Micro-pol: or the story of the large within the small
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/dansoc.v30i4.6230Keywords:
Local resilience, Lemvig, Local community, engangement, urbanization, rural development.Abstract
In this article, we employ case of Lemvig, a small Danish community that refuses to be considered part of the periphery. We discuss how this case challenges
sociological conceptions of the relation between center and periphery and between metropolis and the local. We argue that it is exactly the character
of what we conceptualize as the »micro-pol« – international orientation and a local culture that couple to global flows – which generates the resilience of
the local place. The analysis of qualitative material from Lemvig helps us understand the conditions that support resilience in places, which are shaped
by de-urbanization. The article draws on empirical material from an ongoing Horizon 2020 project, COHSMO – Inequality, urbanization and territorial cohesion: Developing the European social model of economic growth and democratic capacity. The project is a cross European comparison of the relation
between urbanization, inequality and territorial cohesion. The narratives from Lemvig highlight how local culture cannot be understood alone as a product
of necessity due to structural challenges. Rather the place specific culture is a product of the interplay between local business structures, the scale of place,
historical path dependencies, and active local engagement.
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