Urban Squatting

My current research focuses upon the varied strands of the squatting movement in Rotterdam from the 1960s to the present day. Whereas Western European capital cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen all have well established narratives concerning the development and impact of the local squatters movement, very little research has been done on Rotterdam (and indeed other Dutch cities). In this presentation I aim to show that squatting in Rotterdam was already well established by 1970 and a movement has persisted through time.

Through different sources such as personal experience, interviews with former squatters, films,  zines, flyers, digitised newspapers and historical archives I created first a database of squats and then a map of squatted Rotterdam (http://maps.squat.net/en/cities/rotterdam/squats). My research is directed towards social centres, defined in a loose sense to mean squats with a public function and so my concern here is not with residential squats, of which there undoubtedly have been thousands.

I document a movement which had different strands, with groups dedicated to specific goals such as housing people, helping immigrants, providing music venues, conserving buildings, protesting urban regeneration and so on. Squatting was used as a tool by these various groups, which tended not to unite under any specific political banner, unlike in Amsterdam where the movement had a strong far left identity. Whilst there are/were political squatters in Rotterdam, they were few in number and often ended up joining the braindrain to the capital.

I have found evidence of squatting advice hours, a well-established practice of providing help to people looking to squat, but I also show that most squatting in Rotterdam has always been 'wild,' that is to say people have simply self-organised and done it for themselves rather than going through interactions with an organised central network. Thus I suggest that in Rotterdam, perhaps as in other smaller cities across Europe, squatting has been a useful tool in the activist repertoire which gained strength from struggles fought out on the streets of Amsterdam and then followed its own specific trajectory.

In this essay I want to figure out in which ways the Squat Group Kinderen van Mokum fit into what we know about contemporary problems in Amsterdam, especially concerning the youth. In analysing literature and comparing that to the characteristics of the activist group, I want to know in what way the activism of Kinderen van Mokum is a response to the problems that young people face in Amsterdam.

This article analyses the contribution of housing squats and Housing Rights Movements (HRMs) in Rome in envisioning a new model of public estates that could respond to the surge and complexification of the post-2008 housing crisis. The first part of the article fleshes out the theoretical and methodological framework for investigating the peculiarities of housing squats in comparison to other forms of housing informality and urban squatting. In the second part, it analyses the development and composition of housing struggles since the post-Second World War. It then details the new demographics of the housing crisis in Rome to provide a framework for the innovation in the HRMs' confrontational politics and demands towards a more comprehensive notion of the 'right to the city'. Their emphasis upon the role of city developers and real estate agents, and the opposition towards the exclusionary nature of contemporary social welfare, have in fact redirected squatting actions towards different urban vacancies that are repurposed for habitation. I conclude by suggesting that these practices prefigure a new model of public housing estates that is economically, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive, whereby it pivots around use value and commoning.

L'articolo presenta il caso-studio realizzato al Quarticciolo, quartiere ERP situato nella periferia est di Roma. In primis si inquadra il contesto di studio e si esamina la composizione sociale degli abitanti e le tipologie di condizione abitativa. In seguito si analizzano le pratiche di accesso informale agli alloggi popolari e le istanze che muovono il "Comitato di quartiere Quarticciolo". Obiettivo della ricerca è comprendere le motivazioni e i significati politici assunti dalle pratiche dal basso nei quartieri in cui il disinvestimento delle amministrazioni pubbliche è alto. Le informazioni sono state raccolte attraverso fonti secondarie e metodi qualitativi, come interviste semi-strutturate e osservazione partecipante.

The squatting of popular housing spaces in Rome. The case study of Quarticciolo: genesis and meanings of a phenomenal collective Abstract The article presents a research on the informal access to public housing and on the instances of the "Quarticciolo neighbourhood committee", in the eastern suburban area Quarticciolo that is a popular housing district. The study examines the context and it analyses the social composition of the inhabitants and the different types of housing conditions. The research objective is to understand the political meanings and motivations assumed by bottom-up practices in neighbourhoods where the public administration's disengagement is high. The data have been collected through secondary sources and qualitative methods.

PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan
DATE OF RELEASE: 23 April 2021

Purchase link here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030708481

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This book tells the story of Metropoliz, a vacant salami factory located in the Eastern periphery of Rome (Italy) that was squatted in 2009 by homeless households with the cooperation of the Housing Rights Movement Blocchi Precari Metropolitani, and progressively reconverted into the house and museum spaces that form the Città Meticcia (the mestizo city). Through a vivid activist-ethnographic account, Margherita Grazioli suggests that Metropoliz exemplifies a practice of grassroots urban regeneration that speaks to the conflicted reconfiguration of real estate urban regimes in a post-crisis, post-neoliberal scenario. Using the contentious reappropriation of housing as a point of departure for claiming manifold rights, Metropoliz represents an alternative model of urbanity and habitation that will inspire contemporary urban social movements concerned with the demand of the ‘right to the city’, as well as those concerned with the ontology of the urban commons.

eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-70849-8
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-70849-8
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-70848-1

En questionnant la capacité des acteurs publics à gouverner les squats et les bidonvilles qui persistent dans les régions de Paris et de Madrid, l'ouvrage explique les mécanismes du gouvernement différentiel des illégalismes de logement des années 1960 à nos jours. La recherche montre que les squats et les bidonvilles sont gouvernés, mais de façon discontinue et par des politiques aux formes diverses. Elle démontre que l'ingouvernabilité est construite par les acteurs publics pour justifier le couplage d'une « inaction publique »-que l'auteur conçoit comme stratégique (et non défaillante)-et de politiques de l'exception. L'ingouvernabilité constitue ainsi à la fois un répertoire discursif justifiant le retrait de l'action publique et un mode de gouvernance qui entretient les politiques de l'urgence, policières et humanitaires, et autorise les bricolages partiels et ponctuels. Mais lorsque les acteurs publics y trouvent des intérêts pour se positionner comme leaders de la gouvernance métropolitaine multiniveaux, des politiques publiques autonomes peuvent s'institutionnaliser autour d'administrations, d'instruments et de budgets propres. Dans tous les cas, les politiques sélectionnent et contraignent des bénéficiaires qui sont relogés ou dont l'habitat est temporairement légalisé, tout en refoulant des victimes, expulsées de lieurs lieux de vie sans proposition de relogement. Les politiques produisent autant d'illégalité qu'elles n'en résorbent. Derrière ces invariants, notamment issus des effets propres des instruments, l'ouvrage identifie quatre variables clés pour expliquer la diversité des effets de l'instrumentation des politiques : les niveaux d'institutionnalisation, les logiques sectorielles, les échelles d'action et le comportement des cibles qui contribuent à la conception des instruments, en neutralisent les contraintes et en détournent les ressources. L'ouvrage explicite alors les conditions dans lesquelles des protestataires peuvent faire changer l'action publique.

Abstract

Addressing the issue of ungovernability of squats and illegal settlements in the Capital Regions of Paris and Madrid, the book explains the mechanisms of differential government of housing illegalisms since the sixties. The book shows that squats and illegal slums are governed, but in a discontinuous way and by diverse forms of policies. It demonstrates that ungovernability is built by public actors in order to justify alternatively inaction and policies of exception. Ungovernability is a discursive repertory that justifies the disengagement of policies. But it is also a mode of governance that supports emergency policies, implemented by police agencies and NGOs, and that allows policy makers to set up only local and temporary rehousing and social programs. However, as policy makers are rent-seekers, when they find interests to become leaders of the competitive multilevel urban governance, they activate agendas and implement institutionalized and autonomous policies. They create specific administrations, instruments and budgets. Policies select and constraint beneficiaries and evict victims. Thus, policies produce as much illegality as they resolve it. Beside these invariants produced by the sui generis own effects of policy instruments, the book identifies four key variables whose combinations explain the policy outcomes diversity: the level of institutionalization, the sectorial logics, the scale of actions, and the behaviour of targeted groups who participate to the instruments conception. Squatters and slum dwellers resist, they neutralize constraints and divert resources. Finally, the book elaborates a model that identifies the conditions in which challengers and social movements can change public policies.

In France, 20,000 people live in informal slums. Since the end of the 1990s, they are targeted by systematic repressive policies that have contributed to put them in forced mobility and to racialize poverty. As a consequence, the practice of squatting lands has been depoliticized through the building of the so-called " Roma question ". Thousands of migrants coming from Eastern Europe have been associated with informal slums considered as their " natural " living place and are categorized as nomads. This " Roma question " has constituted an important obstacle in France for social movements to push officials to implement alternative housing and social policies because it constitutes an obstacle against the politicization both of the policies towards slums and the practice of squatting. This chapter analyzes how informal settlements and their inhabitants have been racialized since the 1960s by the state policies and the media, and how this process has impeded the disruptive use of squatting by these groups and their supporters, while NGOS only mobilize conventional resources to stop evictions and claim for new rights, but without using illegality as a disruptive political resource. State policies have created a regime of exception that inhibits the migrants to take risk in collective action. However, the chapter also shows that slum dwellers are able to silently resist to constraints and exploit resources in order to survive in the core of the metropolitan area.

