Squatting and Urban Commons: Creating Alternatives to Neoliberalism

Authors

  • Miguel A. Martínez Uppsala University
  • Dominika V. Polanska Uppsala University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v13i3p1244

Keywords:

Neoliberalism, self-management, squatting, SqEK, urban commons

Abstract

Here we introduce the special issue of Partecipazione e Conflitto concerning the theme "Squatting and Urban Commons: Creating Alternatives to Neoliberalism". In particular, we present the context and origins of this edition, the rationale behind these theoretical and empirical concerns, and the main contents of the gathered articles.

Author Biographies

Miguel A. Martínez, Uppsala University

Miguel A. Martínez is professor of housing and urban sociology at the IBF (Institute for Housing and Urban Research), Uppsala University (Sweden). He has conducted studies on urban sociology, housing, social movements, migration, and participatory-activist methodologies. He is the author of Squatters in the Capitalist City (Routledge, 2020), editor of The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements (Palgrave, 2018), and co-editor of Contested Cities and Urban Activism (Palgrave, 2019). Most of his publications are freely available at: www.miguelangelmartinez.net

Dominika V. Polanska, Uppsala University

Dominika V. Polanska is an associate professor in sociology at the IBF (Institute for Housing and Urban Research) at Uppsala University as well as at the Department for Social Work at Södertörn University. Her research interests encompass urban movements, civil society, and different forms of activism, and she has conducted research in Poland and Sweden. Her latest studies concern displacement and renovictions in Sweden, and she is leading a project on alternatives to Swedish housing policy. Her latest book Contentious Politics and the Welfare State: Squatting in Sweden (Routledge 2019) maps and conceptualizes the history of squatting in Sweden. More information and most of her publications are to be found on her website: www.dominikavpolanska.se.

References

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

Caffentzis, G. and S. Federici (2014), “Commons against and beyond capitalism”, Community Development Journal, 49(SI): i92-

i105.

Card, K. (2020), “Contradictions of housing commons: between middle class and anarchist models in Berlin”, in D. Özkan, and G. Baykal (eds.), Commoning the City: Empirical Perspectives on Urban Ecology, Economics, and Ethics, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 159-176.

Chatterton, P. (2010), “Seeking the urban common: Furthering the debate on spatial justice”, City, 14(6): 625-628.

Dadusc, D. (2019), “Enclosing autonomy. The politics of tolerance and criminalisation of the Amsterdam squatting movement”, City, 23(2): 170-188.

Dardot, P. and Ch. Laval (2019), Common. On Revolution in the 21st Century, London: Bloomsbury.

Di Feliciantonio, C. (2017), “Spaces of the Expelled as Spaces of the Urban Commons? Analysing the Re-emergence of Squatting Initiatives in Rome”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(5): 708-725.

Finchett-Maddock, L. (2016), Protest, property and the commons, Abingdon: Routledge.

Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2009), Commonwealth, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Harvey, D. (2012), Rebel Cities. From the right to the city to the urban revolution, London: Verso.

Huron, A. (2018), Carving Out the Commons. Tenant Organizing and Housing Cooperatives in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Klein, N. (2001), “Reclaiming the Commons”, New Left Review, 9: 81-89.

Linebaugh, P. (2008), The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Polanska, D. V. & Martínez, M. (2016), “Squatting in the East. Introduction. Exploring overlooked contexts”, Baltic Worlds, Vol. IX, No. 1-2, pp. 31-33.

Polanska, D.V., Martínez, M. & G. Piotrowski (2018), Skłoting w Europie Środkowej i Rosji, Gdansk: European Solidarity Centre.

SqEK (2019), “SqEK – Squatting Everywhere Kollective”, Radical Housing Journal, 1(1): 233-235.

Articles published in this Special Issue

Calafati L. (2020), “Squat to Work. Squatted Workspaces, the Commons and Solidarity Economies in Europe”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1252-1268.

González R., D. de Santiago, and M.A. Rodríguez (2020), “Squatted and Self-Managed Social Centres in Mexico City: Four Case Studies from 1978-2020”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1269-1289.

Rauleac G. (2020), £Navigating the Limits of Capitalism to Resist Urban Marginality: The Case of the Casa Madiba Network”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1290-1307.

Kotyk L. (2020), “Governing without Governed and Governors: An Attempt to Establish a Non-Hierarchical Organizational Repertoire”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1308-1323.

Pruijt H. (2020), “City-Level Action in a City-Wide Urban Commons. Amsterdam, 1977-1983”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1324-1337.

Debelle dos Santos G. (2020), “Squatting, Commons and Conflict: A Discussion of Squatting’s Challenges to the Commons”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(3): 1338-1354.

Polanska D.V., T. Weldon (2020), “In Search of Urban Commons Through Squatting: The Role of Knowledge Sharing in the Creation and Organization of Everyday Utopian Spaces in Sweden”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1355-1372.

Ighe A. (2020), “Empty Space, Open Space. Claiming, Reaching and Remembering Common Ground in Urban Squats. Haga in the 1980’s”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1373-1389.

Martínez M.A. (2020), “Urban Commons from an Anti-Capitalist Approach”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1390-1410.

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Published

15-11-2020

How to Cite

Martínez, M. A., & Polanska, D. V. (2020). Squatting and Urban Commons: Creating Alternatives to Neoliberalism. PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO, 13(3), 1244–1251. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v13i3p1244

Issue

Vol. 13, No. 3 (2020). Special Issue on: “Squatting and Urban Commons” & “Judicial Populism”

Section

Editorial/1

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