The Challenges of Living Together This short film offers a reflection on what are the challenges of living together. Collective living seems to have gained a new momentum, especially among new generations of residents. The economic recession and especially the crisis of values of contemporary capitalistic society has motivated residents to experiment with new forms of living. Residents are willing to embrace a domestic life that is no longer confined within the limits of the nuclear family, but it is shared among expanded households. These new forms of living take many forms, from alternative forms of ownership to communal living beyond the family. Many of the new initiatives challenge the ubiquity of private property within our liberal democratic society. However, living together within a shared domestic life presents challenges on different levels. Living together is difficult in terms of property, but also in terms of enduring a collective life that requires more commitment and solidarity among people. To be aware of these challenges means not to be pessimistic or to reject the idea of communal living, but to understand in more critical terms on how it can last and evolve besides its positive image. A crucial aspect of this film is to investigate in which ways living together can help to decommodify housing. For these reasons, we are interested in linking the idea of collective living with the possibility to establish new forms of ownership that can prevent housing from becoming a commodity. Can we imagine communal living no longer a niche project but as a more generalized way of housing? Would it be possible to implement forms of shared domesticity within social or affordable housing? But above all what are the issues that may prevent the possibility of living together affordably?
Malinverni et al. (Wed,) studied this question.