Social Centers in Southern Italy: The Caserta Ex-Canapificio Between Illegality, Migration, and Rurality

International audienceFrom the 1980s to the 1990s, squatting for Social Centers (Centri Sociali) has developed as radical left activists engaged in occupying empty buildings all over Italy. While most of the occupations happened in big cities in the Centre and North of Italy, this paper examines the peculiarity of the Social Center Ex-Canapificio, located in a medium-size city of an agricultural plain of Southern Italy. More specifically, three particular points are discussed. First, I show how the Social Center has been able to produce access to rights in a context of informality and illegality. Then, I analyze how the Social Center has allowed the setting up of an original social movement fighting for the rights of the poor immigrant workers living in the Campanian Plain. Finally, I enlighten how Ex-Canapificio's activists have promoted new strategies to succeed in their struggles, despite their geographical distance from the main center of powers. In brief, this paper provides several themes of discussion about the spatialities of squatting and social movements