‘Community is the one true capital’: Ideologies of urban self-build groups in Anke Stelling’s Berlin novels

ABSTRACT Privately organized collective housing is currently included in agendas for sustainable urban development a range of European cities as resource-efficient form that prevents isolation and contributes to social cohesion within communities. However, research has shown the recent surge different forms private-collective Berlin could be driver gentrification segregation. This article aims uncover potential causes discrepancies between ideological, at times utopian, motivations underpinning self-build projects former East district Prenzlauer Berg, their actual outcomes. I do so by analysing literary (counter) discourse on groups developed Anke Stelling’s novels Bodentiefe Fenster [Floor-Length Windows] (2015) Schäfchen im Trockenen (2018, published English translation Higher Ground 2021). show realization socially progressive, or even plans prove difficult, sometimes impossible, characters novels, due influence other societal structures such gender class inequalities, segregation gentrification, discrimination neoliberal logic individual competition consumption.