Cracking the City

This chapter investigates the history of squatting in the Netherlands in order to understand how it evolved from a pragmatic solution for a shortage of housing to an organized social movement. It begins with a discussion of how the counterculture movement in the Netherlands—Provo—established a tradition of activism and ludic protest that promoted social liberalism, anarchy, progressive welfare programs, and public housing. These values were inherited by the next generation of activists in the squatters’ movement of the late ’70s and ’80s, who developed and molded them to conform to the less optimistic atmosphere and circumstances of their time.