| Contents |
Introduction ; Casa del Sol; Why study squatting? ; The research and writing: oral history and ethnography ; Structure of the work -- From drug murder to door ceremony: claiming buildings, building claims ; April 1984: Opening 539 ; Disinvestment, abandonment, and the social roots of squatting ; Urban homesteading: property, labor, and rights -- Who deserves housing? The battle for East Thirteenth Street ; Life on East Thirteenth Street: 1984-94 ; Low-income housing versus the squatters ; Making claims through adverse possession -- Making the deal: debating the values of housing ; The negotiations ; The details of the deal ; The debates -- Why work? The values of labor ; Building community: labor and value ; Bureaucracy, labor, and power -- Making claims on the past and the future: debt, kinship, history, and the temporality of homeownership ; Claims on the self: debt, freedom, and social personhood ; Claims on one another: from family to co-op ; Claims on the neighborhood: history, space, and identity ; Conclusion. |
