Making responsible residents: On ‘responsibilization’ within local community work in marginalized residential areas in Denmark

Abstract

This article explores how the local community projects in marginalized residential areas in Denmark attempt to make ‘responsible’ residents. It has commonly been argued that contemporary governance is inflected with responsibilization, often understood as the ambition to make citizens self-responsible and independent from the welfare state. However, much less attention has been paid to how such responsibilization is accomplished in practice. The article draws on interviews with local community workers and participant observation in local community projects, to explore the process of ‘responsibilization’ in practice. The article shows how local community workers use narrative accounts to assess residents and their (failed) responsibilities, as well as their own responsibilities towards residents. Building on this, it is shown how attempts to make residents independent from the welfare state become entangled with practices of care, through which local community workers assume responsibilities for residents, rather than making them independent as such. Lastly, the article shows how responsibilization is a fragile process, and how it is entangled with ongoing makings of accounts that demonstrate responsibilities, both for local community workers and residents.