Cooperative housing/ownership

Cooperative housing is a long-established form of housing tenure found in many countries. This article will examine the different definitions and forms of cooperative housing and the different roles it has donned in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom and Sweden. The philosophy behind this form of housing will be described. The pragmatic reasons for its existence, such as the need for a collective form of tenure to deal with common repair problems, will also be discussed. The main areas of research on housing cooperatives will be described: (i) their efficiencies being compared with those of other tenure forms and (ii) identifying the factors that influence resident involvement.

Structure and agency

The divide between agency and structural explanations of the causes of social phenomena has dominated research on housing as in other social fields. However, there has been some research that has sought to transcend this schism by combining agency and structural dimensions in the understanding of housing processes and outcomes. The article reviews the two most common approaches to doing this in housing research – structuration (following the work of Giddens) and critical realism. The example of research on homelessness is used to show how the approaches have been applied to housing issues.

Euthydemoss of Bactria

Euthydemos I (ca. 260–200 bce) was king of Bactria from around 230. He founded a dynasty which, most notably under his son Demetrios I, extended the control of the Greco-Bactrian kings south of the Hindu Kush into Arachosia and India.