In a previous post I made the base for why more academic research on student housing coops is necessary. Here I am starting a repository for academic research on the topic, listing articles, books and edited collections, student dissertations and reports. This is a living document, so if you have suggestions for articles to add, please get in touch via the contact page or by email.
Journal articles, books and book chapters
(ordered alphabetically with links to freely available versions where existing).
Altus DE, Welsh TM, Miller LK. (1991) "A technology for program maintenance: Programming key researcher behaviors in a student housing cooperative. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 24(4): 667–75. read here
This study was conducted in a student housing cooperative that is dependent on dose researcher supervision for its continued health and survival. A key activity of the co-op researchers was to provide public recognition for good job performance by co-op members. The purposes of this study were (a) to replace that idiosyncratic recognition with systematic procedures so members, instead of the researchers, would provide public recognition to each other for good job performance; and (b) to evaluate those procedures by comparing job performance when member-delivered recognition was provided and when it was not. When the procedures were in place, job performance increased and fines for poor job performance and complaining at meetings decreased. This study suggests that procedures can be developed to reduce program reliance on the researcher that are effective, inexpensive, sustainable, and acceptable to the participants-a first step toward developing a technology of program maintenance.
Johnson, S, Welsh T, Miller L & Altus D (1991) "Participatory Management: Maintaining staff performance in a university housing cooperative." Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 24(1):119–27. read here
This study evaluates a technology by which the members of a student housing cooperative manage their own staff with a minimum of supervision by one of the program designers. This staff management system consisted of prompts, self-reports, spot checks, and contingent rent reductions. Six resident staff members performed substantially more of their assigned tasks when this system was used. In addition, the management system was acceptable to the members, was affordable, and maintained high levels of staff performance during a 5-year follow-up. Participation by the members in the design and implementation of this system appears to have been useful in helping the behavior analysts to develop an unusually durable management system.
Kallin, H., & Shaw, M. (2019). "Escaping the parasite of the student flat: Reflections on an experiment in co-operative housing." Radical Housing Journal, 1(1), 223–226. read here
Co-written by one of the founders of the Edinburgh Student Housing Coop, this article shows that students are increasingly cast as active agents who exacerbate the housing crisis in British cities. In Edinburgh (Scotland), rising student numbers has led to an acute tension, with the wider population concerned over contested claims to space. As a transient population who are forced to pay high rents, students are associated with new-build developments that market a “luxury” lifestyle in gated complexes that are necessarily exclusive. Contrary to this, we show how students are themselves victims of financialization through both the classroom and their homes. But they do not have to accept this role. Through the example of the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative, we explore one bold attempt to break out of this conjecture and escape the parasite of the student flat.
Macías, T., & Pérez Ruiz, P. (2018). "Co-operation in action: The Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative as a pedagogical space." Journal of Co-operative Studies, 51(1), 54–57. read here
Co-written by an early resident in the Edinburgh coop, this article explores the transformative potential of housing cooperatives as educational environments. Focusing on the Edinburgh coop, the authors shows that it functions not only as an affordable housing solution but also as a space for learning democratic practices, collective decision-making, and community-oriented values. They argue that the co-operative model fosters an environment where members gain practical skills in governance, conflict resolution, and social engagement, effectively serving as a form of experiential education.
Pérez Ruiz, P., & Shaw, M. (2019). "The co-operative as site of pedagogy: The example of Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative." In M. Noble and C. Ross (Eds.) Reclaiming the University for the Public Good: Experiments and Futures in Co-operative Higher Education. Springer/Palgrave. 169-183. book website
This book chapter explores the relationship between housing co-operatives and education, using the case of the Edinburgh coop. Drawing from our personal experience as members of student co-operatives, we show that co-operatives constitute not only an alternative way of managing, occupying and using goods such as housing but also important sites of learning that are fundamental for the constitution of a political subject. In this sense, they are new learning spaces. This subject lives by values that not only correspond to those identified by the International Co-operative Alliance but also contrast and, in many ways, resist neoliberal and capitalist conceptions of the individual and education. Student housing co-operatives push against the precarity of the neoliberal university for students, and make a valuable contribution to a Co-operative Higher Education ecosystem.
Schwittay, A. (2024). "Students take over: prefiguring urban commons in students housing cooperatives." Housing Studies, 1, 22. read here
Student housing has become financialized in many countries, resulting in unaffordable and unsuitable accommodations that negatively affect students’ studies and health. Students are beginning to mobilize against these exploitative practices in resistive and future-oriented ways. This article analyses the establishment of student housing co-operatives in the UK as an example of prefigurative student activism, whereby students are actively creating alternative housing provisions that put them in control of the governance and management of their homes. Based on interviews with 27 key participants in the setting up of four student housing co-operatives in the UK, this article explores how student co-operators are building actually existing urban housing commons under adverse conditions. Students’ youth and transience necessitates collaborating with secondary organizations, which leads to ambivalent alliances that show students’ persistent agency and political savvy. The challenges of growing the student housing co-operative movement contributes to discussions about the temporal and spatial expansion of the housing commons for future students, surrounding communities and broader housing struggles.
