ABSTRACT
Why has the occupation of vacant properties without the owner’s authorisation become increasingly criminalised in European countries? Although the criminalisation process varies across countries, I argue that there are common features that allow understanding these historical shifts over the last three decades. In this chapter I examine first how media and political elites spread stigmas about squatters that prepared the ground for increasing legal prosecution of squatters. In particular, I identify a two-fold ‘homogenisation’ and ‘polarisation’ rhetoric as the main strands of hegemonic discourses that portray squatters with ‘negative’ traits. They lead to full or partial stigmatisation of squatters, on the one hand, and to mistaken stereotypes, on the other. The performative power of these discourses influence political and economic structures around urban vacancy so that squatting is rarely seen as a protest movement contesting them. In a following section I discuss how the symbolic contradictions within the dominant narratives are reframed by the squatters themselves in order to wage discursive struggles about the legitimation of squatting. The conflict between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic narratives further illuminates the structural considerations regarding the capitalist system and class struggles which are involved in most squatting actions.
