Journal articles on the topic 'Illegal squatters'

This research study was conducted on socio-economic conditions of families living in squatter’s settlement of Karachi. The urban population is booming with unprecedented growth due to heavy influx or migration of rural population to the cities especially in Karachi. The rural families are migrating to the city in a way to have better employment; improved lifestyles in urban societies. Migrators usually accommodated in squatters’ settlements of Karachi because of high residing cost in urban areas. The squatters’ settlements are located at outskirt of the city on government owned lands. However the provincial government has set up Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) department for upgrading or regularizing Katchi Abadis which are working under specific rules and regulations. In this study the role of SKAA also highlighted to analyze the working preferences of organization for the rehabilitation or betterment of squatter settlements. The research topic is chosen in order to investigate about the socio-economic issues of families living in squatters settlements. The data is collected from 200 respondents of squatters from squatters’ settlements which are situated in six different districts of Karachi. Data is collected by the self-prepared questionnaire which was prepared in a way to investigate socio-economic issues and problems of squatters’ families living in the settlements. This research found that whole sample of squatters is of migrators. These settlements are considered illegal and have no provision of basic necessities including drinking safe water; inadequate sanitation system; and low standard of housings.

Abstract:This article examines what urban displacement and resettlement can reveal about the nature of, and co-constitutive relationships among, property, authority, and citizenship. It focuses on an unusual case in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where long-term illegal squatters living under constant threat of violent displacement by various local and national authorities were formally resettled by the Bulawayo City Council on peri-urban plots with houses. What surfaces are some of the paradoxes of propertied citizenship and of attaining seemingly “proper” lives in conditions of sustained marginality, a result that is not entirely unexpected when impoverished squatters are resettled far outside the frame of the city and its possibilities.

The purpose of this research was to confirm the doctrine of the social function of property as an instrument for realising humans flourishing in the case of Surakarta City Government policy to relocate squatters in the catchment area of the Bengawan Solo River. This normative legal research used a conceptual approach. To obtain answers to the problems, the research used deductive syllogism. The major premise is used as the doctrine of the social function of property, the theory of justice and the principle of trust and a reasonable expectation, while the minor premise is the policy of the Government of Surakarta relocating squatters in the catchment area of the Solo River. Using the resulting conclusions, confirmation of doctrinal interpretation of the social function of property as an instrument for realising human flourishing is done. The conclusions of this study is the social function of property requires the Authority of Central Region Bengawan Solo River to manage riparian appropriate allocation function as flood control. Implementation of this obligation is to realise the basic right on healthy living environment. Based on the doctrine of the social function of property, then the omission and legalisation of illegal occupancy in the Bengawan Solo River catchment area create liability for the Government of Surakarta, the Authority of Central River Region Solo, and Land National Agency, to finance the relocation of squatters in the catchment area of the Solo River. Squatters relocation is intended for human fulfillment flourishing. Keywords: Social function of property, human flourishing, relocation of squatters.

This article presents the results of a collaborative ethnographic inquiry in contemporary Sofia and Caracas. Combining historical research and ethnography, we compare the ways in which a former and a current left-wing regime treat urban squatting. In both cities, squatters tend to be poor families escaping homelessness. In Sofia, “squatters”—usually of Roma origin—inhabit unregulated spaces deemed illegal after 1989. In Caracas, homeless families have been officially encouraged to squat but not declared legal occupants. A historical comparison shows both socialist governments turn a blind eye to extralegal housing practices. Benign, informal housing arrangements function to display solidarity with marginalized groups as a form of popular legitimacy. Yet, without formalized state protection, such arrangements produced a “surplus” population, vulnerable vis-à-vis global processes of capitalist reorganization.

In declining cities, an abundance of vacant, devalued property, and under–resourced regulatory mechanisms challenge dominant understandings of private ownership of real property as a source of investment and stability for individuals and neighborhoods. Drawing on four years of ethnography and 65 interviews in Detroit, this article finds that, despite the privileged standing of private property in U.S. culture, residents frequently accept or advocate for illegal property use, such as squatting or scrapping. Instead of adhering to the law, residents use a community–embraced norm—an ethos of care—to assess the acceptability of illegal property use, and they do so in order to positively impact the physical and social dynamics of their neighborhoods. The findings of this article highlight the influence of local conditions for how residents perceive property law violations, and call into question the generalizability and applicability of neighborhood improvement strategies that rest on private, legal ownership to induce responsible care.

