Solution or a “Fake Sense of Integration”?
Contradictions of Rap as a Resource within the Danish Welfare State’s Integration Project
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.37845Keywords:
Danish welfare state, inclusion/exclusion, integration politics, rap music, social technologiesAbstract
During the past decades, rap music and hip hop culture have increasingly been utilized within the context of the Danish welfare state's integration project as a solution to societal problems with youths, who experience being marginalized and "Othered" within Danish society. This article addresses some of the contradictions that are related to this. By approaching the blend of hip hop pedagogy and policies against radicalization and criminalization of these youths through the theoretical lens of social technologies, it can be illustrated how mechanisms of power are conducted within social rap-based programmes. While such programmes are often considered as great successes by funding bodies and users alike, the article critically discusses how the use of rap as a resource for citizenship-building and inclusion of the target group in a broader societal context might entail the risk of actually excluding them.
References
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Elkjær, Lea, and Gry Tybjerg Holm. 2013. “I LIVSBANEN lever de unge deres drømme ud”. Social Kritik 134: 86–95.
Elkjær, Lea, Gry T. Holm, Mira S. Andersen, Tobias S. Nielsen and Line L. Mørck. 2015. “Hiphopkulturen—et fællesskabende og frigørende mulighedsrum”. Social Kritik 142: 80–93.
Forman, Murray. 2013. “’Hood Work’: Hip-Hop, Youth Advocacy, and Model Citizenry”. Communication, Culture & Critique 6/2: 244–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12012
Gad, Ulrik P. 2011. “Muslimer som trussel. Identitet, sikkerhed og modforanstaltninger”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2001, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 61–87. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Gilliam, Laura, and Eva Gulløv. 2012. Civiliserende institutioner. Om idealer og distinktioner i opdragelse. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Goldberg, David T. 2006. “Racial Europeanization”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29/2: 331–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870500465611
Gosa, Travis L., and Tristan G. Fields. 2012. “Is Hip-Hop Education Another Hustle? The (Ir)Responsible Use of Hip-Hop as Pedagogy”. In Hip Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, edited by Brad J. Porfilio and Michael J. Viola, 195–210. New York: Peter Lang.
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Hill, Marc L. 2009. Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity. New York: Teachers College Press.
Jenkins, Richard. 2011. “Integration, of the Folk and by the Folk”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pæregaard, 256–65. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Jensen, Sune Qvotrup. 2011. “Othering, Identity Formation and Agency”. Qualitative Studies 2/2: 63–78.
Jensen, Sune Qvotrup, and Kirsten Hviid. 2003. “Perkerrap, ghettostøj og socialt arbejde”. Social Kritik 89: 22–41.
Jöncke, Steffen, Mette N. Svendsen and Susan R. Whyte. 2004. “Løsningsmodeller. Sociale teknologier som antropologisk arbejdsfelt”. In Viden om verden. En grundbog i antropologisk analyse, edited by Kirsten Hastrup, 385–407. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Khawaja, Iram. 2011. “Blikkene. Muslimskhedens synlighed, kropslighed og forhandling”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2001, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 269–91. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Kühle, Lene. 2011. “Radikalisering: ekstremisme eller vækkelse?” In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2011, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 89–114. København: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Moos, Leif. 2009. “A General Context for New Social Technologies”. Nordisk Pedagogik 29: 79–92.
Olwig, Karen Fog, and Karsten Pærregaard. 2011a. “Introduction: ‘Strangers’ in the Nation”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pærregaard, 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Olwig, Karen Fog, and Karsten Pærregaard, eds. 2011b. The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Parmar, Priya. 2009. Knowledge Reigns Supreme: The Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop Artist KRS-ONE. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-hop. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386155
Porfilio, Brad J., and Michael J. Viola, eds. 2012. Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-hop. New York: Peter Lang.
Potter, Russell A. 1995. Spectacular Vernacular: Hip-hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Preis, Ann-Belinda. 1998. Kan vi leve sammen? Integration mellem politik og praksis. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
Ringsager, Kristine. 2013. “‘I Wanna Be a Dark-Skinned Pork Roast’—and Other Stories about how ‘Dark’ Danish Rappers Negotiate Otherness in their Marketing and Music Productions”. CyberOrient 7/2. Online: http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=9063 (accessed 28 October 2018).
—2015a. “‘It Ain’t Shit About the Music!’ Discussions on Freedom of Expression in Relation to Rap Music in Social Work”. Danish Musicology Online, Special Edition (Researching Music Censorship): 109–130. Online: https://tinyurl.com/ydzcpscf (accessed 28 October 2018).
—2015b. RAP, RETTIGHEDER, RESPEKT. En musikalsk antropologi om medborgerskab, kosmopolitisme og brune rappere i Danmark. PhD dissertation. Denmark: University of Copenhagen.
—2016. “Danmark som vi kender det. Forhandlinger af medborgerskab og andethed i rap og hiphopmusik”. In Perspektiver på dansk populærmusikkultur efter 2000, edited by Mads Krogh and Henrik Marstal, 127–63. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.
