Dominika V. Polanska Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Sweden
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ORGANIZING SOCIAL AND SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: SQUATTING’S MATERIAL PRACTICES AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS Dominika V. Polanska Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract diversification will be used to illustrate the importance of organization of social and spatial boundaries. I will The prerequisites for squatting are somewhat also discuss the reverse effects of the refinement of different from other social movements. Most squatters the boundaries resulting in the creation of hierarchies tend to live (literally reside) in their movement and and processes of exclusion, seclusion, inflexibility and risk being overwhelmed and burnt-out by the intensity impenetrability faced by squatters in the studied case. and emotional involvement of this kind of activism. The fact that squatters’ struggles revolve around a The material for this study is based on 20 physical place, which in itself is a form of protest, and semi-structured interviews with squatters’ activists that the most involved activists are expected to locate conducted in 2013. The theoretical framework of the their everyday lives to this place, puts a lot of pressure study is combining a social movement approach with on the squatters and the way they handle their social organizational theory. I argue that squatting, as any relationships or more material practices and needs. social movement, should be analysed as intersecting social orders of networks, institutions and organiza- The aim of this article is to examine how social tions, as it needs to create organizational measures, and spatial boundaries are regulated and organized by use dominant institutional order(s) and/or create squatters and to discuss how the spaces within squats new shared norms and beliefs, alongside founding its are regulated and how the boundaries are negotiated by activity on networks of trust, horizontality and reci- the squatting activists in light of these spaces being the procity, in order to function smoothly and not exhaust ‘embodiment’ of the squatting movement requiring its current resources (social, symbolic, material). some special organizational measures to create order and avoid conflicts that could lead to the movement’s Keywords: squatting, social movements, organi- decline. The squatting movement in Warsaw will serve zational theory, boundary drawing, social and spatial as an example, and its recent development and internal relationships 30 DOMINIKA V. POLANSKA La Organización de los Límites Sociales y Espa- horizontalidad y reciprocidad de modo de funcionar ciales: Prácticas Materiales y Relaciones Sociales correctamente y no erosionar sus recursos (sociales, del Movimiento Ocupa simbólicos y materiales) actuales. Resumen Palabras clave: Ocupaciones, movimientos sociales, teoría organizacional, delimitación, relacio- Los prerrequisitos para llevar adelante una nes sociales y espaciales ocupación son distintos a los que requieren otros tipos de movimientos sociales. La mayoría de lxs ocupas Introduction suelen vivir (literalmente residir) en su movimiento y arriesgarse a ser superadxs y desgastadxs por la inten- If squatting is defined as collective use of property sidad emocional de este tipo de militancia. El hecho without legal permission, most researchers of de que las ocupaciones involucran lugares físicos, squatting would agree that the foundation of this kind lo cual es precisamente una forma de protesta, les of collective action is to self-organize and self-govern genera mucha presión a lxs ocupas y a las formas en a material space where “the social and spatial are que manejan sus relaciones sociales u otras prácticas y mutually constituting and inseparable” (Martin and necesidades materiales. Miller 2003: 144). There are a multitude of views on the understanding of squatting including: aiming at El objetivo de este artículo es examinar cómo se distributing economic resources in a society in a more regulan y organizan los límites sociales y espaciales egalitarian way (Corr 1999); enabling and providing en una ocupación, y debatir sobre cómo se regulan self-help (Katz and Mayer 1985); or counter-cultural los espacios y se negocian los límites en su interior, and political alternatives (Lowe 1986); providing considerando que las ocupaciones encarnan al movi- housing alternatives (Wates 1980), and as an expres- miento y que requieren de medidas de organización sion of a Do-It-Yourself culture (McKay, 1998). It is especiales para crear orden y evitar conflictos que also seen as a struggle for a better society (Kallenberg pueden llevar a su fin. Aquí utilizamos el movimiento 2001); a manifestation of political/ideological activism ocupa de Varsovia