Occupying the City

  • Lucy Earle
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Studies of the Americas book series (STAM)

Abstract

Providing a close examination of the strategy of building occupations, the chapter gives particular attention to the question of legality and the sophisticated discourse of rights that movement leaders have developed to defend their actions. While the act of entering and taking over abandoned buildings breaks the civil and penal codes, the housing movements draw on the constitutional right to housing and the concept of the right to the city enshrined in the City Statute to bestow legality upon occupations. The legal ambiguity of occupations is critical, and the chapter draws on debates around civil disobedience to highlight how the movements also use the act of occupation to draw attention to the illegality of the state’s own actions.

Keywords

Social Movement Social Housing Civil Disobedience Land Occupation Movement Leader 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Lucy Earle
    • 1
  1. 1.LondonUK

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