Résumé : En France, 20 000 personnes vivent dans des bidonvilles. Depuis la fin des années 1990, elles sont systématiquement victimes d'évacuations policières qui les ont forcées à la mobilité et ont contribué à la racialisation de la pauvreté urbaine. En conséquent, l'occupation illégale de l'espace urbain a été dépolitisée dans les débats autour de la dite « question rom ». Des milliers de migrants d'Europe de l'Est ont été associés aux bidonvilles alors considérés comme le lieu de vie « naturel » des pauvres et des nomades. En dépolitisant la pratique du squat, la « question rom » a constitué un important frein au développement de mouvements sociaux capables de pousser les élus à mettre en oeuvre des politiques du logement et sociales alternatives. Dans un ouvrage collectif qui cherche à étudier les éventuels liens entre squat et migration, ce chapitre, démontre en quoi la dépolitisation de l'occupation illégale de terrains via le développement de la « question rom » a empêché le développement de mouvements sociaux capables de pousser les élus à concevoir des politiques du logement et sociales alternatives aux expulsions dont les habitants sont systématiquement victimes depuis la fin des années 1990. L'Etat a conçu un régime d'exception qui empêche les migrants et les plus pauvres résidents de bidonvilles de prendre le risque de mener des actions illégales pour réclamer leurs droits et qui cantonne les ONGs à employer des modes d'action conventionnels. Mais le chapitre montre aussi que les bidonvilles sont des lieux de résistance silencieuse et d'exploitation subversive des ressources urbaines.

""Squatting in Europe aims to move beyond the conventional understandings of squatting, investigating its history in Europe over the past four decades. Historical comparisons and analysis blend together in these inquiries into squatting in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and England. In it members of SqEK (Squatting Europe Kollective) explore the diverse, radical, and often controversial nature of squatting as a form of militant research and self-managed knowledge production.

Contents:

    Hans Pruijt: Squatting in Europe
    Pierpaolo Mudu: Resisting and challenging Neoliberalism: the development of Italian Social
    Centres
    Gianni Piazza: How activists make decisions within Social Centres? A comparative study in an Italian city
    Miguel A. Martínez: The Squatters’ Movement in Spain: A Local and Global Cycle of Urban Protests
    Claudio Cattaneo: Urban squatting, rural squatting and the ecological-economic perspective
    Andre Holm, Armin Kuhn: Squatting and Urban Renewal: The Interaction of Squatter Movements and Strategies of Urban Restructuring in Berlin
    Linus Owens: Have squat, will travel: How squatter mobility mobilizes squatting
    Florence Boullon: What’s a ‘good’ squatter? Categorization’s processes of squats by government officials in France
    Thomas Aguilera: Configurations of Squats in Paris and the Ile-de-France Region: diversity of goals and resources
    E.T.C. Dee: Moving towards criminalisation and then what? Examining dominant discourses on squatting in England
""

This chapter examines the trajectory of Squatted Social Centres from 1977 to 2016 within the metropolitan area of Madrid. Martínez identifies specific protest cycles and the significant political, historical, urban, economic and social contexts in each period. The data collected and its broader interpretation allow distinguishing the main landmarks in the development of the squatters’ movement. The analytical approach chosen focuses on the structural aspects of urban politics that influence the evolution of squatting, although this is not simply viewed as a mechanistic reaction to housing shortages and high vacancy rates. Squatters in Madrid critically responded to urban speculation but they were also configured in tight articulation with other social movements.

During the last years many different researches regarding social spaces have been realized in Rome, sometimes containing different maps representing these experiences. Nevertheless, these processes are very dynamic and the situation of Rome changes every year. For this reason in November, 2017 we decided to realize, during the International Conference "Cities and Self-organization" held in Rome on December 2017, an updated map of all the self-organization experiences within the city of Rome in order to better understand the reach and the meanings of this phenomenon. The main questions at the base of the present research are: why, even though these spaces are so copious, are not they able in influencing urban policies? Why are they concentrated mainly in some specific quarters of the city? What are their features compared to others European cities? To what extent are they able to change the public institutions?

