TY  - JOUR
TI  - Cooperative Housing and Social Cohesion: The Role of Linking Social Capital
AB  - The article examines the role of housing cooperatives for social cohesion in the city by
introducing linking social capital which grasps the vertical dimension of social capital. Housing
cooperatives represent a crucial intermediate level between residents and urban housing policy,
thus providing opportunity structures for bottom-linked citizen participation. Drawing on the case
of Vienna, a large-scale household survey and interviews with key informants provide empirical
evidence on the importance of a form of social capital which links actors at different levels in the
spatial hierarchy: residents, housing managers and political decision-makers. The findings add to
our understanding of the opportunities and problems with resident participation in a policy field
structured by multi-level governance. Our two-level analysis shows that the dominant model of
governance, top-down as well as neoliberal, has structurally limited the room for participatory
practices in cooperative housing. Nevertheless, we argue that professional housing cooperatives
have a potential to give residents a voice beyond the neighbourhood. Their strong linkages with
public decision-makers at different scales can help leverage ideas and resources of residents.
SP  - 1744
EP  - 1764
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.800025
PY  - 2014-03-01
JO  - European Planning Studies
AU  - Lang, Richard 
AU  - Novy, Andreas 
ER -