Exploring the Social Life of Cohousing: Community in Context

Housing and the communities it shapes are consequential social determinants of health, influencing a person’s likelihood of disease, lifespan, and overall life satisfaction. Despite boasting the world’s largest economy, Americans have insufficient access to public housing. Within the private market, Americans are increasingly isolated from diversity and even their closest neighbors. Cohousing represents a neoliberal option for individuals who feel the current housing systems are inadequate. It is a form of intentional, collaborative living in which residents reside in private-owned homes but cultivate shared spaces to encourage casual social interaction. Residents participate in the community's structural (governance and physical) design. Using inductive interview methods and social network analysis, I explore how cohousing operates within the private housing market, constrains and enables social capital, and influences life outcomes of its practitioners. How do cohousing communities’ social and physical design shape its residents’ relationships, attitudes, and opportunities? I find that cohousing communities, often unintentionally, develop strict in and out groups to maintain their social capital and the ability to curate a seemingly idyllic lifestyle. This results in social capital hoarding which I define as the act of social network-wide cultivation and maintenance of exclusive access to intellectual, physical, and social capital resources.