Abstract
The squatters’ movement first appeared in Spain in the 1980s. However, in 2006, a new and differentiated social movement emerged: the pro-housing movement. This movement organised young people from all over the country and therefore consolidated hundreds of platforms of people of different ages affected by foreclosures. Their proposals and demands have meant a roadmap for the 15 M movement. The purpose of this article is to compare two current urban movements involved in noteworthy social battles inside Spain on subjects such as access to housing and spaces for communal sociability. Both the squatters’ movement and housing activism display similarities and confluences, though they stand as two different movements not only in their development and organisational processes, but also in their goals and leadership. Squatting and housing are two different kinds of urban activism that emerged in Spain as a response to the neoliberal urban-renewal regimes and the lack of housing policies. The differences between these two forms of activism will appear in their tactics, identities and political orientations. Thus, the comparison will be useful to characterise two different but complementary forms of contemporary urban activism when faced with urban neoliberalism. Throughout the different cycles, the emergence of new movements destabilised the previously existing squatters’ practices and then translated them into new forms of activism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
This paper is a result of the research project ‘El movimiento de okupación de viviendas y centros sociales en España y en Europa: contextos, ciclos, identidades e institucionalización’, which took place from January 2012 to December 2014. In depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 30 activists from both movements in major Spanish cities and included direct observation and analysis of documents produced by the movements themselves.
- 2.
See Máiz (1996) about framing strategies and political opportunities of social movements.
References
Adell, R. (2003). El estudio del contexto político a través de la protesta colectiva. La transición política española en la calle. In M. J. Funes & R. Adell (Eds.), Movimientos sociales: cambio social y participación (pp. 77–108). Madrid: UNED Ediciones.
Alonso, S. (2014). «Votas pero no eliges»: la democracia y la crisis de la deuda soberana en la Eurozona. Recerca, Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi, 15, 21–53.
Asens, J. (2004). La represión al movimiento de las okupaciones: del aparato policial a los mass media. In R. Adell & M. Martínez (Eds.), pp. 293–337.
Brockett, C. (1991). The Structure of Political Opportunities and Peasant Mobilisation in Central America. Comparative Politics, 53, 253–274.
Cabré, A., & Módenes, J. A. (2004). Homeownership and Social Inequality in Spain. In K. Kurz & H. P. Blossfeld (Eds.), Home Ownership and Social Inequality in a Comparative Perspective (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).
Calle, Á. (2004). Okupaciones: un movimiento contra las desigualdades materiales y expresivas. In F. Tezanos (Ed.), Tendencias en desigualdad y exclusión (pp. 270–305). Madrid: Sistema.
Castells, M. (2012). Redes de indignación y esperanza: los movimientos sociales en la era de Internet. Madrid: Alianza Editoral.
Colau, A., & Alemany, A. (2012). Vidas hipotecadas. De la burbuja inmobiliaria al derecho a la vivienda. Barcelona: Cuadrilatero de Libros.
Debelle, G., Catteneo, C., González, R., Barranco, O., & Llobet, M. (2018). Squatting Cycles in Barcelona: Identities, Repression and the Controversy of Institutionalisation. In M. Martínez (Ed.), The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements (pp. 51–73). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Diani, M. (1998). Las redes de los movimientos: una perspectiva de análisis. In P. Ibarra & B. Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales, transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural. Madrid: Trotta.
García-Lamarca, M. (2016). From Occupying Plazas to Recuperating Housing: Insurgent Practices in Spain. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12386.
González, R. (2015). El moviment per l’okupació i el moviment per l’habitatge: Semblances, diferències i confluències en temps de crisi. Recerca, Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi, 17, 85–106.
González, R. (2018). Movimientos Sociales y Políticas Públicas: Los impactos de los centros sociales okupados en Cataluña y Madrid (1984–2014). Pachuca de Soto: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo.
Ibarra, P., Gomà, R., González, R., & Martí, S. (2002). Movimientos sociales, políticas públicas y democracia radical. Algunas cuestiones introductorias. In P. Ibarra, R. Gomà, & S. Martí (Eds.), Creadores de democracia radical. Movimientos sociales y redes de políticas públicas (pp. 9–22). Barcelona: Ed. Icària.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística. (2011). Censo de Población y Viviendas 2011, http://www.ine.es/censos2011_datos/cen11_datos_inicio.htm. Date Accessed 14 November 2015.
Katz, S., & Mayer, M. (1983). Gimme Shelter: Self-Help Housing Struggles Within and Against the State in New York City and West Berlin. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 9(1), 15–45.
