Past Research Projects

MOVOKEUR The Squatters’ Movement in Spain and Europe: Contexts, Cycles, Identities and Institutionalization

2012-14. Miguel A. Martínez: Principal Investigator. MOVOKEUR: The Squatters’ Movement in Spain and Europe: Contexts, Cycles, Identities and Institutionalization. National Research Council of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

THE SQUATTERS’ MOVEMENT IN SPAIN AND EUROPE: CONTEXTS, CYCLES, IDENTITIES AND INSTITUTIONALISATION

The Squatters’ Movement, reclaiming the social use of empty buildings as residential and socio/cultural places, is a cross-European phenomenon that started around the mid 1980s in Spain and some decades before in other countries. In spite of the short duration of many squats and the fast change of activists involved, this urban movement as such has been consolidated among other alternative, new and alter-global social movements. The present research project aims to know the evolution of the Squatters’ Movement in some of the main European metropolitan areas (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga, Seville, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Paris, Berlin, Milan and Rome). In particular we want to explain that evolution according to the different legal, urban, socio-cultural and political contexts; the different cycles of mobilisation; and the strategic interactions between squatters, authorities, owners and other social organizations. Two principal questions arise within this theoretical framework: a) How social identities are set up through different practices of squatting, cultural expressions, discourses and social networks? b) What kind of ’institutionalisation regimes’ had taken place according to different urban settings and different models of strategic interactions? Systematic comparison between cities can provide, then, a general test of patterns and relevant singularities in order to verify the influence of the aforementioned four factors (contexts, cycles, identities and institutionalisation) in the outcomes of the Squatters’ Movement: political socialisation and participation, socio-cultural innovation and creation, and urban restructuring.

Results

Martínez, Miguel A. (2020). Squatters in the capitalist city. Housing, Justice and Urban Politics. New York: Routledge.

Martínez, Miguel A. (2019). Good and Bad Squatters? Challenging Hegemonic Narratives and Advancing Anti-Capitalist Views of Squatting in Western European Cities. Culture Unbound 11(1): 165-189. http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v11/a10/cu19v11a10.pdf

Martínez, Miguel A. (2019). The autonomy of struggles and the self-management of squats: legacies from intertwined movements. Interface 11(1): 178-199. https://www.interfacejournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Interface-11-1-Martinez.pdf

Martínez, Miguel A. (Ed.) (2018). The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements. New York: Palgrave-McMillan.

Martínez, Miguel A. (2017). Squatters and Migrants in Madrid: Interactions, Contexts and Cycles. Urban Studies 54(11): 2472-2489.

Martínez, Miguel A. & García, A. (2015). The Occupation of Squares and the Squatting of Buildings: Lessons from the Convergence of Two Social Movements. ACME -An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 14(1): 157-184. Available at
http://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1145/1107

Martínez, Miguel A. & García, A. (Eds.) (2015). Okupa Madrid (1985-2011). Madrid: Diagonal.

Cattaneo, C. & Martínez, Miguel A. (Eds.) (2014). The Squatters’ Movement in Europe. Commons and Autonomy as Alternatives to Capitalism. London: Pluto Press.

Martínez, Miguel A. (2014). How Do Squatters Deal with the State? Legalization and Anomalous Institutionalization in Madrid. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(2), 646-674.

Martínez, Miguel A. (2013). The Squatters’ Movement in Europe: A Durable Struggle for Social Autonomy in Urban Politics. Antipode. A Radical Journal of Geography, 45(4), 866-887.

Martínez, Miguel A. & García, A. (2013). Movimiento 15M, espacio público y luchas pro-vivienda [Public Space and Housing Struggles within the 15M Movement]. Zainak. Cuadernos de antropología-etnografía, 36, 87-105.

https://maps.squat.net/en/cities/

Published: 17 September 2014
Keywords: Research project