About
Heidi M. Berggren (Ph.D.) conducts research on cohousing and other forms of collaborative housing as potential sources of broader social, economic, and ecological improvement and of democratic renewal. She is a Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, the Assistant Director of the Cohousing Research Network (CRN), and a member of the National Cohousing Alliance (formerly known as CohoUS). Data gathered by CRN have been the basis for Heidi’s and other scholars’ publications. She has published articles on the relationship between cohousing and political engagement, such as Is cohousing good for democracy? Comparing political participation among residents of cohousing communities and traditional condominium developments in Housing and Society. Recently, she has begun examining environmental- and social-sustainability infrastructures, behaviors, attitudes, and activism in cohousing communities (Mutuality between connection to community and connection to nature in intentional communities in Current Opinion in Psychology and Sustainability and Sociability: Shared Practices and Community Cohesion in U.S. Cohousing in Environment and Behavior.) To further explore these areas and more, Heidi is leading a CRN five-phase longitudinal panel survey of residents of cohousing communities and members of building and forming communities throughout the United States. The project is now entering its fourth phase.