“Sentires”: Looking Towards the Social Processes in Spanish Okupas for Strategies of Neighborhood Cohesion and Re-direction of Development
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Date
2016
Authors
Easton Koehler, Celia A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Abstract: As a result of the logics of neo-liberal, global capitalism, urban citizens across the world face the regulation, commodification, and enclosure of public space. City governance responds to global financial pressures through “creative city” strategies and cuts to public services. This thesis looks at CSOA’s (Centros Sociales Okupados Autogrestionados, or Squatted Social Centers) in Spain and argues that they can be instigators of concrete neighborhood cohesion in a way that not only protests and combats the forces of neo-liberal development, but also proposes new forms of understanding and existing in urbanscapes. I do this through looking at CSOA’s as “counterspaces”; taking into account Lefebvre’s spatial triad, and using anarchist pedagogy as a lens, where experimental practices and then discourses are formed through and by horizontal “assemblies” and consensus based forms of decision making and look at how these processes incise and influence more formal or mainstream political institutions. Second, I utilize thick description to share an experience of the collectively organized transfeminist festival, Transfemifest, hosted at CSOA La Redonda in Granada Spain May 5-8 2016, as an example of how these spaces open up possibilities for the production of alternative knowledge. I use the Transfemifest to show how these collectively formed knowledges tend to be more affective, relational, physical, and intimate. When individuals’ experiences are valued as a legitimate contribution to the construction of a base of knowledge (of a structure of truth, of a discourse) it actualizes them and their potential, both individually and collectively. This thesis argues that it is through horizontal self-managed processes that CSOA’s in Spain are able to maintain a life-giving presence in neighborhoods, and suggests that other cities or neighborhoods that face similar issues should take a cue from the ways in which these spaces structure themselves.
Description
108 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Geography and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Fall 2016
Keywords
Occupied social centers, Consensus-based politics, Spanish Okupas, Public spaces, Democracy, Neighborhood cohesion