Schwittay, A. (2025). "Prefigurative pedagogies: Learning to build alternative futures in student housing co-operatives." Futures, 166: 103534. read here
How and where can young people learn to imagine and create alternative futures? This article argues that student housing co-operatives in the UK are sites of prefigurative pedagogies that enable students to experiment with new ways of dwelling, being and making in the world. Through collective living and learning, student housing co-operators contribute to building urban commons as near counter-futures to financialized student housing and marketized Higher Education. Their daily practices of homemaking constitute an example of students’ participation in experiential futuring that nurtures horizontal democracy, mutual care and collective labor as components of potential post-capitalist futures. Based on long-term qualitative research with co-operatives in Edinburgh and Brighton, the article analyzes the pedagogical formation of co-operative subjectivities, values and relationships that student housing co-operatives enable and explore spatial autonomies, differentiated labor divisions and rent policies as concrete practices through which their residents prefigure alternative futures.
Shaw, M. and Farmelo, S. (2015) Cooperatives: Resisting the Housing Crisis. In R. Filar (Ed.) Resist! Against a precarious future. Lawrence Wishart (Radical Future series), 80 - 87. book link here
In this book chapter, co-founders of the Edinburgh and Birmingham coops explore the potential of housing cooperatives as a grassroots solution to the escalating housing crisis. The authors highlight how cooperatives provide an alternative to market-driven models, fostering collective ownership and decision-making that resists commodification and speculation. They argue that cooperatives empower communities to address systemic inequities, preserve affordability, and create sustainable, inclusive living environments. By situating cooperatives within a broader resistance to neoliberal housing policies, the article advocates for reimagining housing as a fundamental right rather than a profit-driven commodity.
Books and Edited Collections
Hands, J. (2016 [1975]) Housing Co-operatives. Castleton Publishers. book website
John Hands is the founder of Sanford Housing Coop, which started as the planned first student housing coop in the UK. In this book, which is based on his experiences setting up the coop, Hands shows how housing co-ops can offer a valuable alternative form of social ownership in housing, enabling people to collectively own and control one of their fundamental human rights—housing—on the basis of mutual aid rather than individual gain or distant bureaucracy. The book is written in an accessible style and contains many practical tips.
Jones, J. (2019) Hasten Slowly and You Will Arrive Soon: The Mysterious Presence of Group Equity Housing Cooperatives. NASCO. sample chapter
This book chronicles the extensive history of student housing coops in North America. Drawing on his own long-term involvement with NASCO (North American Students for Cooperation), document analysis and case studies, Jones highlights the co-ops' ability to foster solidarity and mutual support among residents, while critiquing systemic barriers, such as regulatory frameworks and market forces, that limit their broader adoption. The book is meticulously researched and contains many historical photos.
Schwittay, A. & L. Hartly (2024) (Eds.) Co-op Chronicles: Celebrating 10 years of Student Housing Co-ops in the UK. University of Sussex/Student Co-operative Homes. read here
This is a collaborative publication with UK student housing cooperators and their supporters. Combining short essays, creative writing and illustrations by student cooperators, the book highlights their creativity and achievements. It shows how co-ops have reshaped student experiences by addressing issues of housing insecurity and fostering collaborative living. Published on occasion of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Edinburgh and Birmingham coops and funded by Sussex University, the book serves as a celebration and a roadmap for the future of cooperative student housing.
Student dissertations
There are a number of dissertations written by students about student housing coops, often but not always reflecting their own experiences living in them. The dissertations below are shared with the author's permission. If you want to share your dissertation here, please get in touch.
Medvedev A. (2016) "A (more) livable community: Community, cooperative economics, and resistance at a student housing cooperative in College Park." MA dissertation. University of Maryland, USA. read here
Newhouse, M. (2022) "Gendered Experiences of Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative: Bringing Horizontal Co-operatives closer to true non-hierarchical Organising." Unpublished MSc Dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
Requier, M. (n.d.) "Casa Zimbabwe: A Piece of heritage in Berkeley." Unpublished student essay, University of California Berkeley.
Perez Ruiz, P. (n.d.) "Deconstructing the ‘community’ at the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative." Unpublished essay, University of Edinburgh.
Thomas, K. (1996) "Characteristics of success in college and university-affiliated cooperative housing in four-year institutions in the United States." PhD dissertation, University of Kansas. read here
von Geyer, L. (2023) "Coop Sweet Coop: The Experience of Homemaking at Edinburgh Student Housing Cooperative." Unpublished BA Dissertation, University of St. Andrews.
Reports
ACORN (2016) Feasibility study for a national body of student housing coops. Available at https://www.acorncoopsupport.org.uk/Feasibility_Study_for_a_National_Body_of_Student_Housing_Co-ops.pdf
Urbed (2004) A Co-Operative Future for Student Housing. Available at http://urbed.coop/sites/default/files/student%20housing%201st%20stage%20report.pdf
Comments