Collaborative Housing In Turbulent Times: Collective Responses to Crisis and Alternative Housing Futures

Across the globe, housing systems are confronting multiple and interconnected crises. Housing affordability has deteriorated, financialisation continues to reshape housing markets, climate change is increasing vulnerability and displacement, and growing inequalities are challenging social cohesion and democratic participation. In this context, collaborative housing has gained renewed attention not only as an alternative approach to housing provision, but also as a means of reimagining how people live together, govern collectively, and respond to uncertainty.

Building on ongoing discussions within RC43 on housing justice, grassroots initiatives, and collaborative housing, this session explores what collaborative housing can contribute to societies facing multiple and overlapping crises. Beyond providing alternative housing arrangements, collaborative housing initiatives may create new forms of collective ownership, governance, care, participation, and community resilience. At the same time, they raise important questions about power, inclusion, scalability, and their relationship to state institutions and housing markets.

We invite contributions that examine how collaborative housing responds to contemporary social, economic, environmental, and political challenges. Papers may explore its role in addressing housing insecurity, social fragmentation, ageing populations, climate adaptation, displacement, and growing inequalities, as well as its potential and limitations as a vehicle for social innovation and transformation. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and cross-regional perspectives are particularly encouraged, especially those that foster dialogue between the Global North and South and advance new understandings of collaborative housing in an increasingly turbulent world.