—2017. “‘Featuring the System’: Hip Hop Pedagogy and Danish Integration Policies”. Suomen Antropologi 42 (Special issue on Hip Hop Constellations): 75–93.
Rose, Nikolas. 2010. “Psykiatri uden grænser? De psykiatriske diagnosers ekspanderende domæne”. In Det diagnosticerede liv—sygdom uden grænser, edited by Svend Brinkmann, 32–57. Aarhus: Forlaget Klim.
Runell, Marcella, and Martha Diaz. 2007. The H2Ed Guidebook: A Sourcebook of Inspiration and Practical Application. New York: Hip-Hop Association.
Rytter, Mikkel, and Marianne H. Pedersen. 2011. “Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Udviklinger efter den 11. september 2001”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2011, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 7–34. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
—2013. “A Decade of Suspicion: Islam and Muslims in Denmark after 9/11”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37/13: 2303–321.
Schneider, Christopher J. 2011. “Culture, Rap Music, ‘Bitch’, and the Development of the Censorship Frame”. American Behavioral Scientist 55/1: 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764210381728
Sjørslev, Inger. 2011. “The Paradox of Integration: Excluding while Claiming to Integrate into Danish Society”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pæregaard, 77–93. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Stæhr, Andreas. 2010. “Rappen reddede os”—et studie af senmoderne storbydrenges identitetsarbejde i fritids- og skolemiljøer. Vol. 54, Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.
Stæhr, Andreas, and Lian M. Madsen. 2014. “Standard Language in Urban Rap: Social Media, Linguistic Practice and Ethnographic Context”. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies (Paper 94). Tilburg: Tilburg University.
Söderman, Johan. 2011. “‘Folkbildning’ through Hip-hop: How the Ideals of Three Rappers Parallel a Scandinavian Educational Tradition”. Music Education Research 13/2: 211–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2011.577929
Söderman, Johan, and Ove Sernhede. 2010. Planet Hiphop: om hiphop som folkbildning och social mobilisering. Malmö: Liber.
Söderman, Johan, and Karen Snell. 2014. Hip-Hop within and without the Academy. London: Lexington Books.
Yúdice, George. 2003. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Andreassen, Rikke. 2006. “Intersektionalitet i voldtægtsnarrativer”. Kvinder, Køn og Forskning 2–3: 93–104. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v0i2-3.28089
—2014. “DEBAT: Response: The Nordic Discomfort with ‘Race’”. Nordic Journal of Migration Research 4/1: 40–44.
Andreassen, Rikke, Anne Henningsen and Lene Myong. 2008. “‘Indledning: Hvidhed’”. Kvinder, Køn og Forskning 17/4: 3–8.
Andreassen, Rikke, and Kathrine Vitus, eds. 2015. Affectivity and Race: Studies from Nordic Contexts. London: Routledge.
Baumann, Gerd, and André Gingrich, eds. 2004. Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Structural Approach. Oxford: Berghan Books.
Bleich, Erik. 2009. “Muslims and the State in the Post-9/11 West: Introduction”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35/3: 353–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830802704509
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1998. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Elkjær, Lea, and Gry Tybjerg Holm. 2013. “I LIVSBANEN lever de unge deres drømme ud”. Social Kritik 134: 86–95.
Elkjær, Lea, Gry T. Holm, Mira S. Andersen, Tobias S. Nielsen and Line L. Mørck. 2015. “Hiphopkulturen—et fællesskabende og frigørende mulighedsrum”. Social Kritik 142: 80–93.
Forman, Murray. 2013. “’Hood Work’: Hip-Hop, Youth Advocacy, and Model Citizenry”. Communication, Culture & Critique 6/2: 244–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12012
Gad, Ulrik P. 2011. “Muslimer som trussel. Identitet, sikkerhed og modforanstaltninger”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2001, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 61–87. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Gilliam, Laura, and Eva Gulløv. 2012. Civiliserende institutioner. Om idealer og distinktioner i opdragelse. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Goldberg, David T. 2006. “Racial Europeanization”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29/2: 331–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870500465611
Gosa, Travis L., and Tristan G. Fields. 2012. “Is Hip-Hop Education Another Hustle? The (Ir)Responsible Use of Hip-Hop as Pedagogy”. In Hip Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, edited by Brad J. Porfilio and Michael J. Viola, 195–210. New York: Peter Lang.
Hay, James. 2003. “Unaided Virtues: The (Neo)Liberalization of the Domestic Sphere and the New Architecture of Community”. In Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality, edited by Jack Z. Bratich, Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, 165–206. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Hill, Marc L. 2009. Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity. New York: Teachers College Press.
Jenkins, Richard. 2011. “Integration, of the Folk and by the Folk”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pæregaard, 256–65. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Jensen, Sune Qvotrup. 2011. “Othering, Identity Formation and Agency”. Qualitative Studies 2/2: 63–78.
Jensen, Sune Qvotrup, and Kirsten Hviid. 2003. “Perkerrap, ghettostøj og socialt arbejde”. Social Kritik 89: 22–41.
