Mikkel Høghøj, “When Aarhus Became Modern”:

In the historical research there has mainly been a focus on the history of the welfare state, and thus an emphasis on the ways that the modern welfare society has been defined and negotiated through this channel. This project tries to nuance this picture by investigating how the city and the modern city space has worked as an active arena, where the main issues of the welfare state were produced, reproduced, defined and negotiated. Specifically the project investigates how different actors in Aarhus in the period 1900-1970 interpreted, negotiated and practised ‘the housing question’ with an emphasis on the role that issues of social justice, citizenship and welfare played in the process. These interpretations and negotiations will be analysed in a spatial perspective with a focus on the social and cultural consequences, this had for the everyday life in the city.

The presentation will outline the main issues of the project and particularly reflect upon the methodological and theoretical questions that have characterized the introductory phase of the project.

Steffen Lind Christensen, “Identities in War– War Experience during the First World War and the Effects on Identity”:

This project examines collective identities amongst the Danish-speaking minority in the German army during the First World War 1914-18.  This analytical approach views experiences of war as transformative in terms of the soldiers’ collective identities, not only during but also after the war. This is based on the understanding that identity is not a constant but a process – susceptible to change and potentially negotiable.

The project has two perspectives of analysis: 1) Possible patterns of change in the soldiers’ collective identities during the war, and 2) how changes of self-perception continued after 1918 through ways of remembering and processing the war.