THE SQUATTING PHENOMENON

1
THE SQUATTING PHENOMENON

• BETWEEN SOCIAL MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

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URBAN REALITY

• PHYSICAL SPACE
• EVERYDAY LIFE EXPERIENCE
• SYMBOLIC INTERACTION
• gt INHABITANTS

3
CITIES ARE NETWORKS OF

• INTERACTIONS
• NORMS
• IDEALS

4
PEOPLES NEEDS/DESIRES

• Private space HOME
• Public space
• free flow through the citys networks
• gt DECENT LIFE

5
RESOUCES FOR A DECENT LIFE

• Limited
• Involve costs
• POWER TO OWN
• CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
• POWER TO DISTRIBUTE
• A SPECIAL ISSUE

6
SQUATTING

• HOW TO APPROACH IT
• A SOCIAL MOVEMENT
• A SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE CREATING CONFLICT

7
TO SQUAT

• To take over
• Australia, the shepherds, in the first half of
  the XIX century
• Europe, after the SECOND WORLD WAR
• Now spread in the whole world

8
MODELS OF SQUATTING ACTIONS

• THE SHANTY TOWN
• THE REDUCED SHANTY TOWN
• THE POWERFUL SQUAT
• THE HYBRID MODEL

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SHANTY TOWN/ BIDONVILLE

• Depravation based squats
• The only solution to homelessness
• crisis solution
• Peripheral regions, urban leftovers
• Overcrowded
• Locked from outside
• Urban/ symbolic distance

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SHANTY TOWN/ BIDONVILLETHE PEOPLE

• Poor people, ILLEGAL INHABITANTS
• Invisible and voiceless gt powerless
• ACCESS DENIED to mainstream life
• vicious circle
• Ignored or denigrated
• Help networks

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THE REDUCED SHANTY TOWN

• Depravation based squat
• Present in the MIDDLE OF THE CITY
• Producing social DISORDER
• Only few families
• Very bad housing condition
• Expulsion actions

12
THE REDUCED SHANTY TOWNTHE PEOPLE

• Poor, illegal, alone
• First generation squatters
• How they consider themselves?
• PARADOX they are visible, but dont exist
• The media gt their voice
• CONFLICT over symbolic space
• CONFLICT of identities representation

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A SPECIAL ISSUE

• THE AUROLACI IN BUCHAREST
• CHILDREN
• IN THE SWEARS EVERYWHERE
• COMING AT THE SURFACE in a dionysiac way,
  producing DISORDER

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THE POWERFUL SQUAT

• BY CHOISE
• PROUDLY building an alternative lifestyle
• MAKING ITS OWN JUSTICE
• POLITICAL INTENSIONS or THE CLAIM
  TO BE LEFT ALONE
• AN ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY or A TOWN WITHIN A
  TOWN

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FORMS OF POWERFUL SQUAT

• THEY MELT TOGETHER
• THEY DEVELOP, ONE FORM OTHER
• Alternative housing strategy
• Entrepreneurial squatting CENTRI SOCIALI
• Conservational squatting AMSTERDAM
• Political squatting AMSTERDAM
• Tourism squatting NOW EVERYWHERE

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FRAMING SQUATTING ACTIONS

• Justus Uitermark every social movement is
  engaged in an ongoing process of framing, to
  determine what goals are just and what means are
  legitimate
• Legitimizing actions
• The example of Amsterdam

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THE POWERFUL SQUAT

• A MORE EQUILIBRATED BALANCE OF POWER
• MORE LEVELS OF CONFLICT
• REACTIONS TO THIS FORM OF CONFLICT
• MAINTAINNING ITS ILLEGAL STATUS
• TOLERATING IT
• QUASI-LEGALISING IT

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THE HYBRID SQUAT

• IN MOSCOW, DURING COMMUNISM
• MIXTURE
• Depravation based/ political squat
• Poor people/ middle-class neighborhood activists

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AS A CONCLUSION

• COMPLEXITY DIVERSITY
• LARGELY SPREAD
• PEOPLE
• POWER
• CONFLICT
• PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, SYMBOLIC ASPECTS