Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

University of Southern Denmark

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Co-Authors

Jens Fyhn Lykke Sørensen

University of Southern Denmark

Kristine Munkholm Høyer

Copenhagen Business School

Mickala Erlandsen

University of Southern Denmark

Torben Dall Schmidt

University of Southern Denmark

Gert Tinggaard Svendsen

Aarhus University

Malene Brandt Winther

University of Southern Denmark

Peter Sandholt Jensen

Linnaeus University

L. K. Christensen

Norwegian Institute of Marine Research

Cooperative Institutions

University of Southern Denmark

Aarhus University

Copenhagen Business School

Helmut Schmidt University

Mundipharma (Germany)

Institute for Urban and Regional Research

University of Akureyri

Danish Ministry of Environment

Central Denmark Region

Odense University Hospital

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What makes peripheral places matter? Applying the concept of political capital within a multiple capital framework

Journal of Rural Studies (2023)

Jens Fyhn Lykke Sørensen Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

Present research focusses on how urbanization has led to ‘territorial inequality’ that marginalizes ‘places that don't matter’, understood as places neglected by politicians. In this strand of literature, rural areas are consequently singled out as belonging to the unfortunate group of ‘left behind places’ and ‘places that don't matter’. However, to what extent can this be supported empirically? Based on a Danish national survey we conducted 2011/2012, and applying the concept of political capital within a multiple capital framework, we attempt to answer three questions: Do rural areas per se have little political power and influence? What makes some rural areas have more political capital than others? Does local political capital influence the local development in rural areas? We measure political capital by asking respondents in 476 rural parishes to assess how much influence local citizens exert on political decisions that concern their own, local area. The results show a significant variation in political capital across the sample. Further, regression analyses show that the local stocks of five forms of capital (physical, economic, human, social, symbolic) are positively related to the level of local political capital. Finally, regression analyses show that the initial level of political capital in 2012 has a positive and long-term effect on rural population growth throughout the period 2012–2023, while controlling for various exogenous factors.

Political capital

Capital (architecture)

10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.103136

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Citations (4)

Do rural school closures lead to local population decline?

Journal of Rural Studies (2021)

Jens Fyhn Lykke Sørensen Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen Peter Sandholt Jensen Torben Dall Schmidt

In Denmark, many rural schools have been closed since 2000. These school closures have often resulted in heated debates between local politicians and the local population. Locals have feared that closing their school would have adverse effects and lead to local population decline. Meanwhile, previous research has found mixed evidence on the population effect of rural school closures. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature by looking at the case of Denmark. The paper analyses the local population effects of the simultaneous closure of eight village schools in 2011 in the same peripheral municipality in Denmark. The case study offers a quasi-experimental setting, and the population effects are estimated through an ordinary and a flexible difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis. Overall, the results show clear evidence of a negative population effect of rural school closures. The ordinary DiD analysis shows a population decline of 7.6 percentage points during the 10-year post-closure period. The flexible DiD analysis points to long-term effects, as the population decline first becomes statistically significant from the sixth year following the closures and onwards. To qualify the results of the econometric tests, we report findings from interviews with local people carried out in 2015 in four of the eight rural communities. Among other things, findings from interviews point to lock-in effects in terms of social capital and housing markets, which helps to understand the dominance of long-term population effects from school closures.

Closure (psychology)

Dominance (genetics)

Population decline

10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.09.016

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Citations (29)

Public Libraries as Breeding Grounds for Bonding, Bridging and Institutional Social Capital: The Case of Branch Libraries in Rural Denmark

Sociologia Ruralis (2013)

Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

Abstract Public libraries are eminent providers of human and social capital, not least in small rural communities where such meeting places are becoming scarce in many areas of the world. Drawing on data from a questionnaire survey, this article reports on social capital creation at branch libraries in 62 rural municipalities in D enmark, as reported by the municipal library managers. A main empirical result is the extensive collaboration between the branch libraries and other public institutions in the local area, which often also involves volunteers from the civic society. Hence, it is shown that, besides micro‐level social capital, valuable social capital is created among public and voluntary institutions collaborating on local core and noncore library services. In this way, public libraries are not only breeding grounds for two well‐known types of social capital – bonding and bridging – but also for a highly valuable third type, institutional social capital. It is argued that the closing down of more than half of branch libraries in rural D enmark since 1988, is partly due to politicians being ignorant of the great socioeconomic value of these ‘gracious spaces’, which has a strong capacity to foster ‘full‐scale’ community social capital consisting of all three types of social capital.

Social Mobility

Social Reproduction

Voluntary association

10.1111/soru.12002

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Citations (54)

‘Getting along’ or ‘getting ahead’? How urban-to-rural newcomers employed at Danfoss in south Denmark build bridging, bonding and linking social capital

Journal of Rural Studies (2022)

Mickala Erlandsen Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.12.019

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Citations (5)

The right to development: construction of a non-agriculturalist discourse of rurality in Denmark

Journal of Rural Studies (2003)

Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

Rurality

Danish

10.1016/s0743-0167(03)00045-7

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Citations (51)

There's more to the picture than meets the eye: Measuring tangible and intangible capital in two marginal communities in rural Denmark

Journal of Rural Studies (2007)

Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen Jens Fyhn Lykke Sørensen

Capital (architecture)

Veblen good

Structural capital

10.1016/j.jrurstud.2007.01.008

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Citations (78)

The right to development: Construction of a non-agricultural discourse in rural Denmark

Journal of Rural Studies (2003)

Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

Source

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Citations (1)

Measuring Social Capital: The Danish Co‐operative Dairy Movement

Sociologia Ruralis (2000)

Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen Gert Tinggaard Svendsen

What are the roots of social capital and how can it be measured and built? Social capital is considered as a new production factor that must be added to the conventional concepts of human and physical capital. Social capital is productive because it increases the level of trust in a society and allows more transactions to take place without third‐party enforcement. Theory and lessons from empirical evidence lead to the general recommendation that any loss in social capital must be deducted from the economic gain following market forces. For example, the voluntary organization of small‐sized groups in the Danish Co‐operative Dairy Movement was eliminated due to economies of scale. It may be so that an alternative way of production, taking social capital into ac‐count, could have increased economic growth further.

Means of production

Danish

Physical capital

Capital intensity

Capital (architecture)

Capital deepening

10.1111/1467-9523.00132

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Citations (93)

‘The Rotten Banana’ fires back: The story of a Danish discourse of inclusive rurality in the making

Journal of Rural Studies (2012)

Malene Brandt Winther Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen