Occupied Squares and the Urban ‘State of Exception’: In, Against and Beyond the City of Enclaves

Abstract

What has been described as the ‘Squares Movement’ (Giovanopoulos and Mitropoulos, 2011) has emerged almost unexpectedly in many metropolises throughout the world. People gathered in central city squares, in many cases stayed there for days and used these spaces as spaces of protest and action. At the beginning there was the eruption of dissident social movements in the Arab world. The Tunisian revolt against Ben Ali’s dictatorship was followed by a similar uprising in Egypt and in other countries in North Africa and Middle East. People created encampments in important city squares and defended their right to demand democracy against usually very violent police attacks.