The Battle of the Commons. A case study of Amager Fælled

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the motivation behind the Municipality of Copenhagen’s privatisation of public space and how an urban social movement responds to this. Through a case study of Amager Fælled, a preserved nature area in Copenhagen, Denmark, the conflict between the urban planning strategies of Copenhagen and the urban social movement Amager Fælleds Venner is examined. Amager Fælled is a public nature area that the Municipality of Copenhagen has planned to develop for housing. Amager Fælleds Venner are fighting against the planned privatisation of the nature area, as they see Amager Fælled as an important part of their urban life. The investigations were carried out by walking interviews with four members of Amager Fælleds Venner, netnography of their Facebook group and critical discourse analysis of several documents from the Municipality of Copenhagen. The result of the thesis indicates that urban politics in Copenhagen have gone through processes of neoliberalisation and that the urban social movement, Amager Fælleds Venner, is a product of these politics.