UniGR-CBS Working Paper Vol. 9

Cross-border regions are often laboratories for the circulation of ideas and practices. This article asks whether, in Greater Geneva region, it is possible to transpose the cooperative housing model, fairly developed in Switzerland, into the French context, where this type of housing is less common. Using the example of Viry, a French municipality located within the institutional perimeter of Greater Geneva, the article analyzes the possibilities and limits of such a transposition. The results show the difficulty in emulating a context specific to reproducing the Swiss model of cooperatives in France. The legislative and institutional differences, but also cultural differences with regard to housing in its various dimensions are all obstacles to reproducing, identically in France, proven methods of construction of cooperative housing in Switzerland. It is therefore necessary to develop creative adaptations of different kinds so that the original model can find a place in the new context.