Exploring decommodification strategies: A Polanyian perspective on a collaborative housing initiative in Vienna

This article explores the decommodification strategies of a collaborative housing project in Vienna, drawing on Karl Polanyi’s socioeconomic principles: market exchange, redistribution and reciprocity. It engages with Polanyi’s foundational contributions, as well as the broader welfare state and housing studies literature to develop an analytical framework for analysing decommodification in collaborative housing. Using this Polanyi-inspired framework, the article conducts an in-depth analysis of decommodification across the entire provisioning process, including the production, distribution and consumption of this collaborative housing initiative. It examines internal strategies – such as alternative financing and hybrid ownership structures – along the initiative’s wider embedding in the Viennese housing system, as well as effects on affordability. The findings demonstrate how the initiative achieves high levels of decommodification by altering the composition of socioeconomic principles on multiple scales, offering insights into the complex mixed economy of collaborative housing in Vienna. This provides a deeper understanding of how decommodification functions in housing provision in general and in collaborative housing forms in particular.