The Autonomous Life? Paradoxes of Hierarchy and Authority in the Squatters Movement in Amsterdam

by Kadir, Nazima; Davis, Laurence; Jun, Nathan; Gordon, Uri; Prichard, William Alexander

• ISBN13: 9781501304408
• ISBN10: 1501304402
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-11-05
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The Autonomous Life? is an ethnography of the squatters' movement in Amsterdam written by an anthropologist who lived and worked in a squatters' community for 3.5 years. She resided as a squatter in 4 different houses, worked on 2 successful anti-gentrification campaigns, was evicted from 2 houses, and was jailed once. With this unique perspective, Kadir focuses on how people in this overtly anarchist movement constantly disavow while silently maintain hierarchy and authority. Specific squatter skills and particular performances of hostility are classified as squatter capital. Kadir systematically examines the contradiction between what people say and what they practice in a highly ideological radical left community Kadir's observations are directly born out of an intense ethnographic and personal encounter with the world of the squatters which sharply contrasts with social movement studies, which has primarily been written from the disciplinary perspectives of political science and sociology and has ignored micro-dynamics. Using a unique critical perspective informed by gender and subaltern studies, Kadir contributes to social movements literature through a meticulous analysis of micro-social dynamics of power in the internal dynamic of the squatters movement.

Author Biography

Nazima Kadir is an urban anthropologist based in London. Originally from New York City, she has a PhD in Anthropology from Yale and a BA from Swarthmore College. Prior to squatting houses in Amsterdam, she received awards from the Fulbright program and the National Science Foundation. She's also lived and worked in Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Table of Contents

List of Images

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Autonomous Life?
Historical context of the squatters movement in Amsterdam
Social Movements Literature Review
Ethnographies of social movements
Methodology
Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1: Squatter Capital
Squatter Capital
How to be an Authentic Squatter
Conclusion

Chapter 2: The habitus of emotional sovereignty
Cultural marginality and centrality
The constitutive practice of gossip
Emotional dependence and the absence of authority
Conclusion

Chapter 3:"Showing Commitment" and Emotional Management
Squatting a house as the constitutive act of authority making
Living groups and "Showing Commitment"
The consequences of no authority
Conclusion

Chapter 4: Liminal Adolescence or Entrapping Marginality?
The movement as a period of adolescence and the 'militant for life' as a marginal old man
The Womb
Activist careers in the movement
The scripted path to autonomy and self-realization
Conclusion

Conclusion: The economy of unromantic solidarity

Glossary

Bibliography

Index