Squatting is currently a global phenomenon. A concomitant of economic development and social conflict, squatting attracts public attention because - implicitly or explicitly - it questions property relations from the perspective of the basic human need for shelter. So far neglected by historical inquiry, squatters have played an important role in the history of urban development and social movements, not least by contributing to change in concepts of property and the distribution and utilization of urban space. An interdisciplinary circle of authors demonstrates how squatters have articulated their demands for participation in the housing market and public space in a whole range of contexts, and how this has brought them into conflict and/or cooperation with the authorities. The volume examines housing struggles and the occupation of buildings in the Global "North," but it is equally concerned with land acquisition and informal settlements in the Global "South." In the context of the former, squatting tends to be conceived as social practice and collective protest, whereas self-help strategies of the marginalized are more commonly associated with the southern hemisphere. This volume's historical perspective, however, helps to overcome the north-south dualism in research on squatting
1. Introduction: Global Perspectives on Squatting [Freia Anders and Alexander Sedlmaier] Part I: Crossing Hemispheres: Beyond Historiographical Divides 2. Squatting, North, South and Turnabout: A Dialogue Comparing Illegal Housing Research [Thomas Aguilera and Alan Smart] 3. Squatting in the US: What Historians Can Learn from Developing Countries [Jason Jindrich] 4. Squatting and Encroachment in British Colonial History [Robert Home] Part II: Emerging Economies: Between Both Worlds 5. Squatting and Urban Modernity in Turkey [Ellinor Morack] 6. Beyond Insurgency and Dystopia: The Role of Informality in Brazil's Twentieth-Century Urban Formation [Brodwyn Fischer] 7. "Right to the City": Squatting, Squatters and Urban Change in Franco's Spain [Inbal Ofer][ 8. Unlicensed Housing as Resistance to Elite Projects: Squatting in Seoul in the 1960s and 1970s [Erik Mobrand] 9. Living on the Edge: The Ambiguities of Squatting and Urban Development in Bucharest [Ioana Florea and Mihail Dumitriu] 10. Informal Settlements in Bangkok: Origins, Features, Growth and Prospects [Yap Kioe Sheng with Kittima Leeruttanawisut] Part III: Highly Industrialised Countries: Insecure Tenure Under Conditions of Affluence 11. "The Most Fun I've Ever Had"?: Squatting in England in the 1970s [John Davis] 12. Squatting in the Netherlands: The Social and Political Institutionalization of a Movement [Hans Pruijt] 13. Squatting and Gentrification in East Germany Since 1989/90 [Andrej Holm and Armin Kuhn]
