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 cityOffers 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 urbanismsExamines the implications of urban squatting for how we think, research and inhabit the city as a site of radical social transformationChallenges 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 wakeDraws on extensive field work conducted in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany

Alexander Vasudevan is Assistant Professor of Cultural and Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham, UK. A co-editor ofPracticing the Archive: Reflections on Method and Practice in Historical Geography (with E. Gagen and H. Lorimer, 2007) his work has been published in several prestigious journals, includingAntipode,Cultural Geographies,Environment and Planning A andD,Progress in Human Geography, andSocial and Cultural Geography. His current research focuses on radical politics, urban squatting and the wider geographies of contemporary precarity.

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