Sharing Practices and Collaborative Housing: Insights from the Stadtteilen Dialogues in German Cities

This paper examines the role of sharing practices and collaborative housing initiatives in fostering social inclusion, affordability, and sustainability in urban settings. Focusing on three German cities—Berlin, Kassel, and Stuttgart—this study draws on a series of dialogue events organized by the StadtTeilen transdisciplinary research network. These events brought together a diverse set of stakeholders, including residents, civil society actors, urban planners, and researchers, to exchange knowledge on urban sharing practices, particularly in the context of housing and public space. The analysis highlights the spectrum of sharing practices, from commoning—defined as decommodified, community-driven sharing—to market-oriented approaches within the sharing economy. By exploring motivations, drivers, and structural challenges faced by urban actors engaged in these initiatives, the study reflects on dynamics that enable or constrain sharing practices and collaborative housing efforts. The paper shows for instance the contrast in Berlin between tenant-led housing cooperatives and the commercially driven CoLiving model, which illustrates the tensions between commoning efforts and market forces. In Kassel and Stuttgart, public-private partnerships and community-led interventions in public and semi-public spaces further emphasize the diversity of space-sharing and collaborative housing practices. Ultimately, the paper also reflects on the potential of knowledge-sharing platforms, such as the StadtTeilen dialogue events, to foster mutual learning among stakeholders with differing objectives and knowledge bases. Finally the paper concludes that challenges remain in scaling both sharing and collaborative housing initiatives and ensuring their sustainability, especially in the face of ongoing market pressures.