THE ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS OF URBAN
SQUATTERS IN BARCELONA
PhD Thesis
Claudio Cattaneo
Supervisors
Dr. Lupicinio Iñiguez and Dr. Joan Martinez-Alier
December 2008
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
THE ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS OF URBAN
SQUATTERS IN BARCELONA
PhD Thesis
Claudio Cattaneo
Supervisors
Dr. Lupicinio Iñiguez and Dr. Joan Martinez-Alier
December 2008
ii
iii
Claudio Cattaneo
The Ecological Economics of
Urban Squatters in Barcelona
“Tornallom” is a Valencian farmer's expression
which literally means “return the back”, a body
part that a farmer would extensively use –and get
tired- when asked for help by another one. It
implies mutual aid and cooperation in the farming
activities: one day you help me, another day I will
help you, and so on, without the need of money.
Preface
This work is part of my life. It is self-organized, not sponsored with money or grant of any kind. It
is not related to any institution apart from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where, with a high
level of independence, I am part of as a PhD student. I suppose that this has helped to keep the
content of this work, its ideals and its message, as genuine and free as I could. I cannot deny a
sense of happiness, after 32 years of my life, I can still live following my ideals and be able to
analyse in this work a part of the reality I live and believe in.
I hold a business and economics degree because my father pushed me to do so; had it been for
me to decide, I would probably have studied philosophy. Since I was a child I asked myself why
we need to work 8 hours if, in principle, we only need food to keep us alive; I also thought all
living comforts had already been invented so that there was no need for any other new inventions.
At university I was told that marketing exists to satisfy needs, but I was genuinely convinced that
marketing creates needs which in this work is a fundamental issue for the domination of the
market economy over alternative economic systems. After four years in undergraduate university
it was clear to me that I would not work in business for the rest of my life; in fact just as I finished
university I went travelling 12 months to Australia and Indonesia. This is where I discovered my
love for Nature and for Life. Back at home I emptied the backpack, wore a suit for another 12
months and worked in top management strategic consulting. The experience of this top job was so
far away from my conventional life-style that I still consider it as a metaphor for a distant trip
rather than the optimal beginning of a promising business career. However, to make good use of
my honours degree I decided to “enter” academia and did so with a critical eye on business, which
matured in my consulting trip, and another critical eye on economics, which matured my love for
Life that I experienced living in the Australian Nature. This is how and why I landed into academic
ecological economics, with an initial support for an MSc course at the University of Edinburgh from
Carlo Cattaneo University, where I got my undergraduate degree. Still I didn’t quite fit into this
world, even if it is not business, not conventional economics and not quite conventional academia.
The problem is that my ideals prevented me from selling my lifetime for a salary: for me ecological
economics is not a subject to study, nor an excuse to earn money in a “politically correct” way: in
fact it is a way of life. On the one hand Nature taught me that we potentially need no money to
live, on the other hand I don’t like to subordinate my lifetime to someone else in exchange of
money in which we all need to live.
Fertile land is the source of life and my life found fertile land to flourish in the urban and in the
rural squatting community of Barcelona and Catalonia, when I arrived to begin my PhD studies.
At the end of a class in the Introduction to Ecological Economics my friends Jesus Ramos-Martin
and Miquel Ortega invited me to participate in an ecologist meeting where they talked about
climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. What interested me the most was the fact that this
iv
meeting took place in Can Masdeu, a rural house squatted in the hills of the Collserola Park, a 150
square km natural area in the middle of the Barcelona metropolitan area.
I have always been interested in the alternative scene, particularly in squatted social centres and,
even if I had never been actively involved, they inspired my sympathy because of their dynamics
of criticizing the system of established thought and from a practical point of view, the realization of
social projects.
In particular, the idea of a social centre that proposes to follow a “green dynamic” combined with
its location in the Collserola Park-institutionally recognised as a “Site of Natural Interest”, inspired
me even more sympathetically. The search for real ecological alternatives in life that the “rurban”
(rural-urban) project, in which the assembly of Can Masdeu proposes, is something that goes
against the stream, as does the theory of Ecological Economics with respect to mainstream
economic theory.
