The Micropolitics of Criminalisation: Power, Resistance and the Amsterdam Squatting Movement De Micropolitiek van Criminalisatie: Macht, Verzet en de Amsterdamse Kraakbeweging (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 26 april 2017 des middags te 12.45 uur door Deanna Dadusc geboren op 8 juni 1984 te Milaan, Italië Promotoren: Prof.dr. D. Siegel Prof.dr. P. Hubbard Copromotoren: Dr. D. Zaitch Dr. P. Carney The degree is awarded as part of a Joint Doctorate with the University of Kent. This thesis was accomplished with financial support from the University of Kent ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................... VII PROLOGUE SQUATTING GOES ON. ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 9 1. SQUATTING IN THE NETHERLANDS ................................................................................................ 10 2. 2010: THE CRIMINALISATION OF SQUATTING ............................................................................. 12 3. RESEARCH AIM AND OUTLINE ......................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2 REGULATED TOLERANCE AND SQUATTING: LEGAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC BACKGROUND ..........................................................................................21 1. RIGHT TO HOUSING VERSUS THE RIGHT TO PROPERTY ............................................................... 22 2. SQUATTERS’ MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING STRUGGLES................................................................. 25 3. THE LIBERAL TURN AND REGULATED TOLERANCE ...................................................................... 30 3.1 Art 429 ................................................................................................................................................ 33 4. THE CREATIVE CITY AND THE CO-OPTATION OF SQUATTING ..................................................... 36 5. REGULATED TOLERANCE: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ...................................................................... 38 6. THE DECLINE OF TOLERANCE .......................................................................................................... 40 7. THE CRIMINALISATION OF SQUATTING .......................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 3 THE CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE MICROPOLITICS OF POWER AND RESISTANCE .............................................................45 1. THE CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS .......................................................................... 48 1.1 Squatting, protest, and Political Opportunity Structures ........................................... 48 1.2 Beyond protest ................................................................................................................................ 52 2. MICRO-POLITICS, AFFECTS AND COUNTER-CONDUCT ................................................................. 55 2.1 Conduct .............................................................................................................................................. 58 2.2 Affect and potentia ....................................................................................................................... 59 2.3 Counter conduct and counter power .................................................................................... 64 3. THE MICROPOLITICS OF CRIMINALISATION ................................................................................. 68 3.1 Private property, conduct and criminalisation ............................................................... 69 3.2 Criminalisation and moral ordering .................................................................................... 76 3.3 Cultural Criminology and Criminalisation ........................................................................ 77 4. RESISTANCE AND CRIMINALISATION ............................................................................................. 79 5. SUMMARY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 4 EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY ....................................................87 1. “TO ALL THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS: THE ZOO IS DOWN THE ROAD” ............................................ 89 2. STUDYING RELATIONS OF POWER AND RESISTANCE ................................................................... 92 2.1 Participatory observation and Participatory Action Research ............................... 93 2.2 Activist Research: Research alongside Movements ....................................................... 97 2. QUEERING METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 99 2.1. Embodied methods, affects and events ............................................................................ 100 2.3 Composite narrations and heterogeneous voices ........................................................ 105 3. ETHICS AND VALIDITY .................................................................................................................... 108 4. SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 111 INTERMEZZO I: A NEW SOCIAL CENTRE ............................................................. 113 i. Home making: toward different ethics ................................................................................. 117 ii. Every day (and night) ................................................................................................................. 119 iii. Urban Deserts ................................................................................................................................ 120 iii CHAPTER 5 THE MICROPOLITICS OF SQUATTING .......................................... 123 1. SQUATTING: ANNO 2015 ............................................................................................................... 125 2. THE POLITICS OF SQUATTED SOCIAL CENTERS.................................................................... 128 2.1 WinterJasmijn .............................................................................................................................. 131 2.2 Antarctica ...................................................................................................................................... 134 2.3 Op de Valreep ............................................................................................................................... 139 BoX 1: ADEV Manifesto .................................................................................................................... 147 3. DIY SPACES ...................................................................................................................................... 148 3.1 Free Shops ...................................................................................................................................... 148 3.2 VOKUs: people’s kitchens ........................................................................................................ 150 4. THE MICROPOLITICS OF HOME MAKING ..................................................................................... 153 5. COUNTER-CONDUCTS AND AFFECTS: POLITICAL AND ETHICAL PRAXIS. ................................ 158 6. CRIMINALISATION AND MORAL ORDERING ................................................................................. 161 INTERMEZZO II: THE STRUGGLE ............................................................................. 169 CHAPTER 6 THE POLITICAL AND MORAL ECONOMY OF THE ‘SQUATTING AND VACANCY ACT’............................................................................ 175 1. KRAAKVERBOD: THE SQUATTING AND VACANT PROPERTY ACT ........................................... 175 1.1 Vacancy ........................................................................................................................................... 180 1.2 The privatisation of ‘vacancy’: anti-squatting .............................................................. 183 2. RESISTING CRIMINALISATION IN COURT ...................................................................................... 187 BoX 1: Schijnheilig .............................................................................................................................. 194 2.1: Korte-geding - Fast procedure ............................................................................................. 196 2.2 “The master’s tools cannot dismanel the master’s house”: Criminalise us! ..... 198 3. CRIMINAL COURT-CASES ................................................................................................................ 200 BoX 2: Eviction and court case of the Lange Leidse ..........................................................