Cohousing-L Mailing List: Elitist or Mainstream?

[mkiefer (mkiefer]

      Graham makes several intriguing comments about the social significance 
of cohousing.  I agree that cohousing has a  larger social significance (and 
maybe even a somewhat different one) than many realize.  It provides an 
anticipatory model for how to live in greater propinquity in the face of 
increased population and material scarcity. And it demonstrates that, in a 
world where widely shared belief systems play a diminishing role in 
fostering social cohesion, "community" must be built one project at a time.
     I also agree that cohousing is different from other utopian movements 
in that it seeks to be part of, and to influence, the mainstream.  This is 
part of its strength, but its important to realize that its also why 
cohousing groups haven't pushed the edge of the envelope more design-wise. 
I, too, hope and believe that they will in time, as the concept itself 
becomes less exotic.
     I also think its inevitable that cohousing will influence mainstream 
housing--and that many in the cohousing movement will lament this as 
"co-opting" cohousing ideals.
                         --Matt Kiefer
                            Peabody & Brown
                            Boston, Mass.
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