Since that first encounter, I became close to the Can Masdeu project and to the people interested
in alternative lifestyles, living anywhere between the city, in urban squats, rurban ones in the
Collserola Park, and the fascinating villages and rural houses of the Pyrenees, once abandoned and
lately rehabilitated within the “neorural” tendency. The connection with these autonomous spaces
provided an opportunity to experiment with an ecological economic lifestyle in order to face the
environmental crisis, and the social one too, by beginning from the micro-individual level rather
than from the macro level. Some weeks after this first encounter I asked the Can Masdeu
assembly if I could live within the project, adding that I arrived in Barcelona to study Ecological
Economics and stressing that in this squat I could do Ecological Economics.
v
Abstract
The ecological economics of the squatting community (urban and rural) is based on selforganization, mutual aid, reciprocity, urban gathering, material recycling, renewable materials,
permaculture and agro-ecology: a bio-economy beyond the market. For the satisfaction of their
needs squatters employ their time to use and to develop social and personal capacities more than
to sell it to the labour market and to participate in the circulation of money of capitalistic markets.
This practice I might call: social ecological economics. As well, the economy of the squatting
community is rooted in radical political ideals that differ widely from the average in western
society; these are ideals of autonomy, freedom and respect for diverse people and for living
beings; a morality that does not always need to coincide with legality. This I might call: political
ecological economics.
From my analysis we find that squatters are able to satisfy their needs with a certain degree of
autonomy from the money and from the system of man-made production getting free from forms
of established control. Rural squatters achieve higher degrees of autonomy from the system of
man-made products because they get many satisfiers directly from the surrounding natural
environment.
I argue that squatters provide a micro model for local solutions to the ecological crisis: social selforganisation, a process for decision-making which is not top-down neither bottom-up.
The methodology of the thesis is the result of participative observation for several years in which I
took part as an academic observer, but primarily as a member of the squatting community.
Key words: human ecology, needs satisfaction, housing question, squatters, social ecological
economics, political ecological economics, autonomy, exosomatic evolution, community, selforganization, control, bottom-bottom decision-making.
Abstract
La economía ecológica de las okupas (urbanas y rurales) se basa en la auto-organización, en el
apoyo mutuo, la reciprocidad, recolección urbana, recicle de materiales, materiales renovables,
permacultura y agro-ecología: una bio-economía más allá del mercado. Por la satisfacción de sus
necesidades las ocupas emplean su tiempo para utilizar y desarrollar sus capacidades sociales y
personales mas que para venderlo en el mercado del trabajo y participar en la circulaciòn del
dinero de mercados capitalistas. Por esta práctica se podría llamar economía ecológica social.
También, la economía de la comunidad okupa se enraíza en ideales políticos radicales muy
diferentes de los valores comunes a la sociedad occidental; se trata de ideales de autonomía,
libertad y respeto por el diverso y por los seres vivos; una moralidad que no siempre coincide con
la legalidad, por esto se podría llamar economía ecológica política.
Desde mi análisis resulta que las okupas satisfacen las necesidades con cierto grado de autonomía
del dinero y del sistema de la producción artificial, liberándose de formas de control establecido.
Las okupas rurales consiguen grados superiores de autonomía del sistema de producción artificial
porqué consiguen muchos satisfactores directamente desde su entorno natural.
Mi argumento es que las okupas ofrecen un modelo de soluciones locales a la crisis ecológica: la
auto-organización social, un proceso de toma de decisiones que no es ni top-down ni bottom-up.
La metodología de la tesis es el resultado de la observación participante durante varios años en los
cuales he asistido como un observador académico, pero sobre todo como un miembro de la
comunidad ocupa.
Palabras claves: ecología humana, satisfacción de las necesidades, cuestión de la vivienda
ocupas, economía ecológica social, economía ecológica política, autonomía, evolución exosomatica,
comunidad, auto-organización, control, toma de decisiones bottom-bottom.
vi
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all people who made this work possible, which are not in little number.
But in particular I thank Txus and Miquel for giving a first contact that turned out to be so useful,
the people I lived with in Can Masdeu for understanding my need of time to dedicate to this work,
Guillem and Gabi for the trips to Alta Garrotxa, Gessamì for the flat where I wrote my tesina, my
companions of the doctorate programme for the discussions and inspirations, Vincent and Gonzalo
for the trips on pedals and for the suggestions, Guarapitu, David and Txus for their interest, Enric,
Laura, Marc Flautista, Nico, Itet, Txei for the rural stays, Giobbe for the place, the books and the
discussions in the Dumenza retreat, Rodolfo for the liberal/libertarian arguments, Kate for her
constant support, Tommaso for reading and commenting on my conference papers, all people at
the conferences for their vivid interest in this experience, Nico Rosa and Bea for their help during
the retreat in Rupià, David, Mario and Jeroen for their interest and latest recommendations, Kylie,
Sarah, Bea, Rebecca and Charley for proof-reading, John for his positive comments.
