Abstract
The paper aims to develop a better understanding of the evolution and structuration of contemporary civil society fields. It applies analytical elements from field theories and closely related network governance literature within a qualitative research design to explore collective action around community-led housing (CLH) in England, a label assigned to a range of alternative housing models. We argue that collective action needs to be understood as a loose coupling of earlier and younger social movements, based on their shared awareness of and willingness to address macro-level societal problems. We further identify a gradual evolution of field governance from loose covenanting between sub-fields, development of a common project, to network activation to manage significant external funding. This process has not yet led to a unified field with stable internal governance and wide external legitimacy on the national level. However, an embryonic field structure and permeable boundaries provide CLH actors multiple hybrid identities and strategic positioning opportunities in adjacent fields. We believe that our strategic field perspective can shed light on the nature of collective action in other parts of the civil society.
Highlights
Civil society participation in housing has received growing interest in many countries from activists and academics alike over the past 10 years
The importance of these factors varies between territorial contexts, and we find a variety of context-specific collaborative housing models, such as co-housing, residents’ co-operatives, self-help and community self-build initiatives, ecological housing communities or community land trusts (CLTs)
Based on engagement with different streams of field and network governance literature, the paper explored the factors influencing the recent re-emergence of organised collective action around the theme of collaborative housing
Summary
Civil society participation in housing has received growing interest in many countries from activists and academics alike over the past 10 years (id22 2012; Kehl and 2013; Mullins and Moore 2018). The term ‘‘collaborative housing’’ is gaining ground as a generic descriptor for an international housing phenomenon with a strong social dimension. It highlights residents’ self-organisation, intentional community building and partnerships between local grass-roots organisations and larger nonprofits as well as state and market actors (Fromm 2012; Lang et al 2018). Interest in collaborative housing is partly related to demographic change and the search for alternative forms of living among older people (Jones 2017). Collaborative housing models can run the risk of becoming inward-looking and self-selective living arrangements in the long term (Brandsen and Helderman 2012)
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