A Southern European Perspective on Collaborative Housing: Reflections from an Italian Case Study

Despite housing has been described as the "wobbly pillar" of the welfare state and the relationship between these two components continues to be highly problematic, it is essential to examine collaborative housing (CH) in Italy, and its limited diffusion until more recent times, within this framework. This contribution aims to explore how certain characteristics of the Southern European housing context—such as small-scale property ownership, high rates of self-occupied housing, family networks, and weak state structures—affect both the discourse and implementation of CH projects. While such initiatives are recognized as generators of mutual support, reinforcers of civic practices and incubators for transformative processes critics highlight their exclusivity, hard implementation, and high demands on participants' time and energy. This paper examines these topics based on data collected as part of a doctoral research project. The case study analysed, deemed particularly relevant to the issues discussed, concerns a housing cooperative in the city of Bergamo, in the northern Lombardy region, which is pioneering a novel experience in terms of project governance and application of the model to the local context. Using a qualitative methodology, the study includes participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The initiative, promoted from a particular alliance between market actor, private individuals, and third-sector organization took off in 2020, and despite delays partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants have continued to meet while awaiting the handover of the homes, scheduled for the early months of 2025. The project allows for reflection on a trend, particularly pronounced in Italy, where research has begun to discuss about «co-social housing», blurring the boundary between social housing and CH. The analysis of stakeholders, the relationship with public entities, and the integration of these contexts with local social and healthcare services sheds light on the project's effectiveness and sustainability.