A small street in Paris’s 14th district, feels like a village. Unlike many parts of the French capital, where residents amble anonymously with eyes down on smartphones, here daily life begins not with stony silence, but a powerful, resonant: “Bonjour!”
The Hypervoisins ( “Hyperneighbours”) of Paris’s Petit Montrouge are rewriting the rules of city life. It all started with a simple wish: to hear neighbours say hello to each other and, through these mundane encounters, start building support networks so that everyone feels they have someone to rely on.
The Hypervoisins began with a shared neighbourhood meal – a “potluck feast” – where each person brought a homemade dish to contribute to a communal table. Every year, around 1 000 neighbours every year would gather in this way, creating not just a meal, but a sense of community. The initiative has now expanded into a vibrant WhatsApp community that organises local social life. From helping an injured neighbour by delivering groceries to lending a crafty neighbour a hammer, proof-reading a local jobseeker’s CV, or discussing a book you love, Hypervoisins share both their passions and their day-to-day challenges.
There is no obligation to participate actively: members can engage as much as they wish, the only rule is to be respectful and focus on themes that bring people together rather than pull them apart.
Conviviality to fight social isolation
Hypervoisins is a much-needed community-based initiative, representing an important response to a growing crisis: social isolation. Today, one in ten OECD residents reports having no one to count on in times of need. Loneliness is associated with poor mental and physical health, poorer performance and productivity at work, and a higher risk of unemployment. Quality social connections, by contrast, support better health, financial and labour market outcomes.
Some groups are particularly vulnerable to isolation. Among older adults, 11% do not meet a friend in person even once a year, twice rate of the general population. In Petit Montrouge, Hypervoisins has helped seniors stay in their homes by creating networks of support. For unemployed, who are twice as likely to report feeling lonely, neighbours exchange advice and retired members of the community offer mentoring.
And for parents of young children, the Hyperparent sub-group provides a lifeline for sharing advice, childcare, and emotional support. Looking ahead, the collective aims to create a community-led daycare. This is particularly important as evidence shows that community-based care fosters connections within the broader community, significantly enhancing quality of life.
From sharing a living environment to co-owning a community home
Well-designed public spaces can significantly improve connections across age groups. The Hypervoisins have put this into practice by working with City Hall to transform the neighbourhood’s central square from a car junction into a pedestrianised area that now hosts neighbourhood events.
In late 2025, the Hypervoisins took an even bolder step and collectively purchased a community house, called “La Maison”. This project was made possible by 300 neighbours who either bought EUR 1000 “bricks” or contributed a smaller amount to “solidary bricks”. The space will be open to everyone, not just co-owners.
It will host various activities, from shared cooking sessions or knitting classes to afterschool tutoring and will also be made available for private gatherings that many neighbours could otherwise lack the space to organise.
This ambitious project is changing the DNA of Hypervoisins from an informal collective to a structured project for jointly managing a shared physical space.
Helping Hypervoisins
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of loneliness has climbed higher on government agendas around the world. Countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Austria have adopted national strategies, with some channelling funds towards local and grassroots initiatives. However, structured models to support urban conviviality remain rare.
Hypervoisins offers a blueprint for building urban wellbeing from the ground up. The strength of Hypervoisins lies in its simplicity. It doesn’t rely on grand visions or demanding commitments. It starts with a greeting, a shared coffee, a neighbourly gesture. But from those acts, a powerful ripple effect can develop – one that improves mental health, creates social safety nets, and boosts quality of life.
But not every community has a leader, or the time and resources to build a “village” within their city. Organisers need to be trained and compensated for their time. For Hypervoisins to spread, conviviality must be elevated as a public policy, not only for its intrinsic value but also because the cost of inaction is high, as loneliness yields economic losses and poor health outcomes. If the right public policies can deliver this, many more city streets can move from “bonjour” to belonging.
To learn more about the OECD’s work on related topics, read Social Connections and Loneliness in OECD Countries, Social Economy in Europe, Unleashing the potential of volunteering for local development, Transforming Places and Cities for All Ages. Find out more about Social economy and social innovation. Listen to this podcast to learn more: COGITO Talks… La République des Hyper Voisins.
Marion Lagadic is an Economist / Policy Analyst at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regionsand Cities (CFE) in theCITY Division where she focuses on Inclusive Growth in Cities. She is completing her PhD at the University of Oxford and is a lecturer at Science Po in Paris, France.
Patrick Bernard is a French community leader, best known as the founder and president of the association La République des Hyper Voisins, based in Paris’s 14ᵉ arrondissement. His work centres on strengthening social cohesion and neighbourly solidarity. Through weekly events like shared meals, apéros(neighborhood get-togethers), and mutual aid initiatives (e.g., helping older neighbours, distributing masks), he aims to weave stronger social ties among residents. He envisions a role he calls “l’amidu quartier”, a kind of social architect who helps residents connect and co-create their neighbourhood life.