The Social Architecture of Green Communities

Using case studies from ten European and North American countries, this book discusses the challenges connected to designing viable social architectures in a variety of green communities in urban and rural areas, and in affluent districts and government-subsidised social housing.

Global warming constitutes one of the greatest challenges of our time, but governmental responses have so far been slow and insufficient. Consequently, an increasing number of people have joined a variety of green communities to engage in collective environmental action at the grassroots level. Green communities have the potential to deliver deep and long-lasting behavioural change and carbon footprint reductions, whilst increasing the life satisfaction of participants; however, despite these benefits, they are not spreading as fast as we might expect. Exploring eco-communities, sustainable cohousing, Transition Towns, organic food cooperatives, green neighbourhoods, repair cafés, and more, this book examines why these green communities aren’t developing more rapidly, and considers the challenges that they face to their success. By assessing the problems associated with the management of collective life and decision-making, the book provides the reflexive and analytical tools required to better understand the conditions required for their survival and scalability.

Focusing on how the social architecture of green communities contributes to enriching our understanding of social sustainability as a condition for environmental sustainability, this book will be of value to students and scholars across the social sciences, particularly those with an interest in environmental anthropology, sustainability, sociology, public policy, and communication studies.

Quentin Gausset received his PhD in anthropology from the Free University of Brussels and is Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. He has 30 years of experience with interdisciplinary research on natural resource management and environmental conflicts, based on fieldworks in Africa, South-East Asia, and Denmark.

Helen Jarvis is a UK based scholar-activist who has enduring interests in the lived realities of communal living, such as cohousing, and grassroots socio-spatial interventions that align social and environmental justice with green sharing economies. Since 2024, Helen has continued to publish and campaign for social and ecological justice as an independent scholar consultant, with Professor Emeritus status.

Simon Lex is Deputy Head of Education and Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, the University of Copenhagen. His primary research interests are within climate, organizational and business anthropology. He is a PI of the Grand Solution project “DART: The Danish Model for Citizen Engagement in the Renewable Energy Transition” and co-editor of the Journal of Business Anthropology.

Freja Bach Kristensen is a PhD fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen and is specialized in the fields of urban anthropology, community development and the green transition. She has extensive experience with civil society collaborations both within and outside academia having worked as a consultant within urban development and citizen involvement for more than 7 years.

Camilla Nielsen-Englyst holds a degree in Educational Studies from Roskilde University and is a grassroots activist rooted in the ecovillage and cohousing movements. For the past decade, her work has focused on connecting research, development, and practice.