Abstract
This study argues that environmental-sustainability and adjacent practices and identities are conducive to community cohesion in cohousing in the U.S. The theoretical framework draws from cohousing research based on social practice theory and on degrowth concepts. Data came from a Cohousing Research Network combined individual resident- and community-level survey data set (level-1 N = 272, level-2 N = 39). Two multi-level models of community connection among residents included individual-level factors measuring participation in cohousing practices, community-level measures of green identity, and an individual-level attitudinal indicator of potential discord stemming from perceptions of other residents' insufficient or excessive commitment to sustainability. Keeping in mind data constraints, results from multilevel linear regression analysis were tentatively supportive. The findings suggest that residents indeed connected to their communities through participation in shared practices and through shared green identities. Further confirmatory and exploratory research is needed.