AbstractWithin the popular memory of the partition of India, the division of Bengal continues to evoke themes of political rupture, social tragedy, and nostalgia. The refugees or, more broadly speaking, Hindu migrants from East Bengal, are often the central agents of such narratives. This paper explores how the scholarship on East Bengali refugees portrays them either as hapless and passive victims of the regime of rehabilitation, which was designed to integrate refugees into the socio-economic fabric of India, or eulogizes them as heroic protagonists who successfully battled overwhelming adversity to wrest resettlement from a reluctant state. This split image of the Bengali refugee as both victim and victor obscures the complex nature of refugee agency. Through a case-study of the foundation and development of Bijoygarh colony, an illegal settlement of refugee-squatters on the outskirts of Calcutta, this paper will argue that refugee agency in post-partition West Bengal was inevitably moulded by social status and cultural capital. However, the collective memory of the establishment of squatters’ colonies systematically ignores the role of caste and class affiliations in fracturing the refugee experience. Instead, it retells the refugees’ quest for rehabilitation along the mythic trope of heroic and masculine struggle. This paper interrogates refugee reminiscences to illuminate their erasures and silences, delineating the mythic structure common to both popular and academic refugee histories and exploring its significance in constructing a specific cultural identity for Bengali refugees.

IntroductionAt least one-half of patients in substance use treatment have been diagnosed with comorbid psychiatric disorders. High prevalence of severe mental disorders co-occurring with substance use have been described. Harm reduction refers to policies, programs and practices that aim to reduce the harms associated with the use of illegal drugs in people unable or unwilling to stop.ObjectivesTo describe attendance and integration of patients with substance use disorders in a harm reduction program, to psychiatric treatment.AimsFind the importance and profitability of Harm Reduction Programs as an access door to psychiatric treatment in people with drug addiction.MethodsData was gathered from the first interview survey made to patients that contacted the Harm Reduction Program or attending the Outpatient Drug Clinic Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona between January 2005 until September 2010.ResultsA total of 348 patients (males = 71%, European community origin = 92%, mean age = 28,18 years). 63,8% of patients were under medical and psychiatric treatments, 55,4% attended the Methadone Maintenance Program, 7,4% other psychiatric treatments, and other treatments without specification 30,7%. The residential status was: 38% squatters, homeless 9,7%, hostel 3,4%, home 43%, lodging 2%, others 3%.ConclusionsMore than fifty percent of harm reduction program patient's were in a psychiatric treatment, it is an advantage that in the outpatient drug clinic of Vall d’Hebron both programs are included: harm reduction and psychiatric assessment. Access to integral treatment is important for people with drug problems, but many people with drug problems are unable or unwilling to get treatments.

Purpose – This paper aims to problematise the relation between “legality” and the state, through a case study analysis of law at work within the built environment. In doing so, the paper argues that studies on law and geography should consider the broader processes of state “law making” to understand the production of illegal space. Design/methodology/approach – The liminal boundary of illegal/legal and its relation with the state is developed through a case study on the legalisation process of a “squatter” settlement located on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The paper draws on primary qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) and legal analysis undertaken in Kyrgyzstan at various times over seven months between 2011 and 2013. Findings – Examining law as static and pre-existing is problematic in developing an understanding of the production of illegal and legal spaces within the built environment. An emphasis on law-making and the process of legalisation draws attention to the different groups, practices and policies involved and reframes the relation between the state and legality. Originality/value – Using a case study anchoring the analysis within law’s constitutive and contested presence within the built environment, the paper addresses a theoretical and empirical panacea in legal geography by unpacking the “legal” with reference to its plurality internally within the state. Moreover, studies on law and geography have tended to focus on European or North American contexts, whereas this paper draws on data from Central Asia.

The increasing rate of population growth in urban areas has an impact on environmental imbalances, especially related to the expansion of residential areas. The purpose of this study was to identify slum areas and illegal / wild areas (squatter areas) based on indicators and parameters for each region. This type of research is descriptive quantitative research with population is all sub-districts in Padang City with total sampling. Slum area and squat mapping results in Padang city area are scattered in 7 villages in 5 sub-districts. Dadok Tunggul Hitam Koto Tangah Subdistrict Typology of slum areas Urban slums, Purus Padang Barat sub-district typology of downtown slums, Alai Parak Kopi District of North Padang typology of slums off the railroad tracks, Opposite of Palinggam typology of slums of Suburbs, Batang Arau slums typology River Suburb, Pasa Gadang Subdistrict of Padang Selatan typology of slum area of the Suburb, Sawahan Timur Padang Timur Subdistrict typology of slum area Railroad.

