REPRESENTATION OF THE WELFARE CITY

What does the architecture of the welfare society look like? A beautiful library at the water’s edge or a grey concrete block on the periphery of the city?

The representations of the welfare society by the mass media contribute to creating our inner perception of it. The research network Representation of the Welfare City studies these notions.

Researchers from Aarhus School of Architecture and the National Museum of Denmark, and others, are leading efforts to bring together experts from Denmark and abroad who, like them, work with welfare architecture and representations of architecture. Together, they will examine the way the welfare society is represented in the mass media.

Through its efforts, the network wishes to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the prejudices and expectations the modern welfare city has encountered over time.

The network will, to begin with, explore the field and work to provide mutual inspiration and develop knowledge among researchers. At network meetings and, so far, two planned seminars, the members will be presented with different perspectives on the subject through presentations by architects, anthropologists, journalists, art historians, photographers, literary scholars, and others, who have an insight into the way the welfare state has been portrayed in the media.

The core members of the network are

• Anne Elisabeth Toft, PhD, (Network Manager), Associate Professor, Aarhus School of Architecture
• Jannie Rosenberg Bendsen, PhD, (Network Coordinator), researcher, Aarhus School of Architecture
• Tom Nielsen, PhD, Professor, Aarhus School of Architecture
• Claus Peder Pedersen, PhD, Professor MSO, Aarhus School of Architecture
• Morten Nielsen, Morten Nielsen, PhD, Professor, National Museum of Denmark
• Thordis Arrhenius, Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Michelle Provoost, PhD, professor, Crimson Architectural Historians / Institute for New Town
• Karen Olesen, Associate Professor, Aarhus School of Architecture
• Anders Troelsen, Professor Emeritus, Aarhus School of Architecture

The research project is connected to Research Lab 1.