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Short abstract:

How do proponents of collaborative housing in Vienna exchange and negotiate socio-technical knowledge for cooperating with and challenging urban planning? I analyse how expertise and counter-expertise are enacted in their public communication.

Long abstract:

Self-managed collaborative housing aims to engage in and transform urban planning and housing in Vienna. These groups want to shape their own living environments and contribute to more sustainable, affordable and collaborative housing and living. Thereby the future dwellers act as a building contractor and plan and coordinate the construction of their house. They rely on a broad range of technical, social and political knowledges for realising their practical and political aims. Municipal planning actors welcome their engagement, yet they remain hostile of the housing projects’ apparent lack of certified expertise and democratic representativity.

In this contribution, I ask: How do proponents of collaborative housing exchange and negotiate their socio-technical knowledge and expertise for cooperating with and challenging urban planning and public authorities? I am specifically analysing what knowledge and expertise is of concern for collaborative housing in Vienna, and how expertise and counter-expertise is exchanged, framed and negotiated in their public and semi-public communication with collaborators and allies, broader publics, as well as political and planning actors. The findings indicate that legitimising their expertise through established technoscientific standards is balanced with enacting counter-expertise as alternative to and missing in mainstream debates. This research speaks to STS and urban studies literature on (lay) expertise in public controversies and in collaboration.

The empirical materials stem from a multi-sited ethnography in the Viennese collaborative housing scene, comprising document analysis, interviews and observation of public and semi-public communication on websites, social media, and events such as panel discussions, guided tours, and workshops.