"Fiji's squatter population was on the recieving end of some uncomplimentary comments during 2006. The then State Minister for Housing, Adi Asenaca Caucau, likend them to 'thieves because they lived illegally on someone else's land'. She urged police to make 'every effort to round up and remove' them. Reporters in Fiji are guaranteed a lively quote or two when Caucau opens her moutn. She one liked Indo-Fijians to weeds waking up too much space..."

Free land market operations, and land development and disposal processes (whether carried out by public or private sector) have been deficient in securing access of the poor to serviced urban land. The poor have thus resorted to informal and mainly illegal methods of gaining a foothold on land for building shelters for themselves, giving rise to squatter settlements and unauthorized colonies. This paper reviews various aproaches for increasing the access of the poor to serviced urban land. Experiences relating to secure land tenure, land sharing, and incremental development approaches as practiced in India and other developing countries of Asia have been discussed. The role of NGOs and CBOs has also been highlighted. In the end, suggestions have been made regarding measures to be undertaken by planners and policy makers to improve accessibility of the poor to serviced urban land.

Home is a basic human need. In the Law of the Republic of Indonesia No.1 of 2011 states that housing or access to housing is a right for every community whose existence is the responsibility of the government. The problem that has occurred to this day is that there are still many people living in urban areas who have to occupy illegal or slum settlements. This is due, among other things, to the influence of land and housing prices which increase each year due to high demand which is also caused by the increasing population and urbanization rate. However, in reality the capitalists who control the housing sector are only fixated on capital accumulation by building and marketing homes to middle and high income people. As a result, low-income communities are marginalized in the suburbs, and build non-conventional settlements, slums and squatter. This study with the literature study method aims to analyze how to provide a home for low-income people in the dialectic of capitalism, by making the MBR as an important actor in the construction and provision of housing

Local government plays an integral part in the mechanism of Disaster Management in Mizoram. The local bodies are the direct representatives of the local community and the local community places their full trust in them. Post disaster measures such as mock drills, training of search and rescue teams, physical and economic relief and rehabilitation are not something new to us, yet the aspect of disaster mitigation is something which has not bred familiarity among the Mizos. The need for sensitization of the public on the importance of Disaster Mitigation is a necessity. The saying ‘Earthquakes do not kill people; buildings do’ is pertinent in urban areas. Urban areas are congested and more prone to disasters. High rise buildings, squatter settlements due to high densities and low availability of land has endangered not just the lives of the public but has also caused a massive disturbance of the ecological system. The paper covers certain Acts and Regulations of the Aizawl Municipal Corporation dealing with structural mitigation and the detection of illegal construction, unsafe buildings, and encroachments on municipal and public properties. At the local level, the councillors are involved in making, unmaking and carrying out these rules and regulations, with direct bearing on the local people. The paper also gives an account of the need of reimplementation to generate awareness, knowledge and education on Disaster Management to the people of Mizoram.

Abstract. This paper presents the vicissitudes of a residential dwelling built in El Cabanyal in 1923 and how poor urban planning can be a risk. The building corresponds to one of the most common traditional typologies: a terraced house with masonry load bearing brick walls and timber floors, three storeys, a linear staircase attached to the party walls, a courtyard at the rear and a gable roof. In the past, this building, proved to be resilient, overcoming the risk of collapse in some important episodes which affected directly El Cabanyal: the air raid attacks of the Valencian coastline settlements during the Spanish Civil War and the floods occurred in 1949 and in 1957. In 1988, the building was listed in the catalogue of the General Plan with a protection grade 3. The special protection plan (PEPRI 2001) which was supposed to protect and rehabilitate El Cabanyal, projected the extension of Blasco Ibañez Avenue to the sea and consequently, the division of the neighbourhood in two halves, tearing down an important number of houses. Subsequently, the City council began to expropriate buildings facilitating their occupation by squatters. The level of degradation caused by the urban planning is such that this area is known as ‘Ground Zero Area’. At the time of writing this paper, the building appears to be illegally occupied and in a bad state of preservation. After almost a hundred years facing different risks, poor urban planning appears to be the cause of the destruction of this heritage building.

