Book about squatting with free pdf download

[tony at cultureshop.org.uk]

Squatting in Europe: Radical Spaces, Urban Struggles
Edited by the Squatting Europe Kollective

Squatting offers a radical but simple solution to the crises of housing,
homelessness, and the lack of social space that mark contemporary society:
occupying empty buildings and rebuilding lives and communities in the
process. Squatting has a long and complex history, interwoven with the
changing and contested nature of urban politics over the last forty years.

Squatting in Europe aims to move beyond the conventional understandings of
squatting, investigating its history in Europe over the past four decades.
Historical comparisons and analysis blend together in these inquiries into
squatting in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and England.
In it members of SqEK (Squatting Europe Kollective) explore the diverse,
radical, and often controversial nature of squatting as a form of militant
research and self-managed knowledge production.

Essays by Miguel Martínez, Gianni Piazza, Hans Pruijt, Pierpaolo Mudu,
Claudio Cattaneo, Andre Holm, Armin Kuhn, Linus Owens, Florence Bouillon,
Thomas Aguilera, and E.T.C. Dee.

“Amidst the proliferation of post-political banter, it is refreshing to
see the time-tested politics of pre-figurative direct action being taking
so seriously.  This is a must-read for anybody who wants to better
understand how the politics of squatting offer a set of transformative
strategies for a creating a more egalitarian world.  Furthermore, this
collection illustrates how such transformative politics so often start in
the world’s cities through deliberate organizing and thoughtful reflection
by committed groups of activists, scholars and everyday citizens.” ­ Nik
Heynen, University of Georgia

“In an era of austerity, capitalist accumulation by dispossession, and the
criminalization of protest this excellent book serves as an inspiring and
timely reminder of people’s re-appropriation of urban spaces in order to
fashion alternatives to the status quo. Structured around a typology of
squatting configurations ­ as anti-deprivation; entrepreneurial;
conservational; political; and alternative housing strategies ­ this
empirically-rich collection of essays by scholars and activists provides
persuasive evidence of the creativity and politically transformative
potential involved in such practices.” ­ Paul Routledge, University of
Glasgow

Bio: Squatting Europe is a research network focusing on the squatters’
movement. Our aim is to produce reliable and fine-grained knowledge about
this movement not only as an end in itself, but also as a public resource,
especially for squatters and activists. Critical engagement and
comparative approaches are the bases of our project. The group is an open
transnational collective (SQEK) whose members represent a diversity of
disciplines and fields seeking to understand the issues associated with
squats and social centres across Europe.

278 pages, 6×9
US: $24 / UK: £16
ISBN 978-1-57027-257-8
Release date Fall 2013

Available directly from Minor Compositions for £10
http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=504

A free download pdf is online at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/132280637/Squatting-in-Europe-Radical-Spaces-Urban-Strugglestingineurope-Web
or
http://tinyurl.com/sqekbook

Squatting Europe Kollective
http://sqek.squat.net/