Creativity, Urban Margins, and Global Transition: The Case of Occupy Leipzig
by Elena Salmansperger
Abstract This article explores the thematic question of Tvergastein’s sixteenth issue: whether the economic growth paradigm is inescapable or if there are alternative futures. This
contribution explores the dynamics between global transition (the global expansion of
neoliberal ideology) and local resistance from the urban margins, using the example of
a squatters’ platform called Occupy Leipzig in the city of Leipzig, Germany. The first aim is to understand what constitutes the misleading narrative of ‘squatters as gentrifiers’
by applying a theory offered by post-socialist scholar Oleg Golubchikov, according to
whom global transition is all-encompassing and co-opts Occupy Leipzig’s resistance.
The second aim is to weaken the ‘squatters as gentrifiers’ narrative by using a framework from post-colonial scholars Ana Aceska, Barbara Heer, and Andrea Kaiser-Grolimund,
who emphasise the agency squats have in transforming and actively shaping the city.
Image credit: Besetzen, https://besetzen.noblogs.org/files/2019/01/besetzmalreader.pdf.