como ejemplo, mientras que su (Della Porta and Rucht 1995); a counter-cultural reciente desarrollo y diversificación serán utilizados expression of the middle classes (Clarke et al. 1976) or para demostrar la importancia de la regulación de as a social movement creating alternatives to capital- los límites sociales y espaciales. Además discutiremos ism (Squatting Europe Kollective 2014). However, los efectos negativos derivados de una determinación its most common definition is to create a space that estricta de los límites, que pueden resultar en la gene- is commonly managed and in some way allow for ración de jerarquías y procesos de exclusión, seclusión, the squatter’s collective and private life. Many squats inflexibilidad e impermeabilidad que lxs ocupas sufren around the globe oppose local and global processes en este estudio de caso. of urban restructuring, gentrification, privatization of public spaces and ‘accumulation by dispossession’ El estudio se basa en 20 entrevistas semi-estructu- (Harvey 2005), by opening up spaces that ought to radas realizadas a ocupas en 2013. El marco teórico be managed and used collectively. Mayer paints a busca combinar la perspectiva de movimientos sociales background picture of squatters’ struggles and writes con la teoría organizacional. El argumento principal es that neoliberal forms of dispossession lead to “the que las ocupaciones, como todo movimiento social, conversion of common, collective, and state forms deben ser analizadas como órdenes sociales entrela- of property rights into exclusive private property zados de redes, instituciones y organizaciones, pues rights and the suppression of rights to the commons” necesitan crear reglas organizativas, utilizar el orden (2013: 3). She further concludes that in light of these institucional dominante y/o crear nuevas normas, a la changes squatting has taken on new political meaning vez que deben alimentar sus relaciones de confianza, in opposing the logics of capitalism. Volume 9, Number 1 2016 31 SOCIAL AND SPATIAL BOUNDARIES But opposing the logics of capitalism is not so tion of public spaces and housing and are explicitly easy, especially for collective actors whose goal is to anti-capitalist in their collective framing. Creating self-organize and self-govern a common space by commonly-governed (horizontal) spaces is a way of making visible the capitalist mechanisms causing resistance to the capitalist system. urban inequalities (Martínez and Cattaneo 2014). The prerequisites for squatting are also somewhat different Reconfiguring squatting in Warsaw began around from other collective actors. Squatters (not all) tend 2008 with some internal conflicts and divisions in to live (literally reside) in their movement, and risk two of the long-lasting squats (Elba, 2004-2012 and being overwhelmed and burnt-out by the intensity Fabryka 2001/2-2011). It culminated with the eviction and emotional involvement of this kind of activism of both squats in 2011 and 2012 causing strong sup- (Owens 2009: 262). The fact that squatters’ struggles portive reactions among the media, other left-wing revolve around a physical place, and that this place is activists and the local public. The outcome of the in itself a form of protest, and that the most involved eviction of Elba was the establishment of a new squat, activists are expected to locate their everyday lives to the initiation of negotiations with local authorities on this place, puts a lot of weight on the squatters and a new social centre (opened in 2014), the initiation the way they handle their social relationships or more of cooperation with the tenants’ movement and the material practices and needs. strengthening of the profiles of the city’s squats (see Table 1). The case of squatting in Warsaw (1.7 million inhabitants) is not only interesting because until Opening of a new squat in re-privatized 2011 recently it has been an under-researched part of building (still existing in 2015) Europe, but also as the squatting scene in the Polish 2011 Eviction of Fabryka squat capital city recently underwent a process of broadening 2012 Eviction of Elba squat of claims from a more cultural to a political focus and Demonstration gathering 2000 supporters a re-configuration resulting in different squats having 2012 against the eviction/publicity different and complementing profiles (Polanska 2014; 1 Opening of a new squat in municipal Polanska and Piotrowski 2015). Squatters have been 2012 present in the city since the second half of the 1990s, building (still existing in 2015) however, squatting attempts intensified and gathered 2012 Talks with district authorities larger numbers of activists after 2000. At the time of Talks with city authorities (together with 2012 writing (October 2015) there are three squatted spaces tenants` organizations) in Warsaw – two squatted buildings