Illustration

Center for Changing Urban and Rural Lives (TRANSITION)

Center leader:

Pia Quist

Period:

February, 2025 - January, 2031

Application round:

12th Round

Host institution(s)

University of Copenhagen

Grant:

39,842,000 DKK.

TRANSITION studies how the transition from rural to urban-centric societies has shaped people’s lived experiences throughout the 20th century. The transition from societies in which more than 80% of the population lived in rural areas to the opposite situation today, took place within just a few generations, with profound consequences for everyday lives, languages and identities – consequences that continue to influence contemporary perceptions of and tensions between rural and urban life.

At the center, researchers from the fields of history, literature and sociolinguistics collaborate to explore the rural-urban transition from a bottom-up perspective. This is achieved by examining the everyday lives of ordinary people through various cultural-historical sources and linking these to broader historical contexts, collective ideas, language and policies. Key areas of focus include individual life courses, linguistic and cultural encounters in rural and urban contexts, and the transformation of places over time.

The center is based at the University of Copenhagen and operates as a collaboration between the university and the National Museum of Denmark. This partnership leverages the significant potential of combining these institutions’ unique cultural-historical collections, including the Dialect Archive at the Center for Dialect Research and the National Museum’s Ethnological Studies (NEU). The research integrates qualitative methods, such as close reading, with quantitative analyses of digitized materials.

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