In response to the ESA RN05 Midterm Conference’s theme, "Uncharted Territories in the Sociology of Consumption," Slavomíra and Terezie from CESCAME proposed a special session to explore self-help housing constructions and reconstructions. We defined self-help housing (re)constructions broadly, to include both DIY home construction or improvements (such as renovating and adapting existing homes to meet household needs) and alternative housing provision (including sharing and housing co-operatives). The session featured a number of excellent papers and generated a productive discussion on these topics. Thank you to all the participants for their valuable contributions. You can find the abstracts in the conference's book of abstracts here.

The session was held on Thursday 29 August at 9:00 AM at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, and included four talks:

Hidden and revealing collectivities of housing in the Czech Republic (Jan Malý Blažek, Tomáš Hoření Samec)

My house, my home, my consumption (Barbora Vacková)

Self-Help Reconstructions of Post-War Prefabricated Timber Housing: Between Production, Re-use and Consumption (Slavomíra Ferenčuhová)

Conflict and Social Capital: two sides of the sharing coin (Tullia Jack, Toke Haunstrup Bach Christensen, Jesper Ole Jensen)