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Besetzung des sog. Heusnerviertels in Bochum ab 1980. Aus einem studentischen Verlangen nach bezahlbarem Wohnraum und den Forderungen der Bochumer Jugendlichen nach einem Soziokulturellen Zentrum entwickelte sich Beginn der 1980er Jahre einer der größten deutschen Besetzerzusammenhänge. Mitten im Ruhrgebiet entstand so ein Ort für politisch aktive Jugendliche, Punks, Außenseiter und Abhängige.
Besonders wird das sog. Heusnerviertel, neben seiner Größe, durch die guten Verbindungen der Besetzer zu anderen Projekten aber auch durch die Probleme, welche die Besetzer mit der Stadtregierung bezüglich der Stadtentwicklung hatten. Eine bereits vor dem 2. Weltkrieg geplante und von vielen Seiten kritisierte Umgehungsstraße führte letztendlich zur Räumung und Abriss des Heusnerviertels.

Diese Arbeit befasst sich sowohl mit der Geschichte, dem Protest und den Nachwirkungen dieser Besetzung. Geht dabei vor allem auf die persönlichen Erfahrungen der Besetzer ein welche über Interviews, graue Literatur sowie eine selbstveröffentlichte Dokumentation eingefangen wurden.

Anàlisi socio-històric del moviment okupa del Baix Llobregat entre els anys 1985 i 2006. El Baix Llobregat és una de les comarques del cinturó industrial de Barcelona i una de les que ha comptat amb un moviment d'okupacions més dinàmic, emblemàtic i popular.

Informality is usually defined as the whole practices that escape from the state and the radar of the administrations. Yet, informality is not invisible and causes conflicts around the way it is possible to produce knowledge about it. The article, which focuses on slums upgrading policies in Madrid (Spain) since the 1960s, sheds light on urban informality by locating itself at the crossroads of two types of literature: the anthropol- ogy of ignorance and the sociology of public policies. It shows how the institutionalization of these resorption policies was based on the constitution of important statistical and mapping devices but that a large part of the phenomenon (the big slum of the Cañada Real Galiana) was deliberately left out of these official public knowledge devices in order to avoid putting on the political agenda what appeared to be a reserve of informal- ity necessary to host of populations evicted elsewhere. It also shows that residents have mobilized to resist this exclusion and produce alternative knowledge about their neighbourhood. The article concludes that shantytowns, and more generally urban informality, are at the crossroads of processes of formalization and informalization that overlap on struggles for the production of knowledge or ignorance.

Esta dissertação, trabalho individual, mas de inspirações coletivas, demonstra a contradição e o movimento característicos de um modelo teórico-metodológico preocupado com os processos relativos à metrópole e aos estudos urbanos do período atual. O objetivo principal da dissertação busca reunir a riqueza das dimensões do cotidiano metropolitano, principalmente preocupado com os movimentos populares de luta pela moradia, com uma interpretação mais abrangente acerca da produção do espaço na Área Central do Rio de Janeiro. Essa associação contribui para a conformação do objeto analítico, que chamo “labirintos” e “bifurcações”, duas metáforas inspiradas na poesia de Jorge Luís Borges e na teoria de Daniel Hiernaux. Esse par teórico remete à condição perene de clausura da metrópole, uma realidade que, dada a heterogeneidade da vida de todo dia, se preenchem de maneira ininterrupta. No cerne da elaboração de uma cidade inóspita à apropriação por pessoas mais pobres, fez sentido promover um pequeno retorno a alguns eventos historicamente problemáticos da conformação urbana, para chegar a eventos mais próximos do período atual, como os momentos que antecederam os Jogos Olímpicos Rio 2016. Essa perspectiva possibilita a denúncia de violências inerentes à história de produção da cidade, como as remoções, uma interpretação que não ignora os vínculos próprios que a negação dos principais espaços metropolitanos seria direcionada a alguns grupos sociais específicos, quase sempre pessoas negras e pobres. O fato demarca a correlação imediata entre teoria e prática, um prisma metodológico característico de um arquétipo textual preocupado com sentidos que não viabilizem apenas a edificação de labirintos e bifurcações em sentidos práticos, mas também como a própria dimensão do apagamento, no cerne da episteme dos estudos urbanos, emerge de maneira intensa.

