The SQEK: Squatting Europe Research Agenda v. 0.9

Squatting Europe is a research network focusing on the squatters ' movement. Our aim is to produce reliable and fine-grained knowledge about this movement. Critical engagement, transdisciplinarity and comparative approaches are the bases of our project. The group is an open transnational collective (SQEK1) whose members represent a diversity of disciplines and fields of interest seeking to understand the issues associated with squats and social centres across the European Union. Why squatting? While homelessness is escalating worldwide, the production of empty spaces is becoming a regular feature of contemporary society. As states and markets failed to fulfil their allocated function, buildings sit empty while homelessness has been increasing across Europe and the world. In this time of crisis, people who have decided to take matters into their own hands are squatting a diversity of spaces: office blocks, factories, abandoned theatres, public houses (UK) and bars, as well as houses.. In the process, the concept of urban development and renewal, i.e. urban and housing politics and spatial adjustment is re-interpreted and detourned. Indeed, squatting is not just a way to satisfy the need for housing and to express the rarity of spaces of sociability, but it is also an attempt to practice non-hierarchical and participatory organization models. Squats often offer a