About the center

Understanding the human experience of rural-urban transitions

Our Research Vision

At TRANSITION, we explore the shift from rural to urban-centric societies across the long 20th century. Our research seeks to answer:

  • How have rural–urban transitions influenced people’s lived experiences?
  • How have these experiences shaped collective ideas, language, and practices?

Researchers from history, literature, and sociolinguistics collaborate to examine these transitions from a bottom-up perspective linking everyday experiences of ordinary people to broader historical contexts, collective ideas, language, and policies.

Our Research Approach

The research at TRANSITION is structured around three key analytical entry points:

Encounters – How individuals experience new cultural and linguistic settings during transitions.
Places – How urban and rural spaces transform and shape individual and collective experiences.
Lifespans – How people’s experiences with transitions unfold across their lives.

Our work focuses on what is often referred to as the long 20th century, from the early effects of industrialisation and urbanisation to contemporary transformations. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, we combine archival research, demographics, literature studies, and sociolinguistics to develop insights that extend beyond the Danish context.

Structure and Organization

TRANSITION is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation and represents a collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark. The center is hosted by and located at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics (NorS) at the University of Copenhagen.

Our Guiding Principles

At TRANSITION, research grows out of how we work together. Our Guiding Principles express the values that shape our everyday collaboration — transparency & clear communication, trust & reassurance, care, and generosity. They remind us to communicate openly, respect difference, and create spaces of trust, curiosity, and mutual support. Together, they help us sustain a working culture where ambitious research and collegial well-being go hand in hand.

Read the full Guiding Principles.

Contact us

For inquiries, reach out at transition@hum.ku.dk