The autonomous city: towards a critical geography of occupation

Vasudevan, Alexander

Abstract

This paper explores the recent resurgence of occupation-based practices across the globe, from the seizure of public space to the assembling of improvised protest camps. It re-examines the relationship between the figure of occupation and the affirmation of an alternative ‘right to the city’. The paper develops a critical understanding of occupation as a political process that prefigures and materializes the social order which it seeks to enact. The paper highlights the constituent role of occupation as an autonomous form of urban dwelling, as a radical politics of infrastructure and as a set of relations that produce common spaces for political action.

Citation

Vasudevan, A. (2015). The autonomous city: towards a critical geography of occupation. Progress in Human Geography, 39(3), https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132514531470

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 1, 2015
• Journal: Progress in Human Geography
• Print ISSN: 0309-1325
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-0288
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132514531470
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/750820
• Publisher URL: http://phg.sagepub.com/content/39/3/316