« L’habitat participatif », quand les institutions militent

During the 2000s France witnessed the emergence of activist initiatives whose aim was to include residents in the design, building and management of housing. Yet, today, cohousing appears to have migrated from the activist phrasebook to the political agenda. The aim of this article is to analyze the dynamics and interactions that have fed into this process of institutionalization. It shows that the latter is the result of a coalition between the activist and political arenas, whose interests, at this juncture, overlap. This alliance with the public authorities can be linked to the “outreach” strategy offered by elected Green politicians, who needed to ally themselves with activists in order to pursue their policies and gain legitimacy as new public actors grappling with power. In this arena of “cause entrepreneurs”, the practice of public actors resembles that of interest or even activist groups