Squat to Work. Squatted Workspaces, the Commons and Solidarity Economies in Europe


Abstract


Inspired by recuperated enterprises in Latin America, squatted workspaces have emerged across Southern Europe in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. Using the literature on European squatting, the concept of the commons and an action research in a squatted workspace in Milan, Italy, the paper explores the re-emergence of this type of squatting and its relation to solidarity economies in contemporary Europe. The paper examines how precarious workers have used squatting to establish self-managed workspaces to access income and to reinvent work and economic relations beyond capitalism. The paper also investigates the ambivalent role of squatting in supporting the establishment of solidarity economies.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v13i3p1252

Keywords: Commons; recuperated enterprises; self-management; social and solidarity economies; squatted workspaces

References


Badcock S. (2017), Politics and the People in Revolutionary Russia. A Provincial History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bauwens M. and Vaisilis N. (2017), Value in the Commons Economy: Developments. In Open and Contributory Value Accounting, New York: Heinrich Boll Stiftung.

Bekridaki G. and Broumas A. (2017), "Greek Society in Crisis and in Motion: Building the Material Basis for an Alternative Society from the Bottom Up", Interface: a Journal for and about Social Movements, 9(1): 230-277.

Bollier D. and Helfrich S. (2012), The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, Amherst: Levellers Press.

Brinton M. (2013), The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control: 1917-1921: The State and Counter-Revolution, Atalanta: On Our Own Authority! Publishing.

Cantarano G. (1989), Alla Riversa: Per una Storia degli Scioperi a Rovescio, 1951-1952, Bari: Edizioni Dedalo.

Cattaneo, C. (2013), "Urban squatting, rural squatting and the ecological-economic perspective", in Squatting Europe Kollective (ed.), Squatting Europe. Radical Spaces, Urban Struggles, Wivenhoe: Minor Composition.

Churchill N. C and Lewis V. L. (1987), "The Five Stages of Small Business Growth", Harvard Business Review, 3(3).

Coase R. H. (1960), "The Problem of Social Cost", Journal of Law and Economics, 3: 1-44.

Dolgoff S. (1990), The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-management in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939, Montreal: Black Rose Books.

Ealham C. (2010), Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898-1937, Oakland: AK Press.

Evans D. (2018), Revolution and the State. Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, London: Routledge.

Evers N. (2003), "The Process and Problems of Business Start-Ups", The ITB Journal 4(1): 17-41.

Fairlie S. (2009), "A Short History of Enclosure in Britain", The Land, Retrieved from https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/short-history-enclosure-britain

Federici S. (2004), Caliban and the Witch. Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, New York: Autonomedia.

Federici S. (2019), Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, Oakland: PM Press.

Foundational Economy Collective (2018), Foundational Economy. The Infrastructure of Everyday Life, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Hardin G. (1968), "The Tragedy of the Commons", Science, 162(3859): 1243-1248.

Hickel, J. (2017), The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions, London: William Heinemann.

Jo, T.-H. (2016), "The Social Provisioning Process and Heterodox Economics", MPRA Paper, Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de

Kallis G., Kostakis V., Lange S., Muraca B., Paulson S. and Schmelzer M. (2018), "Research on Degrowth", Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43: 291-316.

Keiser D. H. (1987), The Workers' Revolution in Russia, 1917: The View from Below, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Linebaugh P. (2014), Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures, and Resistance, Oakland: PM Press.

Linebaugh P. and Rediker M. (2000), The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, Boston: Beacon Press.

Mikhailov N. V. (2020), "‘Workers’ Control and the ‘Workers’ Constitution', the Fabzavkomsand trade unions in 1917", in D. Orlovsky (Ed.), A Companion to the Russian Revolution, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Lt.

Mintz F. (2013), Anarchism and Workers' Self-Management in Revolutionary Spain, Oakland: AK Press

Nicholls A. and Teadsale S. (2017), "Neoliberalism by Stealth? Exploring Continuity and Change within the UK Social Enterprise Policy Paradigm", Policy & Politics, 45(3): 323-341.

Novotny A., Rasmussen E., Clausen, T. H. and Wiklund, J. (2020), Research Handbook on Start-Up Incubation Ecosystems, Abingdon: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Olson M. (1965), The Logic of Collective Action, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.

Ostrom E. (1990), Governing the Commons, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Papadaki M. and Kalogeraki S. (2019), "Exploring Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) During the Greek Economic Crisis", PArtecipazione e COnflitto, 11(1): 38-69.

Polanyi K. (1944), The Great Transformation, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Polanyi K. (1977), The Livelihood of Man, New York: Academic Press.

Pruijit H. (2013), "The Logic of Urban Squatting", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(1): 19-45.

Reason P. and Bradbury H. (Eds.) (2008), The SAGE Handbook of Action Research. Participative Inquiry and Practice, London: SAGE.

Ricoveri G. (2014), Nature for Sale: The Commons versus Commodities, London: Pluto Press.

Ruggeri A. (2014), Le Fabbriche Recuperate. Dalla Zanon alla Rimaflow un’Esperienza Concreta contro la Crisi, Rome: Alegre.

Sitrin M. (2006), Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina, Oakland: AK Press.

Squatting Europe Kollective (2013), Squatting Europe. Radical Spaces, Urban Struggles, Wivenhoe: Minor Composition.

Vieta M. (2010), "The New Cooperativism", Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, 4(1): 1-11.

Vieta M. and Ruggeri, A. (2009, "Workers-Recovered Enterprises as Workers’ Co-operatives: The Conjunctures, Challenges, and Innovations of Self-management in Argentina and Latin America", in D. Reed and J. J. McMurtry (Eds.), Co-Operatives in a Global Economy: The Challenges of Co-Operation Across Borders, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Watson D. (2016), Squatting in Britain, Talgarth: The Merlin Press.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.