Danish low-rise housing co-operatives (Bofællesskaber) as an example of a local community organization

This article gives a brief survey of the recent discussion among research workers in Scandinavia on the role of local communities today and in the future. Three different kinds of local community development are defined as the transferring of tasks to local community organizations from respectively the market economy, the public sector and the family. The Danish low-rise housing co-operative-called “bofællesskaber”-can be seen as a kind of a small local community organization in a housing area. These co-operatives differ from other kinds of housing collectives by their size and by being based on co-operation between nuclear families. The experience of bofællesskaber in connection with the discussion on local community development is that for different reasons they are difficult to establish, but after the establishment phase function well. How well they function, though, depends upon to what extent they succeed in establishing common tasks and activities that serve the fundamental material and social needs of the occupants in the housing areas.