“There is a strong tradition of community spirit in Denmark,” said Eva Skafte Jensen, senior researcher at the Danish Language Council. “In the 19th Century, this was seen in the way people in the countryside established andelsbevægelsen (co-operatives) focused on common goals. Dairy farmers would team up to finance jointly owned dairies [and] farmers and other country people would form consumer co-ops, thus circumventing the monopoly of private merchants of groceries… This idea was also brought into the workers’ movements where it helped to build strong unions.” Also associated is the 19th-Century establishment of højskole (folk schools), which aimed to give rural people a non-formal education in good citizenship – and still exist today. It was this association with folk schools, co-operatives and the worker’s movement, “when people pulling together achieved more than the individual.”
Karen Gardiner, 'The single word that connects Denmark', BBC