ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of six co-housing projects in Gothenburg and Hamburg, and how they are affected by support from, interaction with and regulation by, political institutions. It examines how municipal governments support co-housing groups as part of their official sustainability agenda, and to what extent co-housing projects address or meet the different goals that are part of this agenda. Ideologically, the strategies also place heavy emphasis on sustainability in policy documents and declarations, focusing on all three pillars of sustainability, but rarely recognizing tensions or contradictions between them. The chapter provides an analysis of the sustainability strategies of Gothenburg and Hamburg in relation to policies that address or affect co-housing projects. Both Gothenburg and Hamburg are examples of how, in the context of the housing shortage that exists in many European cities, municipal support for co-housing often takes the form of support for self-build groups.