A special thanks goes to my supervisors Lupicinio and Joan. Lupi for his enthusiasm and for the
incredibly positive support he showed me each time, Joan for the pithy, concise indications he
gave that I made so useful in this work.
My parents, sister, grandpa, uncles, aunt and cousins for tolerating a dissident relative.
Finally, a toda la peña for being there and so inspiring.
vii
Table of contents
Preface
ii
Abstract
iv
Acknowledgments
v
Table of contents
vi
List of figures, tables and boxes
x
Introduction
1
1 Presentations
7
1.1 How the press sees the squatting
movement
7
1.2 Archetypes of the Barcelona
squatting movement
11
15
2 Squatters’ context in Catalonia:
paying rent and the case for political
and ecological autonomy
2.1 The basic need for a roof
16
2.1.1 Rent and its relation with 20
accessibility: the temporal distance from
money.
2.1.2 Squatting as a housing
alternative
22
2.2 A voice from Barcelona social
centres: squatting as the need for
autonomy
24
2.3 Tensions in Barcelona: increasing
housing prices and increasing
established control.
26
30
3 Methodology: from participant
observation to participant observing
3.1 The basic experience
30
3.2 Types of investigation and their
epistemological implications.
30
3.2.1 Participant observation.
31
3.2.2 Ethnographic investigation:
methodology and functions
35
3.2.3 Participant observing
37
3.3 Application of the methodologies
39
3.3.1 Rural context: annotation by
activities, means and discourse
39
3.3.2 Urban context: direct
40
experience, short interviews and
analysis of social metabolism of the Can
Masdeu Valley
viii
4 Sociological aspects of squatters’
style and lifestyle
42
4.1 Description of some squats: history, 42
conflicts, episodes
4.2 Political philosophy: legality versus
morality
50
4.2.1 The immorality of money
making from money: would Aristotle be
an anti-system enemy?
52
4.3 Squatters as social movements of
resistance: the need to visualise the
conflict.
54
4.3.1 Eviction strategies
55
4.3.2 Resistance
58
62
5 Money, time, water and energy
management. The case study of Can
Masdeu valley and its limits.
5.1 Financial management in Can
Masdeu
62
5.1.1 Collective financial management 62
5.1.2 Personal financial management 67
5.2 Time management in Can Masdeu
69
5.2.1 Description of Can Masdeu
valley’s time use
69
5.3 Water management in the valley: a
brief history
73
5.4 Energy analysis of the Valley’s
metabolism
75
5.4.1 Community Gardens: energy
consumption and food production
76
5.4.2 Can Masdeu household and
social centre: energy consumption and
food production
78
5.5 Discussion
82
5.5.1 Time use
82
5.5.2 Energy consumption and
production: methodological
considerations and further insights
83
5.5.3 Endosomatic energy,
exosomatic metabolic rate and energy
intensity
85
5.6 Conclusions: limits of the project of
Can Masdeu and with its external
relationships.
87
6 The exosomatic evolution of
human kind and the possibility of
material recycling.
94
6.1 Ecological, epistemological and
political implications of the exosomatic
evolution of humankind
94
ix
6.1.1 Ecological Implications:
misplaced efficiency and environmental
crisis
95
6.1.2 Epistemological implications:
power and knowledge
96
6.1.3 Political Implications: social
conflict and the concentration of power
97
6.2 Bioeconomics, permaculture and
renewable materials
99
6.2.1 Recycling living and non-living
matter
100
6.3 Renewable materials and material
re-use in the Can Masdeu Valley.
102
7 The political economy of
squatters: self-organization
107
7.1 Review of self-organization in the
108
social systems, in the market and in the
biological world.
7.1.1 The Chicago School: visions and
parallelism with squatters’ politics
109
7.1.2 One less agent: examples of social 111
self-organisation.
7.2 The challenging political economy of 115
squatters.
7.3 Decision-making through assembly: 116
advantages and limits.
7.4 Discussion
119
8 Consumption theory, time
allocation and consumer
irrationality
123
8.1 Consumption as satisfaction of needs 124
8.2 Competitive and non-competitive
economic systems: time as the central
element
129
8.2.1 Polanyi’s evidence of some
129
economic myths, Latouche’s invention of
economics and Kropotkin’s mutual aid as
a law of evolution.
8.2.2 Time and labour market:
129
competition, routine and efficiency type;
discrimination and barriers to exit.
