Strong and diverse associations have brought Danes together for more than a century. Meanwhile, new and smaller associations are beginning to challenge tradition.

Every time three Danes meet, they found an association. This is a popular saying among Danes and is uttered only half in jest. With a civil society consisting of more than 100,000 organisations and a century-old, constitutionally guaranteed tradition of associations, Denmark is largely a country built on strong communities.
But Denmark’s historically broad popular movements and the traditional culture of associations are being increasingly challenged by new types of communities – communities that are often narrower and more informal, temporary and non-binding than their predecessors.

Tradition as old as democracy itself
Denmark’s strong tradition of associations emerged with democracy in the late 19th century and for decades was dominated by the broad, ideologically based communities that brought together large swaths of the population.
Farmers sang together at folk high schools (public boarding schools for adults) and created the cooperative movement, a special form of economic-democratic cooperation, to sell their products. Women marched together to demand equal pay and voting rights. Workers started movements covering all aspects of life, with trade unions, football clubs and housing associations.

Meanwhile, farmers, workers, city dwellers and smallholders formed political parties to represent their respective interests. Formally speaking, this historic system remains intact, but it is undergoing significant change in many ways. Membership in political parties has declined, the trade unions have lost hundreds of thousands of members and the broad political and ideological foundation that once characterised many Danish associations is rapidly disappearing.
“The general idea of wanting to change society in a certain way plays a much smaller role than previously – instead, a huge variety of associations based on common interests has arisen,” says Professor Bjarne Ibsen, head of the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Sports, Health and Civil Society.
Popularly speaking, instead of football clubs for workers and football clubs for the bourgeoisie, Danes now have football clubs that are simply for people who play football.

Informal communities gaining ground
Ideological involvement appears to be moving into more informal and single issue-oriented contexts that are better suited to a busy daily life. This trend is explained by one of the country’s leading experts in volunteerism and associations, Professor Thomas P. Boje from Roskilde University: “People are increasingly exercising theircivil commitment individually and on an ad hoc basis.”

In three out of ten cases, Danes perform volunteer work without any formal affiliation with an association. As late as 2004, this was true in just two out of ten cases. This trend is evident in both social work and sports, where activities are increasingly based outside of the traditional associations.
Meanwhile, new and often informal communities are sprouting up at a record pace, helped along by social media.

“Broadly speaking, these new movements are characterised by popular participation, by bottom-up organisation and by being caseoriented rather than ideological,” says Boje.

FACTS
(by The Danish National Centre for Social Research)
The structure of Danish associations arose during the 1700s and became the dominant form of organisation in almost every aspect of social life in Denmark, especially after the enactment of the Constitution of 1849.
The Constitution guarantees all people the right to form an association of any kind, provided the purpose is legal. A 2006 study estimated the number of voluntary local associations in Denmark at about 83,000, in addition to around 20,000 other voluntary organisations, such as foundations and private institutions.

Source: Focus Denmark No 5, Author: Thomas Hebsgaard
Photo: Henning Stein/ VisitDenmark.com