Barcelonan Okupas

Squatter Power!

Stephen Luis Vilaseca

Barcelonan Okupas: Squatter Power! is the first book to combine close-readings of the representations of Spanish squatters known as okupas with the study of everyday life, built environment, and city planning in Barcelona. Vilaseca broadens the scope of Spanish cultural studies by integrating into it notions of embodied cognition and affect that respond to the city before and against the fixed relations of capitalism. Social transformation, as demonstrated by the okupas, is possible when city and art interrelate, not through capital or the urbanization of consciousness but through bodily thought. The okupas reconfigure the way thoughts, words, images and bodily responses are linked by evoking and communicating the idea of free exchange and openness through art (poetry, music, performance art, the plastic arts, graffiti, urban art and cinema); and by acting out and rehearsing these ideas in the practice of squatting. The okupas challenge society to differentiate the images and representations instituted by state domination or capitalist exploitation from the subversive potential of imagination. The okupas unify theory and practice, word and body, in pursuit of a positive, social vision that might serve humanity and lead the way out of the current problems caused by capitalism.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-61147-628-6 • Hardback • September 2013 • $100.00 • (£77.00)

978-1-61147-629-3 • eBook • September 2013 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Spain & Portugal, History / Modern / 21st Century, Social Science / Sociology / Urban

Barcelonan Okupas

Squatter Power!

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Barcelonan Okupas: Squatter Power! is the first book to combine close-readings of the representations of Spanish squatters known as okupas with the study of everyday life, built environment, and city planning in Barcelona. Vilaseca broadens the scope of Spanish cultural studies by integrating into it notions of embodied cognition and affect that respond to the city before and against the fixed relations of capitalism. Social transformation, as demonstrated by the okupas, is possible when city and art interrelate, not through capital or the urbanization of consciousness but through bodily thought. The okupas reconfigure the way thoughts, words, images and bodily responses are linked by evoking and communicating the idea of free exchange and openness through art (poetry, music, performance art, the plastic arts, graffiti, urban art and cinema); and by acting out and rehearsing these ideas in the practice of squatting. The okupas challenge society to differentiate the images and representations instituted by state domination or capitalist exploitation from the subversive potential of imagination. The okupas unify theory and practice, word and body, in pursuit of a positive, social vision that might serve humanity and lead the way out of the current problems caused by capitalism.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-61147-628-6 • Hardback • September 2013 • $100.00 • (£77.00)

978-1-61147-629-3 • eBook • September 2013 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Spain & Portugal, History / Modern / 21st Century, Social Science / Sociology / Urban

Author

Stephen Luis Vilaseca is assistant professor of Spanish at Northern Illinois University and associate editor of the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Okupas and the Entanglement of Word and Body in Barcelona

The Wall Poem

1. Meet the Barcelonan Okupas (1997-2011)

Defining Okupas
The Originality of Okupas
Okupas and Indignados: A Strategy of Alliance

2. Okupación: Just Crime or Justifiable Protest?

Newspapers
Judges
Divisions within the Tripartite

3. Representations of Okupas by Non-okupas

Part I: Okupas, Catalanism, and Culture-Producing Factories in
El cor de la ciutat
Part II: Live, Laugh, Love: Squatting as Romantic Comedy and
Problem-Free Philosophy in El Kaserón
Part III: Between the Capitalist Monster and Monstrous Creativity:
Literature about Okupas

4.Representations of Okupas by Okupas

Part I: Nocturnal Politics in the Spanish film El taxista ful
Part II: Jump Out the Window with Vicente Escolar Bautista in
Libro de un 8/1 tumbado en el espejo (ocho cuartos de gasto…partido por uno)
Conclusion: Sharing Ideas: Okupas and the U.S.

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Reviews

Vilaseca’s study accomplishes its overall goal of introducing readers to the Barcelonan Okupas, their socio-political context, their history, and the many ways that they are seen and presented by themselves and others. The book’s index is clear and thorough, and the bibliography includes URLs to help readers locate the Internet sources Vilaseca incorporates and analyzes. This text will be a useful resource for undergraduates as well as graduate students and professors of Spanish, cultural, and media studies.
— Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies

Barcelonan Okupas

Squatter Power!

Stephen Luis Vilaseca

Barcelonan Okupas

Squatter Power!

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