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The dissertation argues that Christian voluntary social work emerging in late 19th century Copenhagen constituted a break with previous forms of social provision for those considered ‘undeserving’ poor and explores the ideational inspirations for and consequences of this break. Three papers show through the case of the Copenhagen Home Mission the kind of reinterpretations that were required to integrate voluntary social work into a Lutheran revivalist tradition as a vocabulary of motive, through the case of the Copenhagen-based temperance organization the Blue Cross the types of translation processes that it took to expand nationally as they adapted an international social movement to the local Danish context, and how the Blue Cross brought religious ideas to resonate with scientific (eugenic-hereditary) and political (social democratic) ideas in a promotion of certain ‘illiberal’ policies, specifically practices of forcible treatment of alcoholics.

 

Associate Professor Liv Egholm Feldt

Department of Business and Politics

Copenhagen Business School

 

Professor Anker Brink Lund

Department of Business and Politics

Copenhagen Business School

 

Associate Professor Joachim Lund

Department of Business and Politics

Copenhagen Business School

 

Professor Elisabeth Clemens

Department of Sociology

University of Chicago

 

Professor Hans Joas

Faculty of Theology

Humboldt University of Berlin

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