Going beyond methodological presentism: Examples from a Copenhagen neighborhood 1885-2010

Denmark is an example of a country where the idea of historical ethnic homogeneity stands strong. This article challenges this historical presentism: the scholarly and societal tendency to understand social phenomena within a limited contemporary framework, neglecting possible effects and similarities embedded in and established through human history. This will be done via an historical and ethnographic study of the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Nørrebro. The article underlines the ethnic heterogeneity of Danish history and further shows how combining historical and ethnographic methods in studying a neighbourhood can grant us important insights into the changing incorporation of immigrant groups and the changing meanings of ‘the immigrant’.