Page 19 - C.A.L.L. #32 - Summer 2010

A hopeful gathering

Richard Jandel

Last March, the Swedish co-housing
organization, CO-housing NOW, held its
annual meeting at a new Co-house in
Stockholm, Sjofarten. More than 50
people from different co-houses and

friendship organizations turned up. The
big issues were last year’s publishing of
a book about Swedish co-housing and
the planning of an international
conference in Sweden this year. The title of the upcoming conference will be ‘The
International Collaborative Housing Conference’. Hopefully 150-200 delegates from
around the world will take part.

The Swedish co-housing organization was founded in the 1980’s, probably inspired by
different co-housing projects in Denmark and the general atmosphere in the world.

The Swedish welfare-state was, if not flourishing, then well off, and words like
solidarity and equality still prevailed in common parlance. From the 1990‘s up until
approximately 5 years ago the organization did not make much noise. One could say
that it was more or less asleep.

Since then a lot has taken place. The new secretary of the organization, Dick Urban
Vestbro, together with John Fletcher, Elisabeth Olszon and others, has done
tremendous work.

Today the organisation consists of 35 co-houses spread over the whole country and 3
groups of people who are in the planning stages of building co-houses. It has a
magazine, so far only published on internet, with 3 issues annually. And recently a

book about how to organize a co-house was published. Besides this, a network with
similar organisations is being established, seminars are organised and open-house
days are held all over Sweden to invite people and politicians to see how a co-house
works.

The last 20 years has seen the rise of a world that is almost totally dominated by
capitalistic values. The labour movement and left-wing liberals have been on the
retreat on all fronts, including in Sweden. Today the welfare state is gone and we are
left with a society that is getting harder every year. The atmosphere is not in favour
of those who want to develop projects based on mutual aid. But with the world

economy in crisis it might open up possibilities for the return of communal values.
Then we will surely see a growth of different communities.

CO-housing NOW’s homepage: http;//www.kollekivhus.nu/
You can reach me at: richard.jandel@yahoo.se

19