(Un)Intentional Community
Power and Expert Knowledge in a Sustainable Lifestyle Community
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2291758 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther Sullivan (0000-0002-3643-2679, University of Colorado Denver, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 540-562 |
| Publication date | 2016-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/soin.12125 |
| OpenAlex | W2426399935 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 29 |
This ethnography of a cohousing organization examines power and expert knowledge in a sustainable intentional community. Intentional communities are forming at a growing rate both internationally and in the United States. Cohousing communities are part of this growing trend of alternative communities that utilize participatory democracy as both their central decision-making process and a core component of their alternative identity. This article analyzes the tensions that evolve as cohousers build a communal housing development in one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. I identify mechanisms through which the constraints of operating in the highly professionalized field of housing development transform participatory decision making. When group members try to minimize loss of time and capital while competing with experienced for-profit developers, they establish leaders and cede power to those with greater technical expertise. Yet, they continue to model their commitment to consensus decision making despite emerging hierarchies among members. I describe how the use of expert knowledge restructures the conditions governing group interaction and explore what the group's oligarchic organizational practices mean for the study of contemporary collective community organizing
Citizen journalism · Democracy · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Ethnography · Knowledge management · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Public relations · Sociology · Sustainable community · Sustainable development · Collaborative and Sustainable Housing Initiatives · Computer Science · Homelessness and Social Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law
Emplazando la utopía. Reinvenciones del sujeto, la comunidad y el espacio habitado en Chile
Coping behaviors of first-generation college students across family structures
Home motivations and lived experiences in housing cooperatives and cohousing communities
Joint building ventures as a new instrument for urban development
The cooperative workplace
Power
Opposing Ambitions
The Making of Green Knowledge
Power
Design for Gender Equality
Diminished Democracy
Making Space
Conversations with Ulrich Beck
Freedom Is an Endless Meeting
Commitment and Community
Towards a deeper understanding of the social architecture of co-housing
Organization Without Authority
Governance, Organization, and Democracy on the Internet
Social Movements
Community and Organization in the New Left (The Great Refusal)
Second-Wave Cohousing
Disclaimers
The Collectivist Organization
Saving Space, Sharing Time
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
From Max Weber
Community and Organization
Meta-Power, Social Organization, and the Shaping of Social Action
Three Fragments From a Sociologist's Notebooks
The Iron Law of What Again? Conceptualizing Oligarchy Across Organizational Forms
Breaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy
| Citations per year | 0.57 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |