almost on a daily basis in the Danish media under headlines with terms
such as ‘foreigner problems’, ‘ghetto problems’, ‘gang conflicts’ and ‘gang war’. Since 2009,
activists and professionals related to this field have gathered at Grundtvigs Højskole where they
initiated and inspired community building activities in relation to the recent gang conflicts in the
Copenhagen area of Denmark. The article explores these practices and changes, including some
of the communal initiatives arising in response to the escalating gang conflicts. The conflict and
community building activities are contextualized in terms of broader tendencies and changes in
Danish society, from enduring struggles with ethnic othering of young minority men since the late
1990s, to other societal changes escalating ‘gang-conflicts’ to ‘gang-war’. The article examines
how these changes produce new dynamics, tensions and dimensions of binary thinking, which in
turn creates new dilemmas in the everyday lives of the people involved in social work practice,
community building activities and praxis research.