This contribution has several theoretical aims: to question the implicit aspects of the concept of repertory of action, to propose a typification of the modes of action ; to indicate leads for a joint analysis of the instrumental and discursive repertories implemented by the organizations ; to reconsider the historical ruptures stressed by Charles Tilly ; and finally to think of the organisational and contextual conditions supporting the use of direct actions. This paper is empirically grounded on the study of the genesis of a specific mode of action, squat, between 1880 and 1914, and based on a work on archives and on etymology. We show in particular that the
passage from "resistance" to "contest", in which prevails the "claimed", supposes a particular form of relation to politics which constituted in itself a significant stake of struggles between various groups, at the beginning of this century.

The Netherlands has a housing shortage since the 1960s. The estimated demand reaches 845.000 new
dwellings by 2035. Simultaneously, 6% of all the offices and shops are vacant, which possibly increases even
more due to the covid-19 pandemic and due to the rise of freelancers, who generally do not need an office
space. Since the 20th century, and especially since the post-war era, the squatting movement counteracted this
vacancy by occupying urban space to ensure a living and/or working space. This thesis focuses on the historical
framework of squatting practices in Amsterdam starting from the post-war era until now, and how squatting
can be a practice for an alternative, affordable housing system. The thesis brings the disadvantages regarding
the most acknowledgeable development of affordable housing – social housing – to the foreground. The Dutch
housing system is characterized by a strong government involvement. The social housing system is the most
acknowledgeable development regarding affordable housing in the Netherlands. However, the social housing
system has counterparts, as it has very long waiting lists (up to ten year - within the main cities of the
Netherlands) to be allocated to a dwelling, unequal opportunities for middle incomes to obtain a dwelling and
landlord levy’s which diminish the affordable housing production and indirectly passes on to the tenant.
Squatting emerged mainly because of the housing shortage, aswell as the fact that education became
more important after World War II, which led to the increased need of independency and independent housing
for youth. People started to take the matter into their own hands, by appropriating urban space. During the
mid 1970s, the social movement gained broad societal support because of the preservation of the
‘Nieuwmarkt’ (district in Amsterdam) and became an institutionalized practice with the emergence of squatting
agencies, squatting manuals and newspapers. Starting from mid 1980s, the movement declined and lost the
societal support due to conflicts and riots with the authorities. During the following decades, the squatter’s
movement was put under pressure by the authorities through legal actions. In 2010, the squatting practice was
totally banned. The ‘Breeding Ground Act’ (1998) enabled squatted buildings to be legalized in which the
squatters’ ambitions were maintained. Two case studies addressed in the thesis - ‘Plantage Doklaan’ and
‘Overtoom 301’ - are squatted buildings which were legalized and transformed to breeding grounds around the
00s, including affordable dwellings, workspaces and public amenities. These examples, which still exist today,
show to have a positive influence on the city fabric of Amsterdam – both socially and culturally.
The regular housing shortage, the continuing vacancy and the fate of real estate speculation are all
interlinked. Squatting challenges these problems as a whole and opened up the conversation about housing
shortage, vacancy and real estate speculation. There should be an option in which empty office space can be
converted into affordable living space, temporarily or permanent. Governmental zoning plans need to be
changed quicker instead of long-term processes. Then, for example an office space, could easier be
transformed into a (temporary) home, which put less pressure on the building industry. Collective ownership
(for example CLT) could function as a tenure ship in which the needs of the residents are met, instead of
private ownership as a speculative tool from which money is made.

