This book outlines the origins, development, challenges, and lived realities of the changing welfare city, focusing primarily on Denmark. Strategies have changed over the decades as models of development have shifted and as the needs of society and a warming planet have come into focus. The role of the state has been minimized, turning municipalities into the new major agents in attracting taxpayers and providing goods--both by means of urban planning.

Ellen Braae is a professor of architecture at the University of Copenhagen, where she also works as the head of the Landscape Architecture and Planning research group at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management. She is additionally a member of the Danish Independent Research Council for Culture and Communication.