Citizenship in actionSquatting and everyday politics

Maija JokelaPhD Researcher, University of Tampere

10.5.2016 Emerging forms of citizenship

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

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

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

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)

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?

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.