Kitschelt, H. (1996). Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies. British Journal of Political Science, 16, 55–85.
Máiz, R. (1996). Nación de Breogán: Oportunidades políticas y estrategias enmarcadoras en el movimiento nacionalista gallego (1886–1986). Revista de Estudios Políticos, 92, 33–75.
Manrique, P. (2010, 8–21 July). Medidas penales contra las okupaciones. Diagonal, 22–23.
Martínez, M. (2002). Okupaciones de viviendas y centros sociales. Autogestión, contracultura y conflictos urbanos. Barcelona: Virus.
Martínez, M. (2007). El movimiento de okupaciones: Contracultura urbana y dinámicas alter-globalización. In R. Prieto (Ed.), Revista de Estudios de Juventud, 76, 225–243.
Martínez, M. (2016). Between Autonomy and Hybridity: Urban Struggles Within the 15m Movement in Madrid. In M. Mayer, C. Thörn, & H. Thörn (Eds.), Urban Uprisings: Challenging the Neoliberal City in Europe (pp. 253–281). London: Palgrave Macmillan-Springer.
Martínez, M. (2018a). The Politics of Squatting, Time Frames and Spatial Contexts. In M. Martínez (Ed.), The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements (pp. 1–22). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Martínez, M. (2018b). Socio-Spatial Structures and Protest Cycles of Squatted Social Centres in Madrid. In M. Martínez (Ed.), The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements (pp. 25–49). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Martínez, M., & García, A. (2013). Movimiento 15M, espacio público y luchas pro-vivienda. Zainak, 36, 87–105.
Martínez, M., & García, A. (2015). The Occupation of Squares and the Squatting of Buildings: Lessons from the Convergence of Two Social Movements. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, http://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1145/1107.
McAdam, D. (1998). Orígenes conceptuales, problemas actuales y direcciones futuras. In P. Ibarra & B. Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales. Transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural. Madrid: Trotta.
Moreno, A. (coord.) (2012). La transición de los jóvenes a la vida adulta. Crisis económica y emancipación tardía. Barcelona: Obra Social La Caixa.
PAH (Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca). (2018). http://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/.
Pastor, J. (2002). ¿Qué son los movimientos antiglobalización?. Madrid: RBA Libros.
Peña-López, I. (2013). Casual Politics: From Slacktivism to Emergent Movements and Pattern Recognition. In J. Balcells, et al. (Eds.), Bid Data: Chalenges and Opportunities (pp. 339–359). Barcelona: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. http://ictlogy.net/articles/20130626_ismael_pena-lopez_-_casual_politics_slacktivism_emergent_movements_pattern_recognition.pdf.
Pruijt, H. (2003). Is the Institutionalization of Urban Movements Inevitable? A Comparison of the Opportunities for Sustained Squatting in New Cork City and Amsterdam. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27, 133–157.
Pruijt, H. (2004). Okupar en Europa. In R. Adell & M. Martínez (Eds.), ¿Dónde están las llaves? El movimiento okupa: Prácticas y contextos sociales (pp. 35–60). Madrid: Los libros de la Catarata.
Romero, J. (2010). Construcción residencial y gobierno del territorio en España. De la burbuja especulativa a la recesión. Causas y Consecuencias. Cuadernos Geográficos, 47, 17–46.
Rootes, C. A. (1999). Political Opportunity Structures: Promise, Problems and Prospects. La Lettre de la maison Française d’Oxford, 10, 75–97.
Tarrow, S. (1986). Comparing Social Movement Participation in Western Europe and the United States: Problems, Uses, and a Proposal of Synthesis. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters , 4(2), 145–173.
Tarrow, S. (1997). El poder en movimiento. Los movimientos sociales, la acción colectiva y la polític. Madrid: Alianza Universidad.
Tarrow, S. (2010). The Strategy of Paired Comparison: Toward a Theory of Practice. Comparative Political Studies, 43(2), 230–259.
Tejerina, B. (1998). Los movimientos sociales y la acción colectiva. De la producción simbólica al cambio de valores. In P. Ibarra & B. Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales, transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural. Madrid: Trotta.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
González, R. (2019). From the Squatters’ Movement to Housing Activism in Spain: Identities, Tactics and Political Orientation. In: Yip, N., Martínez López, M., Sun, X. (eds) Contested Cities and Urban Activism. The Contemporary City. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1730-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1730-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1729-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1730-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)