Emerging commons: Cooperative housing in Switzerland

Abstract

Access to quality and affordable housing is a growing challenge, and civil society has responded with participatory and self-managed housing experiences. Housing cooperatives in Switzerland belong to this phenomenon. Polanyi’s double movement theory and Ostrom’s work on the commons are employed to investigate the motivations and practices of self-managed cooperative housing members in Geneva and Zurich. Following the case study methodology, findings show that the main motivation of cooperative members is to decommodify housing. Common practices include sharing and solidarity-based practices, mutual learning, flexibility for member entry and exit, and general assembly decisions about financial and environmental sustainability. Groups build common practices to access funding, knowledge and solidarity through multi-stakeholder networks, in particular non-profit architects. As trust in self-managed practices increases, they are able to engage in sustainable innovation. Adoption and replication make their housing experiences scalable, configuring a model in concept and practice. As a result of the increase in experience and reputation, members of housing cooperatives become advocates of affordable housing in Swiss referenda. Ostrom’s notion of commons, bundle of rights and nesting can provide valuable contributions in urban sociology research on the commons, necessary for building decommodified affordable housing.