Performing Local Community Through Co-Housing: a Discourse Analysis of the Value and Values of Sharing the Home

This paper seeks to extend consumer research insights into sharing by examining this complex phenomenon within the context of co-housing. Co-housing schemes are intentional communities that bring individuals and families together in groups to live together with common aims, activities and facilities. The growth of this phenomenon has been linked to contemporary societal concerns over ecological issues, sustainability, and the alienating effects of the breakdown of traditional local communities. The findings show that “local community,” far from being an essential state that co-housers aspire to, is being creatively performed through the processes of developing and promoting co-housing projects. Local community is performed as a shifting, inherently fluid actor that allows the conflicting discourses around co-housing initiatives to co-exist and produce a vision of life to engage and enroll prospective participants.

Citation:

Shona Bettany (2011) ,"Performing Local Community Through Co-Housing: a Discourse Analysis of the Value and Values of Sharing the Home", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 6_7.