Poor living conditions in informal settlements may be attributed mostly, though not exclusively, to the lack of basic services. Informal settlements, which also go by the name of squatter camps, are volatile by nature. Even within relatively fixed settlement boundaries, change in urban fabric continually manifests through altering dwelling configurations. Deemed unstable and unsafe by formal criteria, these environments disclose schizophrenic characteristics: beyond the dirt, grime and smog, exist relatively functional societies capable of survival and self-regulation. Public and private sector investment within informal settlements is restricted as a result of their illegal status. Inhabitants have no incentive to invest their own resources where they have no formal tenure over the land. Due to a rather backward approach to informality in South Africa, innovation in dealing with these settlements has been limited. Despite the fact that the rhetoric has sometimes changed from eradication to upgrading, little has been done with regards to alternative forms of settlement development that has relevance in terms of improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers. With rising anger in poverty-stricken areas and on the peripheries of cities, what is needed is improved service delivery through immediate solutions. This article suggests a service delivery core, an architectural catalyst, rooted to the ‘energy’ of the public realm, stimulating growth of infrastructure networks. This catalyst core aims to instigate the amelioration of the surrounding environment. The concept presented is that of a dynamic service core – universal in principle – while also being contextually-driven by responding to a specific environment and needs of a specific community. A generic architectural solution is thus presented to providing basic services and infrastructure within informal settlements, with focussed consideration for the unique situation of an informal settlement in Mamelodi, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa. It is important to realise that there is no final product, but rather an organic architecture that adapts in a process of continuous and progressive change.

This research study was conducted on socio-economic conditions of families living in squatter’s settlement of Karachi. The urban population is booming with unprecedented growth due to heavy influx or migration of rural population to the cities especially in Karachi. The rural families are migrating to the city in a way to have better employment; improved lifestyles in urban societies. Migrators usually accommodated in squatters’ settlements of Karachi because of high residing cost in urban areas. The squatters’ settlements are located at outskirt of the city on government owned lands. However the provincial government has set up Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) department for upgrading or regularizing Katchi Abadis which are working under specific rules and regulations. In this study the role of SKAA also highlighted to analyze the working preferences of organization for the rehabilitation or betterment of squatter settlements. The research topic is chosen in order to investigate about the socio-economic issues of families living in squatters settlements. The data is collected from 200 respondents of squatters from squatters’ settlements which are situated in six different districts of Karachi. Data is collected by the self-prepared questionnaire which was prepared in a way to investigate socio-economic issues and problems of squatters’ families living in the settlements. This research found that whole sample of squatters is of migrators. These settlements are considered illegal and have no provision of basic necessities including drinking safe water; inadequate sanitation system; and low standard of housings.

Squatters are the illegal tenants residing in public lands as immigrants due to livelihood collapse in their origins. They have been denied of public resources and urban facilities because of their identity crisis leading to a vicious circle of poverty with impoverished livelihood creating multifaceted adversities of learning for their children. In this context, this paper, based on a cyclical mixed method research design under transformative research approach, has explored the learning adversities faced by the squatter children of Kathmandu Metropolitan city, their protective and promotive strategies to cope with adversities and life-skills as learning outcomes. Squatter children are struggling against the backdrop of exposure to unhygienic settlements with low health conditions, poverty with impoverished livelihood, and illiteracy of parents, poor homely environment, and dysfunctional families. Despite such adversities, they were able to continue school education with the support of their teachers, peers, parents and families. The research study finds stronger family and community assets of the students. These assets are helpful for building educational resilience of the squatter children.

