ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the use of moral rhetoric to constitute political, economic, social and humanist-existential threats around squatting, and the impact of these rhetorical strategies to achieve, or resist, legal change, using a range of analytical techniques. The introduction of the offence of 'squatting in a residential building' in section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPOA) marked an important turning-point in the UK state's relationship with practices of unlawful occupation. As global recession has exposed the challenges of affordable housing, the abandonment or indefinite postponement of regeneration projects, the rising stock of empty homes and the clash between capital interests and social need, there is a growing international interest in unlawful occupation and the use of punitive measures to govern social harm and shore up the state in the face of uncertainty.
