Co-housing childhoods: parents’ mediation of urban risk through participation in intentional communities

Abstract

Co-housing is a form of intentional community that encourages shared living and sees members jointly build and develop urban housing projects. Through an emphasis on traffic-free developments and reference to strong community sentiment, co-housing is construed by parents as providing a safer and more desirable location for raising children. Drawing on fieldwork in two Canadian co-housing developments, this paper demonstrates how parents are able to mediate risks associated with traffic, bullies, and strangers.

Keywords:

• co-housing
• safety
• urban village
• community
• Canada

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr Deborah Leslie for her support and guidance in the completion of this research, and to everyone who has provided helpful feedback for this paper. The detailed comments of the two anonymous reviews are much appreciated.

Notes

As an anonymous reviewer of this paper noted, the wide rage in co-housing community sizes – from a few families to over a hundred households – provides few clues at to the actual function or form of co-housing.

Co-housing community names have been changed and all participants are identified through pseudonyms. Considering the relative few number of co-housing developments in Canada, I have withheld town names to ensure participant anonymity.

Interviews were completed in 2005, the value of the properties is approximate and has undoubtedly since changed.