Cracking Under Pressure: Narrating the Decline of the Amsterdam Squatters' Movement

by Owens, Lynn

• ISBN13: 9780271034621
• ISBN10: 0271034629
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-30
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

What goes up must come down, and social movements are no exception to this rule. Most academic studies have focused almost exclusively on the emergence of movements, paying less attention to their decline. But decline is an important, and active, period for any mobilization, as all activists know. Cracking Under Pressure: Narrating the Decline of the Amsterdam Squatters' Movement broadens and enriches social movement theory through a close investigation of the fate of the squatters' movement in Amsterdam. Responding to the housing shortage of the 1960s, the movement emerged in the late 1970s, peaked in the early 1980s, and then fell into a period of prolonged decline. Lynn Owens explores how movements decline, focusing on the subjective experience and culture of decline. Activists use narratives of decline to give meaning to events and to manage the emotions of participants as they negotiate the complex relationships between culture and politics in the movement. Activist stories define and defend the movemnt while it struggles with the contradictions of decline. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Lynn Owens is Assistant Professor of Sociology, Middlebury College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 7
Introduction	p. 11
Documenting Decline	p. 20
Defining Decline	p. 24
Why the Amsterdam Squatters' Movement?	p. 34
Chapter Overview	p. 36
Radicalization: The Birth of the Squatters' Movement	p. 43
Squatting: Individual Act or Basis of a Movement?	p. 45
From Squatting to Squatters	p. 54
From Squatter to Squatters' Movement	p. 63
Radicalization	p. 68
Queen for a Day	p. 81
Mistake or First Sign of Decline?	p. 83
Conclusion	p. 84
Luck Runs Out	p. 89
Hardening Narratives, Hardening Tactics	p. 91
Fear Itself	p. 92
Unchecked Radicalization and the Loss of Boundaries	p. 97
The Lucky Luijk	p. 100
Retaking the Luijk	p. 103
Holding on to the Luijk	p. 111
No More Luck, No More Luijk	p. 115
Who's the Boss?	p. 116
You Can't Live in a Symbol	p. 121
Gender Divides	p. 123
The Luijk as a Sign of Decline	p. 126
Conclusion	p. 129
Holiday Inn, Wijers Out	p. 133
Wijers Lives	p. 136
Life in the Wijers	p. 139
Holiday Away from Home	p. 144
Strategy	p. 152
Wijers Out, Holiday Inn	p. 159
Squatting or Shopkeeping?	p. 160
Wijers Decline, Why Decline?	p. 164
Conclusion	p. 166
Death in the Movement, Death of the Movement	p. 171
Fortress of Solitude	p. 174
Kok Fights: Death in the Movement	p. 177
Death and the Movement	p. 180
The Movement is Dead! Long Live Movement!	p. 184
Restoring the Movement	p. 187
From OZG to PVK	p. 196
Collapsing Old Buildings	p. 206
Vision of the New Movement	p. 208
Crazy Thursday	p. 210
Feeling Decline	p. 214
Conclusion	p. 216
The End: Now, Near, or Never?	p. 219
Are We Dead Yet?	p. 221
The Decline of a Political Movement	p. 225
The Ascendance of a Cultural Movement	p. 228
Silo Down	p. 230
Tourist Traps	p. 237
Squatters: from Tourists to Tourist Attraction	p. 239
Breeding Grounds of Contentment or Contempt?	p. 242
The Decline of Decline	p. 247
Conclusion	p. 248
Conclusion	p. 253
The Decline of Narratives and Narratives of Decline	p. 255
Strategic Crossroads and Identity Crises	p. 257
When Culture and Politics Collide and Collude	p. 259
Emotions, Public and Private	p. 261
Decline as Double Edged	p. 263
Defining Moments, Defining Movements	p. 267
Decline: The Offer	p. 270
List of photos	p. 275
References	p. 277
Index	p. 287
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