Hábitat y Sociedad

The ongoing global housing crisis has limited the access of low-income groups to affordable housing (Hagbert et al., 2020). Therefore, different types of collective self-organized housing approaches have re-emerged in Europe since the 2000s (Czischke et al., 2020). Community-Led Housing is an umbrella term comprising different approaches such as collaborative housing or co-housing, community land trusts, housing cooperatives and self-help housing. These approaches are based on residents’ autonomy, community and social connection (Hudson et al., 2021) as well as on practices of inhabiting, sharing and being involved in everyday life (Arroyo et al., 2021).

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, city lockdown in many countries has implied housing confinement, social distancing and limiting the use of outdoor urban spaces. The pandemic has changed the relationship between housing and work as well as the conditions for being and sharing with others (Arroyo et al., 2021). Moreover, it has unveiled how the spatial features of different forms of housing have limited or enabled social interaction and mutual support in times of crisis. How was the lived experience of residents within Community-Led Housing projects in different contexts? What can be learnt to address challenges caused by pandemics and armed conflicts in future housing strategies?

This issue aims to promote a debate around transformation processes within Community-Led Housing (CLH) projects, residents’ coping responses to the pandemic and the relation of CLH projects to their surrounding neighbourhood. Furthermore, other related issues that connect these housing forms with combatting loneliness and segregation and their impact on health and wellbeing. We welcome papers based on new referents of community-led housing projects in the Global North and South as well as theoretical papers addressing the complexity of CLH. We invite authors interested in the subject to send their own original contributions.

Guest Editors:

Mr. Johnny Åstrand, Lecturer, Housing Development & Management, Lund University

Dr. Ivette Arroyo, Researcher in Housing Development & Management, Lund University

Dr. Antonio Melo, Universidad de Sevilla

Mr. Ricardo García Molina, PhD candidate

References

Arroyo, I., Liuke, L. and Johansson, E. (2021a). Sharing Communities: An Alternative Post-Pandemic Residential Logic. Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 3, Theme issue: The Housing Question of Tomorrow. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/1255

Czischke, D., Carriou, C. and Lang, R. (2020). Collaborative housing in Europe: Conceptualizing the field. Housing, Theory and Society, 37 (1), 1-9.

Hagbert, P., Larsen, H.G., Thörn, H., and Wasshede, C. (Eds.). (2020). Contemporary Co-housing in Europe: Towards Sustainable Cities? (1st ed.). Routledge.

Hudson, J., Scanlon, K., Udagawa, Ch., Fernández Arrigoitia, M., Ferreri, M. West, K. (2021). A Slow Build-Up of a History of Kindness: Exploring the Potential of Community-Led Housing in Alleviating Loneliness. Sustainability, 13, 11323. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/20/11323