Assembling welfare landscapes of social housing: lessons from Denmark.

This article makes a case for reappraising the designed landscapes of post-war social housing as welfare landscapes to inform current debates, policies and practices regarding social housing and its renewal. We look back at the development processes of three Danish estates which literally materialised the emerging welfare state in concrete, asphalt, plantings and earthworks. Guided by actor-network theory we recount how their landscapes materialised as multiscalar socio-material assemblages. We show that non-human things played a crucial role in the development of welfare landscapes which focused on child welfare and community development, offered architectural and ecological diversity, and co-shaped the urban landscape beyond the individual estates. Understanding welfare landscapes as socio-material assemblages does not only acknowledge the role of non-human things in their historical production. Ultimately it also calls for the inclusion of the welfare of non-human species and may offer inspiration for developing future welfare landscapes for more than humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]