Alternative capital, friendship and emotional work: What makes it possible to live in intentional communities in older age

The ESRC-funded study by University of Sussex PhD student, Andrea Jones, analysed the factors that make it possible in older age to live in planned residential schemes such as co-housing projects, housing co-operatives and eco villages.

The study is based on research of nine communities in the South of England including Sussex and London, where individuals have chosen to live and often work together, in a shared house or on shared land such as cohousing schemes, housing co-operatives and ecovillages - these are known as intentional communities.

Interviews were carried out with intentional community residents, who were asked about their housing choices.