By Stephen Vilaseca

Okupas with a “k” are a heterogenous group of Spanish political activists dedicated to resisting the exploitive practices of real-estate speculation as well as to highlighting the lack of self-governed, autonomous cultural spaces in the city by squatting abandoned buildings and converting them into social centers or centros sociales okupados (Martínez López 128; Precari@s 5). These centros sociales okupados (CSOs) designate certain floors for housing and others for a variety of activities such as classes on open-source software, free legal consultation sessions for immigrants, documentary and movie screenings, live music, yoga classes, and seminars on responsible consumerism, among others. The common thread connecting these varied activities is the aim to foster social relations and interactions that go beyond, and are separate from, those driven by the market. In essence, the goal is to create an independent space, free from the reach of capitalism, where people can come together to share informal knowledge, creativity, and culture (Llobet Estany 185). Okupas, by providing a non-state-run public sphere in the form of centros sociales okupados and by sharing creativity as a common good instead of a proprietary one, incite the body to act in new and unexpected ways. As a result, okupas are an entanglement of word, art, body, and built environment that challenges the rigid social relations produced by the post-fordist city in Spain (Vilaseca ix).

Works cited

Llobet Estany, Marta (2004), “Contracultura, creatividad y redes sociales en el movimiento okupa”, in R. Adell Argilés and M. Martínez López (Coords.) ¿Dónde están las llaves? El movimiento okupa: practicas y contextos sociales, Madrid: Catarata, pp.179-203.

Martínez López, Miguel (2002), Okupaciones de viviendas y de centros sociales: Autogestión, contracultura y conflictos urbanos, Barcelona: Virus.

Precari@s en movimiento (2008), “Introducción al debate/Centros sociales contra la explotación metropolitana”, Autonomía y metropolis/Del movimiento okupa a los centros sociales de segunda generación, Málaga: Cuaderno-Herramienta, pp. 5-8.

Vilaseca, Stephen Luis (2013), “Introduction: Okupas and the Entanglement of Word and Body in Barcelona,” Barcelonan Okupas: Squatter Power! Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. ix-xxix.