2024
Bo Bengtsson
The article titled "The changing role of cooperatives in the Swedish housing regime - a path dependence analysis," authored by Bo Bengtsson and published in March 2024 in Housing Studies, delves into the historical evolution of cooperative housing in Sweden. Notably, Sweden boasts a unique cooperative housing sector that comprises approximately 25% of its total housing stock. The author employs a path dependence perspective to explore the development of this sector and its shifting role within the broader universal housing regime of the country. Bengtsson identifies three pivotal junctures that significantly influenced the trajectory of cooperative housing in Sweden. The first is the Tenant-Ownership Act of 1930, which established tenant-ownership as a distinct form of housing tenure. The second juncture occurred post-World War II with the introduction of Sweden's universal housing regime, positioning cooperative housing at its core. Lastly, the deregulation of the cooperative tenure in 1968-1969 initiated a trend toward marketization, altering the landscape of housing provision in Sweden. The article emphasizes that key actors, primarily national politicians and cooperative organization leaders, were instrumental in driving these changes, while the role of cooperative members was relatively limited. The study reveals that the long-term effects of these reforms were more profound than initially expected, leading to the evolution of cooperative housing from a social movement focused on providing adequate housing to a significant component of the national housing regime, and more recently, a marketized tenure form. Bengtsson's analysis sheds light on the fragility of social housing systems based on cooperatives and highlights the challenges posed by marketization, suggesting that the path dependence framework could be beneficial for studying cooperative housing developments in other countries as well.
Title: The changing role of cooperatives in the Swedish housing regime - a path dependence analysis
Author: Bo Bengtsson
Published: March 2024 in Housing Studies
Context: This article analyzes the historical development of cooperative housing in Sweden using a path dependence perspective. Sweden has an unusually large cooperative housing sector, accounting for about 25% of the total housing stock. The author aims to explain how this sector developed over time and changed its role within Sweden's universal housing regime.
Key Findings:
- The article identifies three critical junctures that shaped the trajectory of cooperative housing in Sweden:
- At each critical juncture, the main actors driving change were national politicians (especially Social Democrats) and leaders of cooperative organizations. Cooperative members and potential members played a limited role, in contrast to similar reforms in Norway.
- The mechanisms of efficiency, legitimacy and power were at work in all three reforms, contributing to path dependence.
- The long-term consequences of these reforms were more far-reaching than anticipated by actors at the time:
- The 1930 Act guaranteed long-term stability of cooperative housing
- The 1940s reforms gave cooperatives a central role in the universal housing regime
- The 1968 deregulation led to marketization of the sector
- The cooperative sector has expanded steadily since the 1930s, reaching 25% of the housing stock today. However, its role has changed from a social movement providing decent housing to members, to an important part of the national housing regime, and more recently to a marketized tenure form.
- The author argues that the Swedish experience shows how a system of social housing based on cooperatives can be fragile due to tensions between ownership and socio-political goals. The marketization process proved difficult to reverse once started.
- The path dependence framework used to analyze the Swedish case could be fruitfully applied to study cooperative housing development in other countries, examining critical junctures, key actors, and mechanisms of change.
a) The Tenant-Ownership Act of 1930, which established tenant-ownership as a distinct housing tenure.
b) The introduction of Sweden's universal housing regime after WWII, which gave cooperative housing a central role in housing provision.
c) The deregulation of the cooperative tenure in 1968-1969, which opened the path to marketization and further expansion.
The article contributes to understanding how cooperative housing developed in Sweden through a path dependence lens, and suggests this approach could yield insights if applied to other national contexts.