Healthy housing is a function of provision of adequate physical, social and mental conditions for healthy environment. It is a function of both intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of housing that can influence human health. Environment and human activities are omen to development. The effects are manifested in generating land use problems such as congestion, sprawl development, incompatible land uses, building alterations and change of uses, the menace of temporary structures, alteration of land use functions, conversion of open and future spaces, and land degradation. Alagbede village is one of the areas that require such development drive. The study is required to facilitate this need. This research effort is to examine the environmental effect of squatter settlements in Alagbede village, Ikeja, Lagos State Nigeria. The paper examined housing conditions in terms of privacy, adequate space, physical accessibility, adequate security, security of tenure, structural stability and durability, adequate lighting, and ventilation, and basic infrastructure (such as water supply, sanitation, and waste management facilities including suitable environmental quality and health related factors and its influence on the residents of Alagbede area, Ikeja Lagos State. Approach includes the development of database and choice of appropriate data source (primary and secondary data sources). From the methodology, there were questionnaire administration, direct interview of respondents, collection and updating of the base maps, and the use of necessary field instrument for the study. The data gathered were analysed using descriptive method. The end result has revealed a number of environmental problems due to the existence of these settlements (Alagbede village). These problems are poor drainage system, noise pollution, illegal refuse dump sites, slum situations etc. Appropriate recommendations in form of short time and long term solutions were suggested to conclude the research work.

