Bearing the marks or not? Negotiating the girl guide uniform

In 2014 the Danish Green Girl scouts began a transition process towards a new badgeless jacket to replace their earlier scout shirt, a piece of garment, which, along with the neckerchief, historically has defined the iconic scouting uniform (Westberg, 2007). It was designed by a committee with a strong vision, borrowing elements from contemporary outdoor fashion. While the updated jacket was applauded, the removal of badges was heavily contested.

This paper will present a case study on the sartorial design and subsequent cultural disruption of an established uniform type (Pollen, 2019; Goodson & Tynan, 2019) and its ensemble of symbols, artefacts and practices (Mechling, 1987). Grounded in research on the historical ambigiouty towards uniformity and competitive display in a scandinavian welfare society, the new jacket is interpreted in terms of current pedagogical ideas of "visible authorities", competitive benchmarking and the more informal contemporary leisure clothing culture (Yagou, 2011).