COPHAB: Housing Co-production in Catalonia

COPHAB: Housing Co-production in Catalonia

The COPHAB project (Housing coproducion and participatory management: social iniciatives, community capacities and tools of public policy, in Catalan Coproducció i gestió participativa d’habitatge: iniciatives socials, capacitats comunitàries i instruments de política pública) is a research project funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (DEMOC 2016). It aims to survey and investigate experiences of coproduction and participative management of housing in Catalonia that have emerged since the 2008 global financial crises. The project aims to identify existing initiatives and to analyse their characteristics according to three analytical dimensions: the democratic quality of the project, their social impact and their scalability. Three case studies will be analised in their respective institutional and territorial contexts in order to examine the capabilities that facilitate such initiatives and the barriers that hinder their development. At the end of the project, a publication of the findings will be jointly released with the Diputació de Barcelona.

Team

The research team is composed of Ángela García Bernardos, Eduard Cabré Romans, Dr Mara Ferreri and Dr Marc Parés (PI). The Diputació de Barcelona (Oficina d’Habitatge) is our key research partner.

‘Commoning housing’ in Catalonia

Since the 2008 crisis, housing has become a central societal and political concern in Catalonia. A range of collaborative initiatives have emerged across the region, yet there is little understanding of their characteristics, forms of organisation and democracy, replicability, relationship with institutions and wider social impact.