Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Pages: 515-531

Journal: Territory, Politics, Governance

Volume number: 8

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 2162-2671

eISSN: 2162-268X

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1719191

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group

Abstract: 
After the initial moments of political protest have passed, urban protest movements and neighbourhood initiatives often face the challenge of establishing a sustainable organizing structure in their neighbourhoods and of creating long-lasting collaborations, including maintaining relations among various participants and heterogeneous political actors in the city. This paper analyses the political practice of Kotti & Co, an urban neighbourhood initiative that has been active in political struggles pertaining to social housing and displacement and working against racism and neoliberal urban politics in the super-diverse city of Berlin. In the larger context of urban protest movements since 2011, the initiative managed to overcome a series of political challenges and to build a long-lasting organizing practice. The authors identify Kotti & Co as a 'community of struggle' that was able to foster a lasting movement through three elements of sustainability. The protest first managed to build bridges across and beyond its members' differences (class, migration background, sexual orientation) by finding a common set of political demands and social practices as well as by establishing collective place-based subjectivities. These place-based subjectivities have contributed to overcoming conventional identity politics by forming a new kind of political identity through the struggle itself.

Harvard Citation style: Hamann, U. and Tuerkmen, C. (2020) Communities of struggle: the making of a protest movement around housing, migration and racism beyond identity politics in Berlin, Territory, Politics, Governance, 8(4), pp. 515-531. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1719191

APA Citation style: Hamann, U., & Tuerkmen, C. (2020). Communities of struggle: the making of a protest movement around housing, migration and racism beyond identity politics in Berlin. Territory, Politics, Governance. 8(4), 515-531. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1719191