Differential belongings

This paper explores suburban middle-class residents’ narratives about housing choice, everyday life and belonging in residential areas of Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, to understand how residential processes of social differentiation are constituted. Using Savage et al.’s concepts of discursive reflexivity and elective belonging, the paper shows differences in similar residential areas between the narratives of university-educated and non-university-educated residents. This finding suggests that belonging in a residential area is closely linked to the cultural capital that people possess and not only to the area itself. In addition, rather than seeing suburban residential areas as homogenous, greater attention should be paid to differences within such areas.