Jöncke, Steffen, Mette N. Svendsen and Susan R. Whyte. 2004. “Løsningsmodeller. Sociale teknologier som antropologisk arbejdsfelt”. In Viden om verden. En grundbog i antropologisk analyse, edited by Kirsten Hastrup, 385–407. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Khawaja, Iram. 2011. “Blikkene. Muslimskhedens synlighed, kropslighed og forhandling”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2001, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 269–91. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Kühle, Lene. 2011. “Radikalisering: ekstremisme eller vækkelse?” In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2011, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 89–114. København: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Moos, Leif. 2009. “A General Context for New Social Technologies”. Nordisk Pedagogik 29: 79–92.
Olwig, Karen Fog, and Karsten Pærregaard. 2011a. “Introduction: ‘Strangers’ in the Nation”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pærregaard, 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Olwig, Karen Fog, and Karsten Pærregaard, eds. 2011b. The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Parmar, Priya. 2009. Knowledge Reigns Supreme: The Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop Artist KRS-ONE. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-hop. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386155
Porfilio, Brad J., and Michael J. Viola, eds. 2012. Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-hop. New York: Peter Lang.
Potter, Russell A. 1995. Spectacular Vernacular: Hip-hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Preis, Ann-Belinda. 1998. Kan vi leve sammen? Integration mellem politik og praksis. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
Ringsager, Kristine. 2013. “‘I Wanna Be a Dark-Skinned Pork Roast’—and Other Stories about how ‘Dark’ Danish Rappers Negotiate Otherness in their Marketing and Music Productions”. CyberOrient 7/2. Online: http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=9063 (accessed 28 October 2018).
—2015a. “‘It Ain’t Shit About the Music!’ Discussions on Freedom of Expression in Relation to Rap Music in Social Work”. Danish Musicology Online, Special Edition (Researching Music Censorship): 109–130. Online: https://tinyurl.com/ydzcpscf (accessed 28 October 2018).
—2015b. RAP, RETTIGHEDER, RESPEKT. En musikalsk antropologi om medborgerskab, kosmopolitisme og brune rappere i Danmark. PhD dissertation. Denmark: University of Copenhagen.
—2016. “Danmark som vi kender det. Forhandlinger af medborgerskab og andethed i rap og hiphopmusik”. In Perspektiver på dansk populærmusikkultur efter 2000, edited by Mads Krogh and Henrik Marstal, 127–63. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.
—2017. “‘Featuring the System’: Hip Hop Pedagogy and Danish Integration Policies”. Suomen Antropologi 42 (Special issue on Hip Hop Constellations): 75–93.
Rose, Nikolas. 2010. “Psykiatri uden grænser? De psykiatriske diagnosers ekspanderende domæne”. In Det diagnosticerede liv—sygdom uden grænser, edited by Svend Brinkmann, 32–57. Aarhus: Forlaget Klim.
Runell, Marcella, and Martha Diaz. 2007. The H2Ed Guidebook: A Sourcebook of Inspiration and Practical Application. New York: Hip-Hop Association.
Rytter, Mikkel, and Marianne H. Pedersen. 2011. “Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Udviklinger efter den 11. september 2001”. In Islam og muslimer i Danmark. Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11. september 2011, edited by Marianne H. Pedersen and Mikkel Rytter, 7–34. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
—2013. “A Decade of Suspicion: Islam and Muslims in Denmark after 9/11”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37/13: 2303–321.
Schneider, Christopher J. 2011. “Culture, Rap Music, ‘Bitch’, and the Development of the Censorship Frame”. American Behavioral Scientist 55/1: 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764210381728
Sjørslev, Inger. 2011. “The Paradox of Integration: Excluding while Claiming to Integrate into Danish Society”. In The Question of Integration: Immigration, Exclusion and the Danish Welfare State, edited by Karen Fog Olwig and Karsten Pæregaard, 77–93. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Stæhr, Andreas. 2010. “Rappen reddede os”—et studie af senmoderne storbydrenges identitetsarbejde i fritids- og skolemiljøer. Vol. 54, Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.
Stæhr, Andreas, and Lian M. Madsen. 2014. “Standard Language in Urban Rap: Social Media, Linguistic Practice and Ethnographic Context”. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies (Paper 94). Tilburg: Tilburg University.
Söderman, Johan. 2011. “‘Folkbildning’ through Hip-hop: How the Ideals of Three Rappers Parallel a Scandinavian Educational Tradition”. Music Education Research 13/2: 211–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2011.577929
Söderman, Johan, and Ove Sernhede. 2010. Planet Hiphop: om hiphop som folkbildning och social mobilisering. Malmö: Liber.
Söderman, Johan, and Karen Snell. 2014. Hip-Hop within and without the Academy. London: Lexington Books.
Yúdice, George. 2003. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Published
2018-12-28
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Ringsager, K. (2018). Solution or a “Fake Sense of Integration”? Contradictions of Rap as a Resource within the Danish Welfare State’s Integration Project. Journal of World Popular Music, 5(2), 250-268. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.37845
