Excuse me, but I thought there already was a scientific investigation in the squatters movement, published in 2009 (Kraken in Amsterdam anno 2009, Frank van Gemert et al, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, sectie criminologie, 2010). People did not complain about that investigation (though it looked a lot more "policing" than this one) and a lot of people collaborated voluntarily. The outcome was rather embarrassing, but nobody shouted about burning down universities back then.
So what is it that makes this particular book more awkward for the current squatters movement? I find the premise really tempting: a woman of color writing an ethnographic study of the Amsterdam squatters movement and criticizing it as a bulwark of male and white domination. "Paradoxes of hierarchy and authority", now is that something completely out of the blue or do people maybe recognize certain things?
I'm afraid this movement is just too small, too narrowminded, too much of a scene or a subculture to use this book for it's own advantage, to look in the mirror and learn something. Isn't questioning authority something we've always advocated?
Excuse me, but I thought
Excuse me, but I thought there already was a scientific investigation in the squatters movement, published in 2009 (Kraken in Amsterdam anno 2009, Frank van Gemert et al, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, sectie criminologie, 2010). People did not complain about that investigation (though it looked a lot more "policing" than this one) and a lot of people collaborated voluntarily. The outcome was rather embarrassing, but nobody shouted about burning down universities back then.
So what is it that makes this particular book more awkward for the current squatters movement? I find the premise really tempting: a woman of color writing an ethnographic study of the Amsterdam squatters movement and criticizing it as a bulwark of male and white domination. "Paradoxes of hierarchy and authority", now is that something completely out of the blue or do people maybe recognize certain things?
I'm afraid this movement is just too small, too narrowminded, too much of a scene or a subculture to use this book for it's own advantage, to look in the mirror and learn something. Isn't questioning authority something we've always advocated?