“The cop in our head represses us better than any police force. Through generations of conditioning, the system has created people who have a very hard time coming together to create resistance.” – Seth Tobocman, War in the Neighborhood (1999) Even when creators of autobiographically-based comics claim to depict real events, their works nonetheless inspire confrontations as a result of ideological contestations which position them, on the one hand, as popular culture, and, on the other hand, as potentially subversive material for adults. In Seth Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood (1999), the street politics in which Tobocman took part extends the graphic novel narrative to address personal experiences as seen through a social lens both political and fragmented by the politics of relationships. Unlike Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986, 1991), War in the Neighborhood is situated locally and with broader frames of reference, but, like Maus, resonates globally across cultures. Because Tobocman figures the street as the primary site of struggle, John Street’s historiographically-oriented paper, “Political Culture – From Civic Culture to Mass Culture”, presents a framework for understanding not that symbols determine action, any more than material or other objective conditions do, but rather that there is a constant process of interpretation and reinterpretation which is important to the way actors view their predicament and formulate their intentions. (107-108) Though Street’s main focus is on the politicization of choices involving institutional structures, his observation offers a useful context to examining Tobocman’s memoir of protest in New York City. Tobocman’s identity as an artist, however, leads him to caution his readers: Yes, it [War in the Neighborhood] is based on real situations and events, just as a landscape by Van Gogh may be based on a real landscape. But we would not hire Van Gogh as a surveyor on the basis of those paintings. (From the “Disclaimer” on the copyright page.) This speaks to the reality that all art, no matter how innocuously expressed, reflect interpretations refracted from the artists’ angles. It also calls attention to the individual artist’s intent. For Tobocman, “I ask that these stories be judged not on how accurately they depict particular events, but on what they contain of the human spirit” (from the “Disclaimer” on the copyright page). War in the Neighborhood, drawn in what appears to be pencil and marker, alternates primarily between solidly-inked black generic shapes placed against predominantly white backgrounds (chapters 1-3, 5, 7-9, and 11) and depth-focused drawing-quality images framed against mostly black backgrounds (chapters 4 and 6); chapter 10 represents an anomaly because it features typewritten text and photographs that reify the legitimacy of the events portrayed even when “intended to be a work of art” (from the “Disclaimer” on the copyright page). According to Luc Sante’s “Introduction”, “the high-contrast images here are descended from the graphic vocabulary of Masereel and Lynn Ward, an efficient and effective means of representing the war of body and soul” (n.p.). This is especially evident in the last page of War in the Neighborhood, where Tobocman bleeds himself through four panels, the left side of his body dressed in skin with black spaces for bone and the right side of his body skeletonized against his black frame (panels 5-6: 328). For Tobocman, “the war of body and soul” reifies the struggle against the state, through which its representatives define people as capital rather than as members of a social contract. Before the second chapter, however, Tobocman introduces New York squatter, philosopher and teacher Raphael Bueno’s tepee-embedded white-texted poem, “‘Nine-Tenths of the Law’” (29). Bueno’s words eloquently express the heart behind War in the Neighborhood, but could easily be dismissed because they take up only one page. The poem’s position is significant, however. It reflects the struggles between agency and class, between power and oppression, and between capitalism and egalitarianism. Tobocman includes a similar white-texted tepee in Chapter 4, though the words are not justified and the spacing between the words and the edges of the tepee are larger. In this chapter, Tobocman focuses on the increasing media attention given to the Thompson Square Park homeless, who first organize as “the Homeless Clients Advisory Board” (panel 7: 86). The white-texted tepee reads: They [Tent City members] got along well with the Chinese students, participated in free China rallys, learned to say ‘Down with Deng Xiao ping’ in Chinese. It was becoming clear to Tent City that their homelessness meant some thing on a world stage. (panel 6: 103) The OED Online cites 1973 as the first use of gentrification, which appeared in “Times 26 Sept. 19/3.” It also lists uses in 1977, 1982 and 1985. While the examples provided point to business-specific interests associated with gentrification, it is now defined as “the process by which an (urban) area is rendered middle-class.” While gentrification, thus, infers the displacement of minority members for the benefits of white privilege, it is also complicated by issues of eminent domain. For the disenfranchised who lack access to TV, radio and other venues of public expression (i.e., billboards), “taking it to the streets” means trafficking ideas, grievances and/or evangelisms. In places like NYC, the nexus for civic engagement is the street. The main thrust of Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood, however, centers on the relationships between (1) the squatters, against whom Reagan-era economics destabilized, (2) the police, whose roles changed as local policies shifted to accommodate urban planning, (3) the politicians, who “began to campaign to destroy innercity neighborhoods” (20), and (4) the media, which served elitist interests. By chapter 3, Tobocman intrudes himself into the narrative to personalize the story of squatters and their resistance of an agenda that worked to exclude them. In chapter 4, he intersects the interests of squatters with the homeless. With chapter 5, Tobocman, already involved, becomes a squatter, too; however, he also maintains his apartment, making him both an insider and an outsider. The meta-discourses include feminism, sexism and racism, entwined concepts usually expressed in opposition. Fran is a