Trampoline House is a community center in Copenhagen that aims to integrate immigrants into Danish society. It brings together staff, volunteers, and immigrant users to break isolation and inform Danes about asylum conditions. The author conducted fieldwork at Trampoline House, observing how members socialize and participate in activities like language lessons. Trampoline House challenges exclusionary ideas of Danish identity by creating an inclusive space where intersecting identities can coexist. It also spreads this vision beyond its walls by helping users socialize in wider Danish society.

1.
“Identity Danish Modern”:
Trampoline House and the Prototyping of
an Inclusive Denmark
Huda Alawa
Anthropology 2015
Advisors:
Elif Babül
Debbora Battaglia

2. Trampoline House
• Goal
1. Break the isolation immigrant
users find themselves in;
2. Inform the Danish Public
about asylum conditions for
humane policies
• Member groups:
o Staff
o Volunteers
o Immigrant Users
Trampoline House.
(Trampoline House 2015)

3. Methodology
• A Day in the Field
Members socializing in the main room.
(Trampoline House 2015)
Members in a Danish language lesson.
(Trampoline House 2015)

4. Complexities of Subject
Positioning
• Connecting to
Immigrant Users
• Intersections with
Danish Volunteers
• Detached Individual
(Dewalt, Dewalt & Wayland 1998)Demonstration of positioning.

5. Re/Imagining Danishness
• Grundtvig: True Danish Identity
o Imagined (Anderson 1991)
o Rooted in “being Danish” (Jenkins 2012)
• Geographical Differences
o Threat of Non-Westerners on Authentic Danishness
• Countering Exclusion: Trampoline House

6. Inclusiveness as an
Encounter
[Trampoline House is] like a hole in the Danish
atmosphere.
[There] are some other norms in the House, they are
just crossing over each other all the time.
-Astrid Interview

7. Danish Modern
Intersectionality at Trampoline House.
• Danish self as endless
becomings
o Habitual performance
(Bourdieu; Beattie 2003)
o Conscious cultural
performance (Beattie 2003)
o Intersectionality(Beattie 2003)
• Intersecting Identities at
the House

8. Community Making: The Place of Religion
• Friday Dinners
Daily Dinner
(Trampoline House 2015)
Friday dinner at Trampoline House.
(Trampoline House 2015)

9. Inclusive “Family” Meals
I [am handed] a plate of food, which is
customary for the dinner, as Tone wants to
eat ‘family style’. Upon realizing that there is
meat in it, I tell the user who had served me
that I only eat halal. He replies, “We’re all
Muslim, we eat halal here.”
- Field Notes, April 11

10. Intersectionalities of
Sacred and Secular
“Is it okay if I drink this?” Basam gestures to a bottle of beer
that he is holding… “Before I came to Denmark, I never
used to drink … Now I don’t fast and I began to drink … but
really only at the House.”
- Field Notes, April 25
Friday dancing.
(Trampoline House 2015)

11. Taking Trampoline House
Beyond the Walls
It is a temporary space but …
it should be temporary
because [we] are a bridge
into society.
When you come here, you will
meet some Danes [and] they
will take you out to a bar or
party. And then suddenly
[we] start to spread out into
the rest of society.
- Morten Interview
Trampoline House: Spreading Outwards.
(Photos courtesy of Google Maps and Trampoline House [2015])

12. Many Thanks to:
• Professor Debbora Battaglia – for her ongoing
support and guidance
• Professor Elif Babül – for shaping my research over a
year ago
• Trampoline House – for opening their arms and
welcoming me into their community