Commoners and commoning in neoliberal times: A critical realist study of English community-led housing

Community-led housing (CLH) is a promising model for socially and environmentally sustainable living. It is also a very small fraction of the housing sector in the UK. Could CLH be part of the solution to UK’s housing crisis and benefit more people? Focusing on the social aspects and taking a critical realist approach, this research looked for mechanisms that make CLH work, and identified who it worked for, under what circumstances - and why. Using mixed-methods, it contributes qualitative insights on housing cooperatives and cohousing communities, thereby filling a gap in qualitative work on UK housing cooperatives. The quantitative work provided new data on the social profile of cohousing in England. The main findings and arguments are set out in three papers, engaging with three research questions: what are the visions and aims of CLH; what kind of social relations form in CLH; what kinds of identities and subjectivities develop in CLH. The paper: “’A place that is different from the usual capitalist world’: The potential of community-led housing as safe and just spaces” (chapter 3), deploys Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice to argue that the social relations in CLH can create safe and just spaces by responding to socio-economic, cultural-symbolic and political injustice. The paper, “Contested subjectivities in a UK housing cooperative: Old hippies and Thatcher’s children negotiating the commons” (chapter 4), shows how neoliberalisation affected members’ subjectivities and visions over time. The paper, “Beyond affordability: English cohousing as White middle class spaces” (chapter 5), applies a Bourdieusian analysis to show that the main barrier to diversity in UK cohousing is cultural rather than purely economic, since its core practices and values reproduce classed (and racialised) distinctions. Overall, my contribution is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, I develop the concepts of safe space (in the context of justice and neoliberal oppression), the cooperative subject and the two-way relation between habitus and class perception. I introduce the concept of minimalist and maximalist visions of the commons, which affect the practice of commoning, and propose a framework to consider the impact of visions, social practices and subjectivities on commoning. Practically, I point at the benefits of CLH for its members; the practical ways commons can challenge neoliberalisation; and the way exclusionary practices operate in the cohousing sector and beyond

The Circle of Commoning: Conceptualising Commoning through the Case of Community-Led Housing

There are endless styles of commoning, and not a single perfect way to manage the commons. Each commons is unique, with its own context, aims, membership and culture. How can we explain the diversity of commoning practices? This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the process of commoning: the Circle of Commoning. This framework identifies two interrelated dynamics in the practice of commoning: internal and external. It identifies three key elements of commoning: subjectivities, visions and social relations. These elements are interconnected, specific to a time and place and always relate to broader political and cultural contexts. Using the case of UK community-led housing as an illustration, the framework explains how the interplay between the internal and external factors determines the nature of the commons. This framework is applicable to all types of commons and other types of social organisations, and bridges the existing gap in the literature between studies focusing on small scale practices and those concerned with macro socio-economic contexts

Procedural liberalism in the service of ethnocracy and as a space for resistance: the case of Dahmash

Dahmash is an informal village of Israeli Arabs in the heart of Israel. Based on discourse analysis of legal sources, this paper argues that the state’s democratic procedural discourse is used in court to deny and cover over an ethnocratic discriminatory reality. In this setting, the Israeli court can hardly be a helpful space of contestation, but at the same time the very pretence for impartiality provides a ‘crack’ through which the residents continue their resistance. In contrast to the Liberal impartial approach (or pretence) which is implied in the state’s legal texts, this paper employs Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice to explore three aspects of injustice in the case of Dahmash: distribution, recognition and representation, demonstrating how ethnocracy and capitalism work together in a process of dispossession

"A place that is different from the usual capitalist world”: the potential of community-led housing as safe and just spaces

Safe spaces offer relief from oppression, but they can do more and become spaces of social justice. Drawing on two case-study communities in the UK and Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice, this paper argues that safe spaces can become just spaces by responding to three aspects of injustice: socioeconomic, cultural-symbolic and political. Members of the case-study communities perceived their housing as safe and just spaces and contrasted it to the injustice of capitalist society. The communities offered affordable and not-for-profit secured housing; provided stability, respect and support to members, and ensured that members had a voice regarding their housing and community. A sense of safety and justice was achieved through the combination of democratic decision-making, a non-profit legal structure and social relations committed to mutual aid. Nevertheless, communities are not perfect; the paper also reveals the complexities in these communities, such as power dynamics and exclusion, which compromise their safety for some members and limit their potential for social transformation. Finally, the paper contributes to the large body of literature on safe spaces from racism and homophobia by reporting on an under-theorised form of safe space: one which offers protection from the oppression of neoliberalism

Derivation of Xeno-Free and GMP-Grade Human Embryonic Stem Cells – Platforms for Future Clinical Applications

Clinically compliant human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) should be developed in adherence to ethical standards, without risk of contamination by adventitious agents. Here we developed for the first time animal-component free and good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compliant hESCs. After vendor and raw material qualification, we derived xeno-free, GMP-grade feeders from umbilical cord tissue, and utilized them within a novel, xeno-free hESC culture system. We derived and characterized three hESC lines in adherence to regulations for embryo procurement, and good tissue, manufacturing and laboratory practices. To minimize freezing and thawing, we continuously expanded the lines from initial outgrowths and samples were cryopreserved as early stocks and banks. Batch release criteria included DNA-fingerprinting and HLA-typing for identity, characterization of pluripotency-associated marker expression, proliferation, karyotyping and differentiation in-vitro and in-vivo. These hESCs may be valuable for regenerative therapy. The ethical, scientific and regulatory methodology presented here may serve for development of additional clinical-grade hESCs

Beyond Affordability: English Cohousing Communities as White Middle-Class Spaces

Cohousing is widely celebrated as a socially and environmentally sustainable housing model, but remains a small sector with a distinct social profile: White, highly educated and with middle-high income. Drawing on mixed-methods research and using a Bourdieusian analysis, this paper argues that culture, and not affordability, is the main barrier to inclusion. Contrary to previous claims, the study found that awareness of cohousing is born within like-minded circles and not locally. The quantitative aspect provides up-to-date data on the social profile of cohousing communities in England, and the qualitative data show how cohousing is reproduced as a White and middle-class space due to cultural capital and habitus – an invisible social system that maintains privilege. At the same time, the data also show that cohousing is in fact more diverse than is perceived