Enclosing autonomy

Abstract

In the Netherlands squatting was tolerated and regulated for decades. In October 2010 a new law turned the occupation of vacant properties into a criminal action punishable with up to two years imprisonment. This paper argues that while squatted spaces produce autonomous forms of urban commoning, both tolerance and criminalisation of squatting engendered multiple modes of enclosure and capture of the autonomous socio-spatial relations constituted through these spaces. By analysing techniques of disciplinary integration, commodification and criminalisation, the paper suggests that the object of enclosure is not simply the common as such, but its radical capacity for autonomy from state control and capital capture.

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