La première partie de ce travail s’interroge sur la crise du logement à Bruxelles. On y explore les causes et facteurs de la problématique, définit le terme de logement décent et ce que signifie le « droit à la ville ». On s’y intéresse particulièrement aux personnes en situation de grande précarité afin de déterminer le plus grand facteur d’inclusive. L’auteur souligne les carences des solutions institutionnelles menant au développement d’alternatives sur le terrain par des associations citoyennes. La problématique du logement est mis en connexion avec celle du parc immobilier vacant à Bruxelles: Effectivement 2013 ce sont entre 15000 et 30000 logements privés, 2275 logements sociaux et plus de 1000000 m² de bureaux qui sont inoccupés. Et pourtant plus de 2600 personnes sans-abris et mal logés.
Ces conditions favorisent un accroissement du phénomène du squat. Aussi l’auteur pose l’hypothèse qu’à partir de ce contexte un élément de réponse possible émerge: la convention d’occupation temporaire et le développement au sein de celui-ci d’un logement collectif solidaire.
La seconde partie consiste en une étude de cas : Le « 123 rue royale ».
Cet ancien Squat situé dans un immeuble de bureaux de la communauté française est le premier projet en son genre en Belgique. Les habitants, qui signent en 2007 une convention d’occupation temporaire avec le propriétaire, portent un projet de logement solidaire alternatif en autogestion. Celui-ci allie logements a mixité socio-économique, ateliers urbains et projets de récupération. Tous les projets au sein du « 123 » se basent sur les mêmes principes : L’autogestion la solidarité, la participation et le prix libre. Ainsi des habitants récupèrent chaque jour les invendus de divers magasins pour leurs repas et le dimanche organisent une table d’hôte. On peut aussi y réparer son vélo à partir de pièces récupérées. Ce projet qui existe depuis 9 ans au moment d’écrire ces lignes reste néanmoins dans la précarité, car les habitants peuvent se voir expulsés du bâtiment, une fois un acquéreur trouvé, dans un délai de 6 mois. Quant à savoir qui, du bâtiment ou des habitants porte réellement le projet…

This thesis explores the relationships between punk and anarchism in the contemporary contexts of the UK, Poland, and Indonesia from an insider punk and anarchist perspective.  New primary ethnographic information forms the bulk of the research, drawing on Grounded Theory Method and an engagement with Orientalism.  The theoretical framework is informed by the concept of antinomy which embraces complication and contradiction – and rather than attempt to smooth-out complexities, impose a simplified narrative, or construct a fanciful dialectic, the thesis examines the numerous tensions that emerge in order to critique the relationships between punk and anarchism.

A key tension which runs throughout the PhD is the dismissal of punk by some anarchists.  This is often couched in terms of ‘lifestylist’ versus ‘workerist’ anarchism, with punk being denigrated in association with the former.  The case studies bring out this tension, but also significantly complicate it, and the final chapter analyses this issue in more detail to argue that punk engages with a wide spectrum of anarchisms, and that the ‘lifestylist’/‘workerist’ dichotomy is anyway false.

The case studies themselves focus on themes such as anti-fascism, food sovereignty/animal rights activism, politicisation, feminism, squatting, religion, and repression.  New empirical information, garnered through numerous interviews and extensive participant observation in the UK, Poland, and Indonesia, informs the thick description of the case study contexts.  The theory and analysis emerge from this data, and the voice of the punks themselves is given primacy here.

Disagio e povertà abitativa sono un fattore specifico della disuguaglianza sociale. Le caratteristiche della struttura produttiva ed economica, le politiche neo-liberiste e le trasformazioni della sfera politica plasmano lo spazio urbano e producono varie forme di esclusione (Castells 1981; Graziani 2005; Morlicchio 2012). Oggi, una delle pratiche informali più diffuse nelle città italiane è l'occupazione di edifici vuoti a scopo abitativo. Il paper vuole esaminare queste azioni che, oltre a soddisfare un bisogno primario come la casa, rappresentano una forma di attivazione dal basso e di riappropriazione sia dei tempi privati sia degli spazi in disuso (Piazza 2012; Harvey 2012; McGann 2014; Mudu, 2014). Ma in che modo i movimenti per il diritto all'abitare provano a sopperire alla mancanza d'interlocutori politici nella risoluzione di problemi strutturali? Come si organizzano le comunità di occupanti? Il contributo prova a rispondere a questi interrogativi riprendendo e aggiornando alcuni risultati della ricerca di dottorato sulle occupazioni abitative a Roma e i Movimenti per il diritto all'abitare, realizzata tra il 2012 e il 2016.

El següent article pretén reflexionar sobre un dels
actors que ha denunciat de manera més
contundent i continuada el problema de la manca
d’habitatge i d’espais de sociabilitat no
mercantilitzats. L’okupació d’immobles abandonats
és un fenomen antic, però la seva constitució en
tant que moviment social es remunta a la dècada
dels 70. És durant aquesta dècada quan es
popularitzen les okupacions a països com
Alemanya, Holanda, Itàlia o Gran Bretanya. Al
nostre país, però, no és fins al 1984, quan es
produeixen les primeres okupacions reivindicades
en el barri de Gràcia a Barcelona. De fet, no és fins
al 1996 amb la conjunció de diversos factors
d’oportunitat (criminalització de l’okupació a través
del Codi Penal, okupació i desallotjament violent
del Cinema Princesa, acumulació de forces del
propi moviment) que aquest moviment no dóna el
salt a l’Agenda Pública. A continuació presentarem
breument el context sociopolític on es desenvolupa
el moviment; apuntarem els principals impactes
que ha tingut el moviment en les polítiques
públiques i acabarem amb un reflexió comparada
de cara a abordar la temàtica de l’okupació des de
les institucions.

