citizenship in action: squatting and everyday politics
TRANSCRIPT
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Citizenship in actionSquatting and everyday politics
Maija JokelaPhD Researcher, University of Tampere
10.5.2016 Emerging forms of citizenship
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Citizenship in Action: Ethnographic Research on Activism and Everyday Politics• PhD research (2016-2019)• Preliminary idea: • Squatting movement• (Neighborhood movement) • (A yet unnamed movement that works with the rights of non-Finnish citizens
who are in a precarious situation – “a sans-papiers movement”)
• How is citizenship practiced in these movements? • Everyday social practices and how they are political
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Discussions…• What is political action? How is it defined?• Social movements, new social movements, counter-cultural lifestyles…• A definition of social movements:”informal networks, based on shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilize about conflictual issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest”. (della Porta & Diani 1999)-> A rather narrow definition
• Finnish political culture and the place of civil society in it• Peaceful and lawful associations working for the good of the state• Social movements forming into registered associations
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Squatting (movement)• A definition?- “Living in or using a dwelling without the consent of the owner” (Mayer 2013)- Squatting movement?• Social centres- Autonomy-ideology (1970’s Italy): autonomy from the state and the market- Nodal points for political and counter-cultural networks places for meetings and Do
It Yourself-activities
”In squatting, ideology is loosely coupled to practice. Seeing it as loosely coupled is a way to avoid tripping over some paradoxes, such as that between the belief espoused by squatters that the squatters’ movement is dominated by a great revulsion against hierarchical order [and] authority -- and the existence of hierarchical order and authority -- within the movement”. (Hans Pruijt 2013)
-> The key is to study the practice of squatting
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Squatting and the everyday politics• How is squatting political?• Ideology and politics reaches nearly all aspects of life through social
practices (dumpster-diving; DIY; refusing hierarchies, sexism and racism…)
-> crossing over from the sphere of ”civic” (private ”lifestyles”) to that of ”political”-> these social practices are politicized and politicizing-> demonstrates the overlap and blurry boundaries of the movements(Yates 2015)
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Squatting in Finland / Helsinki• ”Squatting wave” in Helsinki during the first decade of the 2000’s• Based on a transnational alter-globalization network• Autonomy and autonomous social centres…• …but negotiations with the city
• Master’s Thesis (Jokela 2012) on social centre Satama (2009-2011)• Dispute over a camp of East European romani• A turning point for the movement: gained a more anarchist approach and no
longer wanted to negotiate with the city• Only a few (public) squats after Satama• Currently, again, a legal squat (Makamik 2013-)
• An overlap (again) with the sans-papiers movement?
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References
• della Porta, Donatella & Diani, Mario (1999): Social Movements. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell publishing.• Mayer, Margit (2015): Preface. In Squatting in Europe. Radical Spaces, Urban
Struggles, eds. Squatting Europe Kollective. Wivenhoe / Mew York /Port Watson: Minor Compositions.• Pruijt, Hans (2013): Squatting in Europe. In Squatting in Europe. Radical
Spaces, Urban Struggles, toim. Squatting Europe Kollective. Wivenhoe / Mew York /Port Watson: Minor Compositions.• Yates, Luke (2015): Everyday politics, social practices and movement
networks. Daily life in Barcelona’s social centres. The British Journal of Sociology 66(2), 236-258.