Metropolitan Preoccupations

In this, the first book-length study of the cultural and political geography of squatting in Berlin, Alexander Vasudevan links the everyday practices of squatters in the city to wider and enduring questions about the relationship between space, culture, and protest. Focuses on the everyday and makeshift practices of squatters in their attempt to exist beyond dominant power relations and redefine what it means to live in the city Offers a fresh critical perspective that builds on recent debates about the “right to the city” and the role of grassroots activism in the making of alternative urbanisms Examines the implications of urban squatting for how we think, research and inhabit the city as a site of radical social transformation Challenges existing scholarship on the New Left in Germany by developing a critical geographical reading of the anti-authoritarian revolt and the complex geographies of connection and solidarity that emerged in its wake Draws on extensive field work conducted in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany

Series Editors’ Preface viii List of Figures ix Acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction: Making Radical Urban Politics 1 2 Crisis and Critique 27 3 Resistance and Autonomy 53 4 Antagonism and Repair 86 5 Separation and Renewal 133 6 Capture and Experimentation 164 7 Conclusion: “Der Kampf geht weiter” 196 References 209 Index 231