feminist who demands not only equality for women, but also respect. Most of the men share traditional values of manhood. Racism, while recognized at a societal level, creeps into the choices concerning the dismissal or acceptance of blacks and whites at ABC House on 13th Street, where Tobocman resided. As if speaking to an interviewer, a black woman explains, as a white male, his humanity had a full range of expression. But to be a black person and still having that full range of expression, you were punished for it. ... It was very clear that there were two ways of handling people who were brought to the building. (full-page panel: 259) Above the right side of her head is a yin yang symbol, whose pattern contrasts with the woman’s face, which also shows shading on the right side. The yin yang represents equanimity between two seemingly opposing forces, yet they cannot exist without the other; it means harmony, but also relation. This suggests balance, as well as a shared resistance for which both sides of the yin yang maintain their identities while assuming community within the other. However, as Luc Sante explains in his “Introduction” to War in the Neighborhood, the word “community” gets thrown around with such abandon these days it’s difficult to remember that it has ever meant anything other than a cluster of lobbyists. ... A community is in actuality a bunch of people whose intimate lives rub against one another’s on a daily basis, who possess a common purpose not unmarred by conflict of all sizes, who are thus forced to negotiate their way across every substantial decision. (n.p., italics added) The homeless organized among themselves to secure spaces like Tent House. The anarchists lobbied the law to protect their squats. The residents of ABC House created rules to govern their behaviors toward each other. In all these cases, they eventually found dissent among themselves. Turning to a sequence on the mayoral transition from Koch to Dinkins, Tobocman likens “this inauguration day” as a wedding “to join this man: David Dinkins…”, “with the governmental, business and real estate interests of New York City” (panel 1: 215). Similarly, ABC House, borrowing from the previous, tried to join with the homeless, squatters and activist organizations, but, as many lobbyists vying for the same privilege, contestations within and outside ABC splintered the goal of unification. Yet the street remains the focal point of War in the Neighborhood. Here, protests and confrontations with the police, who acted as intermediary agents for the politicians, make the L.E.S. (Lower East Side) a site of struggle where ordinary activities lead to war. Though the word war might otherwise seem like an exaggeration, Tobocman’s inclusion of a rarely seen masked figure says otherwise. This “t-shirt”-hooded (panel 1: 132) wo/man, one of “the gargoyles, the defenders of the buildings” (panel 3: 132), first appears in panel 3 on page 81 as part of this sequence: 319 E. 8th Street is now a vacant lot. (panel 12: 80) 319 taught the squatters to lock their doors, (panel 1: 81) always keep a fire extinguisher handy, (panel 2: 81) to stay up nights watching for the arsonist. (panel 3: 81) Never to trust courts cops, politicians (panel 4: 81) Recognize a state of war! (panel 5: 81) He or she reappears again on pages 132 and 325. In Fernando Calzadilla’s “Performing the Political: Encapuchados in Venezuela”, the same masked figures can be seen in the photographs included with his article. “Encapuchados,” translates Calzadilla, “means ‘hooded ones,’ so named because of the way the demonstrators wrap their T-shirts around their faces so only their eyes show, making it impossible for authorities to identify them” (105). While the Encapuchados are not the only group to dress as such, Tobocman’s reference to that style of dress in War in the Neighborhood points to the dynamics of transculturation and the influence of student movements on the local scene. Student movements, too, have traditionally used the street to challenge authority and to disrupt its market economy. More important, as Di Wang argues in his book Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930, in the process of social transformation, street culture was not only the basis for commoners’ shared identity but also a weapon through which they simultaneously resisted the invasion of elite culture and adapted to its new social, economic, and political structures. (247) While focusing on the “transformation that resulted in the reconstruction of urban public space, re-creation of people’s public roles, and re-definition of the relationship among ordinary people, local elites and the state” (2), Wang looks at street culture much more broadly than Tobocman. Though Wang also connects the 1911 Revolution as a response to ethnic divisions, he examines in greater detail the everyday conflicts concerning local identities, prostitutes in a period marked by increasing feminisms, beggars who organized for services and food, and the role of tea houses as loci of contested meanings. Political organization, too, assumes a key role in his text. Similarly to Wang, what Tobocman addresses in War in the Neighborhood is the voice of the subaltern, whose street culture is marked by both social and economic dimensions. Like the poor in New York City, the squatters in Iran, according to Asef Bayat in his article “Un-Civil Society: The Politics of the ‘Informal People’”, “between 1976 and the early 1990s” (53) “got together and demanded electricity and running water: when they were refused or encountered delays, they resorted to do-it-yourself mechanisms of acquiring them illegally” (54). The men and women in Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood, in contrast, faced barricaded lines of policemen on the streets, who struggled to keep them from getting into their squats, and also resorted to drastic measures to keep their buildings from being destroyed after the court system failed them. Should one question the events in Tobocman’s comics, however, he or she would need to go no further than Hans Pruijt’s article, “Is the Institutionalization of Urban Movements Inevitable? A Comparison of the Opportunities for Sustained Squatting in New York City and Amsterdam”: In the history of organized squatting on the Lower East Side, squatters of nine buildings or clusters of buildings took action to avert threat of eviction. Some of the tactics in the repertoire were: