About this Book

Squatting offers a radical but simple solution to the crises of housing, homelessness, and the lack of social

space that mark contemporary society: occupying empty buildings and rebuilding lives and communities in

the process. Squatting has a long and complex history, interwoven with the changing and contested nature of

urban politics over the last forty years.

Squatting can be an individual strategy for shelter or a collective experiment in communal living. Squatted and

self-managed social centres have contributed to the renewal of urban struggles across Europe and intersect

with larger political projects. However, not all squatters share the same goals, resources, backgrounds or desire

for visibility.

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.

Essays by Miguel Mart�nez, Gianni Piazza, Hans Pruijt, Pierpaolo Mudu, Claudio Cattaneo, Andre Holm,

Armin Kuhn, Linus Owens, Florence Boullon, and Thomas Aguilera.