Paper short abstract:

This paper explores perilous proximities, i.e. various collaborative ways where people have to re-learn how to deal with, and negotiate, intense intimacies through alternative domesticities, that of sharing with non-kin, in small housing co-ops and co-housing schemes in England.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will look at 'perilous proximities' through alternative domesticities, that of shared living with non-kin in contemporary England, where I explore the different 'collaborative ways' where people often have to re-learn how to deal with, and negotiate intense intimacies when living in such close proximity. The context is based on an ESRC funded project titled, Under the Same Roof, which is exploring different everyday relational practices of British shared living, such as, housing co-operatives, cohousing schemes, shared households and private lodgings. Here, I focus on small housing co-operatives and co-housing schemes.

Alternative domesticities (Pilkey, Scicluna and Gorman-Murray 2015), incorporates the fluidity and multidimensionality of identity across the life course, while the domestic encapsulates the multiple experiences founded in emotions, kinship, friendship, home-making, care (amongst others), and different flows of power within and beyond the household. For housing co-operatives and co-housing schemes, symbiotic relationships, which are maintained through division of labour, being it emotional, financial or physical, are at the core of shared living and the future of the household

The initial stages of planning can be time and energy consuming with meetings held twice a week over a period of approximately six years. The intensity of these meetings leads to relationship-fatigue, especially as they are often faced with taking difficult financial decisions. Such closeness brings about serious challenges. At times, relationships with partners, family members or friends get neglected, even broken. The close spatial proximity of sharing home space may contribute to transforming intimate and symbiotic relationships into brittle ones.