Weder Heim noch Familie?

In the 1970s socioeducational residential communities (residential groups in shared flats) were established in German-speaking countries as an alternative form of residential youth care. Their history and, in particular, their gender-specific implications, which are still relevant today, have hardly been researched to date. Using two case examples from Zurich, Switzerland and Innsbruck, Austria, this study analyses how ideas of gendered family resemblance as well as family-critical approaches were negotiated in the contemporary debates about new forms of accommodation. The design of socioeducational residential communities is analyzed from a gender-critical perspective and classified with reference to the concept of Gesellungsformen (i.e., forms of socialization) developed by Niederberger and Bühler-Niederberger. A differentiated picture emerges here: on the one hand, alongside the two forms of socialization, i.e., family and organization, traces of a third form, the collective, can be detected in the new approaches of the 1970s. On the other hand, the associated possibility of changing gender relations is strongly restricted by their retraditionalization in the field of residential youth care.