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ABSTRACT
In Berlin, Rome and Barcelona, three cities affected on different levels by the most recent wave of neoliberalisation and the global crisis, a rekindled interest in the strategies for the (re)appropriation of urban space has emerged among urban activists, as a way of resisting and challenging competitive oriented policies and austerity urbanism. The following three cases are hereby analysed in detail: the Flughafen (airport) Tempelhof in Berlin; the former Snia factory in Rome; the Can Batlló old industrial complex in Barcelona. The practices of resistance that have played out over these contended vacant public spaces have emphasized the limits of the current urban ideology in proposing alternative ways of doing things. Embodying the growing mistrust towards policy-makers and the intentions of institutional actors, these contentious urban practices have aimed to (re)politicise urban policies, planning and theoretical debates but face complex issues of institutionalisation that can co-opt and neutralize radical claims.
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Notes
1 The direct social actions (DSAs) focus upon directly transforming certain specific aspects of society by means of the very action itself (De De Nardis and Antonazzo Citation2017).
2 ‘Passive revolution’ (or ‘hegemony through neutralisation’) is a Gramscian concept: it refers to situations where demands, which challenge the established hegemonic order, are recuperated by the existing system that satisfies those demands but in a way that neutralises their subversive potential.
3 The innovation of the Italian planning system (Cotella and Rivolin Citation2011), was heavily influenced by the integration into the European Union System.
4 In 2017, Spain earmarked 8,200 million less in social spending than eight years earlier; Catalunya, 4.100 (Source: ‘Catalunya dedica a sanidad un 27,5% menos que antes de la crisis económica’ in La Vanguardia, 9/9/2018).
5 Source; der Tagesspiegel online 18 June 2007. ‘Konsensbeschluss zur Tempelhof-Schließung.’
7 Senatore Junge-Reyer, March 5th, 2008, conference over the future development of the Tempelhofer Feld.
9 In 2004, the possibility to call for a local referendum was regulated by the District Administration Act §§ 45.
11 Semi-structured interview with Daniel Wesener, a German politician from Alliance 90/Die Grünen (the Green Party), held in 2014. He has been the BVV (district councillor) of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg from 2006 to 2011.
12 Source: il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, 28 January 2012. ‘Relitti urbani, dopo il piano casa Roma chiede altro cement.’
13 Source: la Pigna, 12th March 1995. The District newspaper ‘La Pigna’ since 1994 has informed the neighbours over local initiatives and issues.
14 Resolution n.26 introduced in 1995 for the allocation of vacant public assets to non-profit organisations for the self-management of socio-cultural activities.
15 This is a students/professionals collective, active in the field of radical planning.
16 The ‘Vivienda de Protección Oficial’ (VPO) includes all types of housing fully or partially subsidised by the public administration, for sale or for rent.
17 The ‘vivienda concertada’ is a special type of VPO partially subsidised by the public administration (30% cheaper than market prices).
18 In Spain there are three systems of land development: compensation system, cooperation system and expropriation. The difference between the cooperation and compensation systems is that while with the former the administration is responsible for the development on private owned areas, in the case of the latter, the owner is responsible for this development. In both cases the private owner is guaranteed development rights.
19 Semi-structured interview, held in 2017, with one of the Can Battlò collective members that participated to the reclaim of Can Battlò.
20 See the ‘Berliner Linie der Vernunft’: is a hard-line policy, introduced by the Berlin Senate in 1982, to immediately repress squatting actions. It enables evictions, within 48 h from illegal occupation, without a legal order.
21 Semi-structure interview to Andrej Holm, professor of urban sociology at the Humboldt University. He is specialised in gentrification and is also an activist of the Berlin tenants’ movement.