ABSTRACT
1Squatting is the use of property without authorization. It is used both as a means in collective struggles (for a more just city) and as an end in itself (to meet immediate housing, social and cultural needs). The history of squatting dates back to the very beginning of human existence, as land takeovers and land occupations have been an inescapable part of our culture. Today as many as a billion people are squatting all over the world (Manjikian 2013); however, only the urban form of squatting will be the focus of this book. It is the squatting that is pursued openly by collective actors in urban areas and that is often criticizing welfare and housing policies for their insufficiency alongside what has been called accumulation by dispossession by David Harvey (2004). It is anti-capitalist per se in its character. Urban squatting has been described by scholars as enabling and providing self-help (Katz & Mayer 1985), providing housing alternatives (Wates 1980), expressing a do-it-yourself culture (McKay 1998), a struggle for a better society (Kallenberg 2001), a manifestation of political/ideological activism (Della Porta & Rucht 1995; Katsiaficas 1997), or as a response to housing deprivation and problems inherent in neoliberal capitalism (Squatting Europe Kollective 2013; Squatting Europe Kollective 2014).