Starting from the observation of the paucity of comparisons between Northern and Southern squatting, this chapter analyzes the obstacles to such comparisons and tries to open pathways to develop a comparative research agenda beyond regional studies. Squatted settlements are bigger in the South, squatting policies are much more institutionalized in the South, forms of collective action diverge, and local contexts are extremely different. However, we believe that conceptual, methodological and contextual problems can be overcome by adopting a political economy approach emphasizing toleration and formalization policies as a common point of departure in order to address the puzzling question of persistence of illegal housing in both hemispheres. We identify three main reasons that explain the persistence of squats and slums in the 21 st century, not only due to policy failures. Firstly, public administrations contribute to create illegality by planning the city for growth and attractiveness. Secondly, they strategically tolerate illegal housing to defend economic and political interests. Finally, both Northern and Southern squatters collectively organize to resist evictions and to survive in cities in times of crisis. Behind these common results, we argue that each research tradition can learn from the other and their synthesis mutually contributes to the improvement of our knowledge of illegality, informal housing and urban policies.

Squats are of notable importance in the punk scene in Poland, and these spaces are a key aspect of the relationship between anarchism and punk. However, the overlap of squatting, punk, and anarchism is not without its tensions. This article, drawn from ethnographic research carried out between 2013 and 2014, explores the issues around punk and anarchist squats in Poland, looking at: criticisms levelled at punk squats by 'non-punk' squatting activists (e.g. Przychodnia in Warsaw); instances of squats as a hub for a wide spectrum of anarchist activity (e.g. the 'anarchist Mecca' of Rozbrat in Poznań); and the repression of squatting in Poland through eviction and legalisation (affecting all squats in some form). (Other squats and social centres mentioned here include Elba and ADA Puławska in Warsaw, Wagenburg and CRK in Wrocław, and Od:zysk in Poznań.) Among the various squats, there were tensions around approaches and tactics identified as 'more anarchist' or 'less anarchist' – this speaks to the supposed 'workerist'/'lifestylist' dichotomy within anarchism more widely, but the lived experience of the squatters is shown here to be far too complex to be encompassed in any false binary.

Today there is a return to the housing issue and new forms of housing (co-housing, housing cooperatives, squatters, etc.) as an alternative to the population impoverishment process. Regarding the phenomenon of squatting housing, Rome is one of the Italian cities with the highest number of buildings occupied. Various mobilizations have been organized to occupy new abandoned buildings recently; however, these initiatives had produced a negative reaction by the State, which
has implemented forms of control to ostracize collective experiences based on mutuality and solidarity. The purpose of the contribution is to fill emptiness in the literature and the Italian sociological empirical studies on phenomenon, going beyond the rhetoric of legality. The research analyzes the organization and the political goals that gave rise the housing movement organizations “Movimenti per il diritto all’abitare” actives a Rome; it examines the role played by collective actors within the dynamics of power and management of urban territories and grasp the extent of the phenomenon through a mapping of the occupied buildings present on the territory.

The paper presents the constitution of the “political” in two cases of political squatting in Hungary after 1989: the Centrum squatter group’s occupations in 2004-2006, and the homeless advocacy group The City is for All’s occupations in 2013-2014. In the case of the Centrum group, the political significance of squatting was defined by a position allocated to squatters within a larger global justice movement coalition. As soon as that allocated position changed, the political perception of the Centrum group vanished. In the case of The City is for All, the constitution of the politics of the occupations was kept under control by a conscious long-term strategy, which defined squatting as a tactical element. Drawing attention to the shifting political ontology, the paper argues for a context-sensitive definition of political squatting.

