ABSTRACT
In this chapter I set out a minor reading of the relationship between experimentation and place through an exploration of the micropolitical tactics adopted by squatters and other housing activists living in Europe and North America. The chapter focusses, in particular, on the development of a critical framework that explores the relationship between squatting, experimental place-making and the production of a more socially just urbanism. The chapter argues that everyday tactics adopted by squatters can be examined in three interconnecting ways: 1) as a form of worlding through which an alternative urban infrastructure was continuously made and re-made; 2) as a form of commoning that created new alliances and connections between people and places; 3) and, finally, as a form of dwelling and endurance that pointed to the possibilities of re-defining what it means to live in a city. The chapter concludes by highlighting some of the limitations surrounding recent work on ‘urban experimentation’ and the need to recognise and learn from the disparate forms of improvisation that sustain life in the cities of the South.
