Squats and self-managed social centers can be seen as expressions of a grass-root movement that seeks to re-appropriate urban space through the mobilization and the cooperative empowerment of the competences, the knowledges, resources and practices that inhabit the de-localized space of the neo-liberal city.
Squats and self-managed social centers often seek to embed their activities in their surroundings either by offering services to the local inhabitants or to win over the support of the local popula-tions. Be that as it may, these activities imply the emergence of an alternative way of conceiving the city.
Hence the focus of our seminar will be on the following topics:
- network-building capabilities of squats and social centers
- constrains and the potential of such experiences
- the kind of city these practices may