Η μετάφραση του άρθρου έγινε από το αναρχικό στέκι ΡΕΣ(Α)ΛΤΟ, τον Ιανουάριο του 2020, με αφορμή ένα κρατικό “τελεσίγραφο”, τις εκκενώσεις των καταλήψεων, το δόγμα “νόμος και τάξη” >στο πλαίσιο της αλληλεγγύης στις καταλήψεις και της αντίστασης σε ό,τι μας εξουσιάζει

This study is an attempt to signify the efforts put by common ground citizens to aid the refugee crisis at stake since 2015. Although forced migration from armed conflicts and natural catastrophes have been a recurring phenomenon throughout the last century, the current exodus from Middle-East countries like Syria and Afghanistan is beyond known comparison. The number of displaced citizens escaping from battlegrounds, trying to find a safe passage to Europe is counted by
millions. After the inability shown by many European governments to offer safe asylum to migrants, many have been trapped between borders in south-eastern Europe. The major hotspot is still located in Greece, where many refugees managed to reach islands in the Egean Sea avoiding the otherwise forced passage through Turkey. The Greek government, facing many difficulties since the start of the
economic crisis in 2009, has been unable to provide decent living conditions to the asylum seekers trapped today in the country. This empty space has been filled by self-organised organisations and communities, being the most prominent example the Exarchia neighbourhood in Athens. Hosting refugees in “squats”, occupied
buildings, the local community has shown an admirable ability to give back the dignity lost in their tough journey from home. In this paper I will concentrate in describing the resiliency of Exarchia providing basic needs in this crisis, comparing it to the inefficient efforts by the Greek State. Squatting movements provide the opportunity to produce public and domestic space in a different way, and could set path to other initiatives around the globe. Towards the end of the paper, I will abide
for bottom up decision-making in communities as the prime revolutionary method to design urban life.

There is a chronical inability of the Italian Government to enforce a rapid and effective protection from infringements of property rights, as demonstrated by the problem of squatting. Despite the lack of official data, it appears that about 50,000 buildings all over the country are subjected to squatting. This research explores the reasons for such an inadequate reaction by a State that, although qualifies itself as “welfaristic”, it has no problem in burdening the law-abiding citizens with the costs of hardship of those most in need. Unfortunately, this situation has so far received the approval of Italian courts, which have been reluctant to defend the owners’ good reasons. But, as the research points out, in contrast with the dominant jurisprudence, it has emerged a new case-law (from the Tribunale of Rome and the Corte Suprema di Cassazione) that sentences the Government to pay damages in case of squatting, if the proper institutions have failed to prevent or suppress it. It is a case-law that, albeit open to criticism, makes clear that property rights are entitled to the protection accorded to them by the Constitution and other international laws. It seemed as if the Italian Government had understood that but lately it has approved several measures that go in the opposite direction. After a brief introduction on the constitutional concept of property rights (and on the misconceptions surrounding the “social function” of property enshrined in art. 42 of the Italian Constitution), the research focuses on the aforesaid case-law and the most recent legislative interventions about squatting.

From the late 1970s and early 1980s, the city center of Oslo was for several years in a row affected by riots on the night to May 1st (The International Workers' Day). As a result of a larger number of fines and arrests after the uprising in 1981, the group "Ungdomsgruppa mot bøteterror" (Youths Against Fines Terror) , later "Ung Mobilisering" (Young Mobilization), (UngMob), emerged. In the fall of the same year, on October 9, they took the lead when about 200 youths squatted the abandoned apartment building in Skippergata 6/6b in Oslo. On the same evening, the house was declared as Oslos first Autonomous Youth House. The thesis examines the ideological and social origins and developments of UngMob and what would become known as "Blitz" at the beginning of the 1980s in Oslo. The group made a strong impression on Oslo's public space during the decade, and in many ways, represented a new type of urban youth culture. This thesis will contribute to place the group as an important timed tendency among youth in the the counter and subcultural landscape of the capital in the 1980s, a decade marked by cultural, political and social changes, particularly apparent in the cities. This places Blitz as an important event in the city's modern history, with influences far beyond its own existence, in the fight for the right to the city. The history of Blitz is composed of many facets, and can be told in many different ways, which this thesis cannot grasp and describe in detail. Still, the thesis can tell a great deal about a differentiated group, and about conflicts both inside and outside the house, where I seek a greater understanding of the origins and the start-up phase of the movement.

Edited version of published paper presented at 'Is Black and Red Dead?' Conference, Centre for the Study of Social and Global and Justice (CSSGJ) University of Nottingham, 7-8 September, 2009

https://socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/110943