Claiming the City and Contesting the State: Squatting, Community Formation and Democratization in Spain (1955–1986) (Routledge Studies on Contemporary Spain) - Hardcover

Ofer, Inbal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 113823771X ISBN 13: 9781138237711

Publisher: Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

The present book analyzes the relationship between internal migration, urbanization and democratization in Spain during the period of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975) and Spain's transition to democracy (1975-1982). Specifically, the book explores the production and management of urban space as one form of political and social repression under the dictatorship, and the threat posed to the official urban planning regimes by the phenomenon of mass squatting (chabolismo).

The growing body of recent literature that analyzes the role of neighborhood associations within Spain's transition to democracy, points to the importance and radicalism of associations that formed within squatters' settlements such as Orcasitas in Madrid, Otxarkoaga in Bilbao or Somorrostro and el Camp de la Bota in Barcelona. However, relatively little is known about the formation of community life in these neighborhoods during the 1950s, and about the ways in which the struggle to control and fashion urban space prior to Spain's transition to democracy generated specific notions of democratic citizenship amongst populations lacking in prior coherent ideological commitment.

About this title

About the Author

Inbal Ofer is a senior lecturer in modern European history at The Open University of Israel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 113823771X
• ISBN 13: 9781138237711
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 174