This special issue of the ACHR newsletter is devoted to the subject of collective housing:  housing which people plan, build, finance, own and live in together, in many different ways, across Asia.  Collective housing has been part of Asia's traditions for centuries, but those ways of living together have been replaced by forms of housing that are individual, in which people live separately and alone in their own little boxes.  And worse, housing has lost its meaning as a vital human necessity and a place to live well in communities of companionship and mutual support, and has become a speculative commodity, to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.  Collective housing is especially important for the urban poor, who have long been left behind by the more individual and market-driven forms of housing, and for whom the collective development potential of communities can be lifelines which allow them to survive and thrive in ways they cannot on their own.  We now have a rich stock of examples of how collective housing can be developed, in different contexts by organized poor communities and their professional and government supporters.  This is a form of housing - and a way of understanding what housing can be - that we are in great need of reviving.  In this newsletter, we spotlight some of the many collective housing projects in the region and the efforts on various fronts to support the implementation of many more.  
 

This is a special issue of the ACHR newsletter describes the lively work urban poor community groups and their supporters in four cities in the ACHR network have been doing to make pathways to greater equality in their cities, in many different ways.  The cities are Yogyakarta in Indonesia, Nakhon Sawan in Thailand, Yangon in Myanmar and Da Nang in Vietnam.  The process of reflecting on this work, learning from it and comparing it with other cities was part of a larger global study on urban inequality called "Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality" (KNOW), which was led by friends at the Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London. 

This is a special issue about a community-driven study in which poor communities in five Asian countries define and measure poverty, on their own terms.

This newsletter is a special issue on the exciting community-driven process that has taken off in Myanmar, since the Cyclone Nargis hit in May 2008 - much of it supported by ACCA.