Reporting Theatre: Understanding Housing Cooperative Strategies during Energy Crisis

The European energy crisis demanded a response from housing institutions, which faced unprecedented challenges such as rising energy prices and fuel shortages. Our study explores how housing cooperatives—critical heat providers for local communities—navigated these difficulties. Employing interpretive frameworks inspired by Kenneth Burke and Erving Goffman, our research aims to reconstruct the tangible crisis response and the narratives formed by cooperative boards. We analyse a unique dataset of 215 annual reports of Polish housing cooperatives, which display a range of reactive, proactive, and collaborative attitudes to high energy prices and fuel shortages resulting from the embargo on Russian coal. Through an analysis of activities, attitudes, and strategies, the study reveals underlying power dynamics and the various logic that shape housing cooperatives’ reactions to external shocks. Our research adds to the cross-geographical dialogue on energy innovations in collaborative housing by shedding light on how housing cooperatives engage with socio-ecological goals at the intersection of solidarity and environmental sustainability in Central Europe. Furthermore, it addresses the structural tensions and collaborations among cooperative boards, residents and external stakeholders, offering insights into how cooperative housing practices can create or disrupt resilience to unexpected geopolitical tensions. Compared with the other multi-family housing entities, our findings portray housing cooperatives as solitary and routine actors, undertaking efforts often beyond their capacities. While these efforts were partially supplemented by cooperative solidarity, particularly within micro-cooperatives reliant on coal, the uncertain future of these entities calls for louder advocacy, targeted financial support, and better recognition of cooperatives as heating communities essential for ensuring local energy security.