Conclusions

Abstract

We are facing a paradigm shift in the production of housing, and it
is precisely in this transition where contexts as different as The
Netherlands and Chile find a common denominator: the problem of
affordability and general discontent in the face of a supply that is
increasingly remote from the economic capacity and needs of people.
Access to housing has become a scarce commodity. In a growing context of
demands for the right to the city, the provision of affordable housing
has become such a situation that it has promoted the inhabitants to
position themselves as protagonists - seeking solutions that cope with
the housing problem through collaborative processes. In Europe these
processes have re-emerged as a reaffirmation of self-determination in
response to the commodification and standardization of housing. However,
in Chile the search has been more related to means of collaborative
survival through the dynamics of allegamiento and self-organization in
pericentral areas.  
From this common point of departure, the initial chapters of the book
identify collaborative processes, alternating experiences both in Chile
and in Europe. The European case, reviewed from the Dutch social
housing model and the re-emergence of collaborative housing models,
provides three important points of reflection when traditional and
consolidated systems face novel and emerging models. First, the
opportunity that arises from the hybridization of both systems and
cooperation among different actors. Second, the importance of having a
cultural change, followed by regulatory frameworks, to ensure the
implementation and subsequent massification of new models. Third,
despite the legal and operational barriers, the European experience has
shown that self-organized and self-managed models are possible,
necessary and effective when housing demands have not been satisfy by
the State nor by the market.