1 / 10

Cohousing Positive community resistance to hyper-individualist market society

Cohousing Positive community resistance to hyper-individualist market society. Matthieu Lietaert European University Institute Degrowth conference Paris, April 18 th 2008. Cohousing?. What? A neighbourhood development (10 to 25 units) where private and common facilities are combined

lysander
Download Presentation

Cohousing Positive community resistance to hyper-individualist market society

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Cohousing Positive community resistance to hyper-individualist market society Matthieu Lietaert European University Institute Degrowth conference Paris, April 18th 2008

  2. Cohousing? • What? • A neighbourhood development (10 to 25 units) where private and common facilities are combined • Where? • In (semi-)urban context • Why? • To provide answers to the social and the practical needs of citizens • How? • Bottom-up approach

  3. Historical Overview • First cohousings • in mid 1970’s , Denmark • Rapidly spread to Sweden and Holland • 1990’s onwards: Huge boom in the USA • 2000: • Japan, Rest of Europe, Australia, Canada • 1000 cohousings built, same amount in process • Denmark: 2 % of population live in cohousing • Boom of Cohousing for elderly people

  4. Cohousing & Degrowth? • Assumption 1: • Hyper-Individualism requiers illimited growth • Community enables “efficient sharing” and degrowth • Assumption 2: • Lack of public spaces requiers growth • Private “public spaces” enable degrowth

  5. Cohousing & Degrowth? At individual/neighboorhood level, Cohousing enables: new local social relations new time management new space management new consumption patterns

  6. Increase of local social contacts • Common meeting spaces • Contacts and activities with direct neighbours • Inclusion of groups with specific needs • Children • Elders • Young couples • Singles • Differently able people • high level of privacy when needed • Self-management and empowerment

  7. New Time Management • Cooking activity • Individually: 35h-40h monthly • Community: 5h-10h monthly • Schooling of children • Transport and homework. • Babysitting • “Every child should have 100 parents”

  8. Alternative Consumption Pattern • Sharing & Re-use • Cars, bikes, tools, toys, washing machines, Clothes (especially for children) • Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETs) • Time Banks • Direct contact with local (organic) producers • House • Smaller (cheaper appartment) • Bigger common house (shared cost) • Ecology: low CO2 emissions (UCL, 2008)

  9. Problems in mainstreaming? • Market Society: Atomisation • Citizens >> consumers • Critique of “community life” since 80’s • Top-down hierarchy, no privacy • Communism, failure • Decision-making • From individual/family level to Community • Need to learn a new language: facilitation and consensus • Housing market • Expensive Intermediaries • Speculation

  10. Cohousing Positive community resistance to hyper-individualist market society Matthieu Lietaert European University Institute Degrowth conference Paris, April 18th 2008

More Related