The Potential of Cohousing for Rural Austria

Spatial living conditions have been changing fast because of economic and demographic transition. Rural areas in particular face the challenge of maintaining the infrastructures of everyday life. This article argues that cohousing projects are successful in co-developing and maintaining flexible infrastructures for everyday life for their residents and the neighbourhood. The article understands cohousing and planning as mutual learning processes and proposes a feminist approach to planning for everyday life. The potential of innovation of planning practice is explored on the basis of three Austrian cases. Conclusions show the potential and obstacles of planning and housing policies that favour cohousing and of planning innovation in rural Austria.

Context and quantification

About the policy

Area

Cohesion, Social Rights

Instrument

Incentives, Standards

Intervention

Cohousing

Cost

None

Funding

None

Institutional arrangement

None

Impacts

Stakeholders involved

Municipal authorities

Stakeholders impacted

Rural communities

Wellbeing

Community

Justice consideration

Distributional

Metadata

Lead author nameHeidrun Wankiewicz
Lead author genderFemale
Lead author institutionplanwind.at
Lead author institution locationSalzburg, Austria
Peer reviewed?true
Grey literature?false
Type of paperResearch article
Volume8
Publication year2015
URL / DOIdoi:10.1080/17535069.2015.1011426
Sufficiency mentioned?false