Legal action; Street protest or lock-down action targeting a (non-profit) property developer; Disruption of meetings; Non-violent resistance (e.g. placing oneself in the way of a demolition ball, lining up in front of the building); Fortification of the building(s); Building barricades in the street; Throwing substances at policemen approaching the building; Re-squatting the building after eviction. (149) The last chapter in Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood, chapter 11: “Conclusion,” not only plays on the yin and yang concept with “War in the Neighborhood” in large print spanning two panels, with “War in the” in white text against a black background and “Neighborhood” in black text against a white background (panels 3-4: 322), but it also shows concretely how our wars against each other break us apart rather than allow us to move forward to share in the social contract. The street, thus, assumes a meta-narrative of its own: as a symbol of the pathways that can lead us in many directions, but through which we as “the people united” (full-page panel: 28) can forge a common path so that all of us benefit, not just the elites. Beyond that, Tobocman’s graphic novel travels through a world of activism and around the encounters of dramas between people with different goals and relationships to themselves. Part autobiography, part documentary and part commentary, his graphic novel collection of his comics takes the streets and turns them into a site for struggle and dislocation to ask at the end, “How else could we come to know each other?” (panel 6: 328). Tobocman also shapes responses to the text that mirror the travesty of protest, which brings discord to a world that still privileges order over chaos. Through this reconceptualization of a past that still lingers in the present, War in the Neighborhood demands a response from those who would choose “to take up the struggle against oppression” (panel 3: 328). In our turn, we need to recognize that the divisions between us are shards of the same glass. References Bayat, Asef. “Un-Civil Society: The Politics of the “Informal People.’” Third World Quarterly 18.1 (1997): 53-72. Calzadilla, Fernando. “Performing the Political: Encapuchados in Venezuela.” The Drama Review 46.4 (Winter 2002): 104-125. “Gentrification.” OED Online. 2nd Ed. (1989). http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/ cgi/entry/50093797?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=gentrification &first=1&max_to_show=10>. 25 Apr. 2006. Pruijt, Hans. “Is the Institutionalization of Urban Movements Inevitable? A Comparison of the Opportunities for Sustained Squatting in New York and Amsterdam.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27.1 (Mar. 2003): 133-157. Street, John. “Political Culture – From Civic to Mass Culture.” British Journal of Political Science 24.1 (Jan. 1994): 95-113. Toboman, Seth. War in the Neighborhood (chapter 1 originally published in Squatter Comics, no. 2 (Photo Reference provided by City Limits, Lower East Side Anti-displacement Center, Alan Kronstadt, and Lori Rizzo; Book References: Low Life, by Luc Sante, Palante (the story of the Young Lords Party), Squatters Handbook, Squatting: The Real Story, and Sweat Equity Urban Homesteading; Poem, “‘Nine-Tenths of the Law,’” by Raphael Bueno); chapter 2 (Inkers: Samantha Berger, Lasante Holland, Becky Minnich, Ursula Ostien, Barbara Lee, and Seth Tobocman; Photo Reference: the daily papers, John Penley, Barbara Lee, Paul Kniesel, Andrew Grossman, Peter LeVasseur, Betsy Herzog, William Comfort, and Johannes Kroemer; Page 81: Assistant Inker: Peter Kuper, Assistant Letterer: Sabrina Jones and Lisa Barnstone, Photo Reference: Paul Garin, John Penley, and Myron of E.13th St); chapter 3 originally published in Heavy Metal 15, no. 11 (Inkers: Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman; Letterers: Sabrina Jones, Lisa Barnstone, and Seth Tobocman; Photo Reference: Paul Garin, John Penley, Myron of 13th Street, and Mitch Corber); chapter 4 originally published in World War 3 Illustrated, no. 21 (Photo Reference: John Penley, Andrew Lichtenstein, The Shadow, Impact Visuals, Paper Tiger TV, and Takeover; Journalistic Reference: Sarah Ferguson); chapter 5 originally published in World War 3 Illustrated, no. 13, and reprinted in World War 3 Illustrated Confrontational Comics, published by Four Walls Eight Windows (Photo Reference: John Penley and Chris Flash (The Shadow); chapter 6 (Photo reference: Clayton Patterson (primary), John Penley, Paul Garin, Andrew Lichtenstein, David Sorcher, Shadow Press, Impact Visuals, Marianne Goldschneider, Mike Scott, Mitch Corber, Anton Vandalen, Paul Kniesel, Chris Flash (Shadow Press), and Fran Luck); chapter 7 (Photo Reference: Sarah Teitler, Marianne Goldschneider, Clayton Patterson, Andrew Lichtenstein, David Sorcher, John Penley, Paul Kniesel, Barbara Lee, Susan Goodrich, Sarah Hogarth, Steve Ashmore, Survival Without Rent, and Bjorg; Inkers: Ursula Ostien, Barbara Lee, Samantha Berger, Becky Minnich, and Seth Tobocman); chapter 8 originally published in World War 3 Illustrated, no. 15 (Inkers: Laird Ogden and Seth Tobocman; Photo Reference: Paul Garin, Clayton Patterson, Paper Tiger TV, Shadow Press, Barbara Lee, John Penley, and Jack Dawkins; Collaboration on Last Page: Seth Tobocman, Zenzele Browne, and Barbara Lee); chapter 9 originally published in Real Girl (Photo Reference: Sarah Teitler and Barbara Lee); chapter 10 (Photos: John Penley, Chris Egan, and Scott Seabolt); chapter 11: “Conclusion” (Inkers: Barbara Lee, Laird Ogden, Samantha Berger, and Seth Tobocman; Photo Reference: Anton Vandalen). Intro. by Luc Sante. Computer Work: Eric Goldhagen and Ben Meyers. Text Page Design: Jim Fleming. Continuous Tone Prints and Stats Shot at Kenfield Studio: Richard Darling. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1999. Wang, Di. Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2003. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Raney, Vanessa. "Where Ordinary Activities Lead to War: Street Politics in Seth Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood." M/C Journal 9.3 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0607/01-raney.php>. APA Style Raney, V. (Jul. 2006) "Where Ordinary Activities Lead to War: Street Politics in Seth Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood," M/C Journal, 9(3). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0607/01-raney.php>.