The social capital of urban activism

Abstract

Practices of urban activism are increasingly viewed as a new form of engaged citizenship. Because of their insurgent and informal nature, however, these initiatives are at risk of marginalization from exclusionary urban policy processes. Employing the concept of social capital, this paper analyzes the internal organization of two activist communities and their capacity to connect with and influence public and formal institutions. Through a cross-national comparison of two case studies, we show that such groups are likely to achieve end goals when they feature selective membership, maintain a common purpose and identity, and make strategic use of intermediaries and experts to create bridges to external institutions and resources. We conclude by arguing that, today, urban activists face a fundamental trade-off between inclusiveness and instrumentalism.

Key words:

• urban activism
• social capital
• informal agency
• London
• Amsterdam

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to kindly thank Willem Salet from the University of Amsterdam for his guidance and comments in the early phases of this research. We are further grateful to the Undercroft skateboarders and both past and present members of the Schijnheilig collective for their time and for giving us a glimpse into their worlds.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The squatting movement is rooted in a broader political social movement (Draaisma and van Hoogstraten 1983). However, recent evolutions of this phenomenon reveal that squatters also operate as cultural groups, engaged with changing urban space, and are driven by less politicized motivations (see Vasudevan 2015). For this reason we consider them as DIY in this paper.

2 Since 2005, the ‘Breeding Places (broedplaatsen) Policy’ offers public resources for the reuse of empty buildings under conditions that the users are organized into formal associations with their own budget and program.

3 In cooperation with Bureau Broedplaats, Schijnheilig arranged a rental space for their cultural events in the Vondelbunker, an old World War II bunker in the middle of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.

4 Anti-squat is a form of use of vacant property, which places residents in a building for the purpose of ‘guarding’ the property from being overtaken during periods of inactivity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine VanHoose

Katherine VanHoose is an independent researcher and consultant for projects related to the built environment.

Federico Savini

Federico Savini is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Email: [email protected]