“This book hugely increases our understanding of how housing and care can be better organised through collaborative action and mutual support, drawing on important lessons from our European neighbours.” Lord Richard Best

“This important book explores a much-needed innovative approach to the critical issue of caring for our older population: the role of collaborative housing in providing care.” Anne Glass, University of North Carolina Wilmington (Emeritus)

★ Authored by a collaborative team of experts—including professors in urban sociology, landscape architecture, and social policy/aging studies, alongside social work practitioners—this book draws on case studies from France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It advocates for a transformative model of social care, aimed at building a genuine ecosystem of support for the elderly.
★ As the global aging population continues to grow, the need for adequate housing and social security has become increasingly urgent. This interdisciplinary work explores how emerging, citizen-led innovations in cooperative housing and care are challenging conventional approaches to living and aging.
★ Emphasizing cooperation and mutual aid, the book presents concrete, real-world experiences—such as co-housing for seniors and integrated housing-and-care hubs—offering a vision for addressing the global challenge of an aging society through social policy, services, and practice.
★ A new paperback edition for 2026 is now available.

As ageing populations continue to grow worldwide, the increased need for adequate housing and social care comes into stark focus. This multi-disciplinary book explores how emerging citizen-led innovations in Collaborative Housing and care are challenging mainstream ways of living and ageing.
Combining academic theory with practice, the book demonstrates the far-reaching impacts Collaborative Housing with care can have on independence, agency and wellbeing in later life. With contributions from France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, it offers insights into the key challenges and opportunities associated with developing and sustaining models of Collaborative Housing with diverse forms of care and support over the life-course.
Essential reading for academics, practitioners and policy makers in housing, planning, social care, design and social gerontology, this book proposes a renewed focus on non-paternalistic forms of social and housing care that speak directly to older people’s needs, and that work against the marketisation of care and towards a community-led and co-managed approach in later life housing for all.

Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia is an urban sociologist, editor at the Radical Housing Journal and Senior Researcher Associate at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Aimee Felstead is Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture and Landscape, University of Sheffield

Jim Hudson is Senior Research Associate at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Misa Izuhara is Professor of Social Policy at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Kath Scanlon is Distinguished Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Secretary of the European Network for Housing Research

Karen West is Professor of Social Policy and Ageing at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

1. Collaborative Housing, ageing and social care - Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, Aimee Felstead, Jim Hudson, Misa Izuhara, Kath Scanlon and Karen West
2.Senior cohousing as grass-roots housing and care innovation for ageing cities: the case of Can 70 in Barcelona - Lluvi Farré Montalà and Daniel López Gómez
3.Co-caring as later life solidarity in French collective housing - Marina Casula and Lisa Buchter
4.Collaborative Housing as a social care model in the UK - Karen West, Jim Hudson, Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, Aimee Felstead, Misa Izuhara and Kath Scanlon
5.The limits of care in senior cohousing in Spain - Marta Pi-Martin, Yolanda Bodoque-Puerta and Dolors Comas-d’Argemir
6.Conceptualising the continuum of Collaborative Housing, care and ageing: in conversation with Maria Brenton and Sheila Peace - Maria Brenton and Sheila Peace, with Misa Izuhara and Karen West
7.Intergenerational caring in Collaborative Housing: older adults and mutual care in France - Gizem Aksümer and Michel Lussault
8.Agency and self-organised care experiences in Sweden’s Collaborative Housing for the second half of life - Ivette Arroyo, Norma Montesino and Marianne Granbom
9.Towards ecosystems of care: in conversation with Mayte Sancho - Mayte Sancho, with Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia and Kath Scanlon
10.The clustered living approach in the Netherlands - Darinka Czischke and Conny Moons
11.Housing and care policy futures: in conversation with Maite Arrondo and Jeremy Porteus - Maite Arrondo and Jeremy Porteus, with Aimee Felstead and Jim Hudson
12.Collaboration at the centre of housing and social care - Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, Aimee Felstead, Jim Hudson, Misa Izuhara, Kath Scanlon and Karen West