8.3
Marketing
choices versus
satisfiers.
fomenting
irrational 133
self-determination of
9 The Ecological Economics of
Neorural Settlements in the
Garrotxa, Catalonia
140
9.1 Neorural settlements in Alta
Garrotxa
140
x
9.1.1 Description of a visit
141
9.2 From Barcelona to Alta Garrotxa:
steps towards autonomy.
151
9.3 Comparison between three economic 154
systems: value produced
10 Conclusions
158
Bibliography
163
List of figures, tables and boxes
Figure 0.1: the ecological economics of urban squatters
6
Figure 1.1: how the press sees the squatting movement, a parody
10
Figure 2.1: visual representation of a housing question in Barcelona
18
Figure 2.2: Supply and demand shifts in real house market: increased price paid
through time
19
Figure 4.1: disjunction between morality set and legal set. Difference in behaviour 51
priorities.
Figure 5.1: energy yield in GJ/ha/year of different studies
84
Figure 5.2: which progress? … towards a balance
91
Figure 6.1: material recycling is possible both in a technological and in a natural
way
106
Figure 7.1: decreasing number of controlling agents from government to natural 113
processes
Figure 7.2: relative closeness to government officials in different power distributed 121
societies
Figure 7.3: the creation of self-organized “non-electors, non-consumers” micro
units as undesired escapes from the bottom.
122
Figure 8.1: utility analysis in the contexts of exchange value and of use value
124
Figure 8.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
126
Figure 8.3: indifference curve between different market/non-market budget
constraints
127
Figure 8.4: time for sale or time for needs: different constraints
133
Figure 8.5: increasing market presence, upwards market demand shift, same
utility level
135
Figure 9.1: architecture of the main house, Alta Garrotxa nucleus
148
Table 3.1: differences between Detached Observation and Participant Observation
in the particular context of this research
35
Table 5.1: financial management in Can Masdeu: the communal economy
63
Table 5.2: individual economies of Can Masdeu: spending categories, money and
time use.
68
Table 5.3: time allocation in hours per year between the building (with modes) and 73
the community gardens
Table 5.4: energy consumption and production for the community gardens: the
77
xi
relevance of endosomatic energy
Table 5.5: annual endosomatic consumption in Can Masdeu household and social
centre
78
Table 5.6: energy consumption and production for Can Masdeu household and
social centre: the relevance of endosomatic energy
80
Table 5.7: source of endosomatic energy eaten in Can Masdeu household and
social centre
81
Table 5.8: time use comparison with Catalan statistics
82
Table 5.9: summary of energy consumption in the Can Masdeu valley
85
Table 5.10: exosomatic metabolic rate in the Can Masdeu valley
86
Table 5.11: energy intensity of Can Masdeu household and social centre
86
Table 5.12: expenditure and energy benchmark with a Dutch household
88
Table 5.13: the insertion of Can Masdeu household and social centre project
90
Table 6.1: synthesis of material recycling.
101
Table 6.2: new synthesis of material recycling.
104
Table 7.1: fundamental differences between market and social self-organization
120
Table 7.2: fundamental differences between market and natural self-organization: 120
EFT2 versus EFT1 processes
Table 8.1: the importance of time, natural and social capital as need satisfiers
126
Table 8.2: should advertising only communicate facts?
137
Table 9.1: land use change
144
Table 9.2: steps towards autonomy
153
Table 9.3: relevant facts on energy use.
154
Box 2.1 Literature on urban change
29
Box 4.1 Green institutional policies versus squatters’ and gatherers’ practices in
terms of rubbish
47
Box 4.2 How do squatters enjoy themselves: the example of the chariots race.
49
Box 4.3 Squatters’ aesthetics
50
Box 4.4 Debate around free riding on public transports.
54
Box 7.1 Self organization and social interactions in Nou Barris
114
Box 7.2 The role of public information in favouring market over social selforganization
115
Box 8.1 The Movement for Anti-Utilitarianism in the Social Sciences (MAUSS)
125
Box 8.2 Spanish gipsies and their relation to paid work
131
Box 8.3 The multicriteria allocation of time: creative leisure time, paid work time,
cooperation and mutual aid.
134
Box 8.4 Sovereign preferences? A libertarian perspective
138
Box 8.5 Alternative view towards economic recessions.
139
Box 9.1 Environmental history of Alta Garrotxa
144
Box 9.2 Provision of food in urban squats, in Collserola, in Alta Garrotxa
145
Box 9.3 Description of the main settlement in Alta Garrotxa
148
Box 9.4 Monocrop enclosures and seed bank in Alta Garrotxa
150
Box 9.5 How far is the market a democratic institution? An extreme challenge
156
xii
xiii