Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Cohousing & the mainstream

[Tilstra (tilstra]

The discussion on cohousing & mainstreaming evokes in my mind the
following discussion points:

Based on both my experience &  reading I believe that it does not serve
the promotion of cohousing when it is presented as similar to, or
correlated with communes, intentional communities, permaculture &
recycling. For example, it ignores the differentiations Chris Hanson
(see his introduction of The Cohousing Handbook), and it dilutes the
findings McCamant and Durrett gave the 'cohousing' banner in their book.


Clear differentiation helps with both clarity and honesty in the
marketing of cohousing as a distinct, and increasingly developed concept
which achieves a high level of integration of both privacy and
community. For example, in contrast to cohousing, communes may score
high on community but not high on privacy. Similarly, condos or body
corporates (as they are called in Australia) generally score high on
privacy, but not high on community indicators. Similarly, cohousing
manages a nice balance between a design based on how people 'should'
live, and how people are more likely to live. It mixes idealism with
pragmatism, and turns lessons from the past into an old-fashioned
neighbourhood of the future.

Hans
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cohouse  
(currently consulting with a developer to try to steer retirement
villages into a more community-minded neighbourhood)