ABSTRACT
How do squats emerge and develop? What makes squatting possible? Large numbers of squatting practices over several decades and across various countries suggest that there is something beyond the will of squatters. Social movements, in my view, are better understood by accounting for the articulations between agency and structures. The intentions and strategic actions of squatters, in particular, are certainly mediated and constrained by specific structural conditions or contexts. I designate them, in general, as ‘socio-spatial structures of opportunities and constraints’, although a socio-historical dimension is also implicit in this approach. These structures may be local in nature, but they are often shaped at national scales and also following international trends, somehow in parallel to the transnational networks of squatters. Activists interpret these structures, react to them, reveal them, and try to find cracks that allow their transgressive practice to prosper. Authorities and powerholders exert their influence in these structures to suppress, regulate, or prevent the extension of squatting. In this chapter, I examine five main socio-spatial and historical conditions of possibility for the occurrence and development of squatting. In doing so, it is necessary to show how squatters’ movement unfolded given these relevant contexts. In particular, I single out a specific urban political economy and activist networks, which are seldom introduced in the study of urban movements. This analysis contributes to an explanatory framework of squatting that also serves to investigate significant outcomes of squatting practices and movements.
