Social infrastructures as pillars of resistance against housing commodification in creative city Groningen

Bart Popken and Ethemcan Turhan

City, 2025, vol. 29, issue 1-2, 150-178

Abstract: Accumulation strategies over the urban space increasingly target the emergent creative social strata through place-branding and urban transformation. In this article, we examine the role of squatting and urban commoning in creating resilient alternatives to housing commodification in Groningen, Netherlands. The COVA factory area, a communal space for artists, was targeted for ‘Stad aan het Water’ redevelopment scheme amid a shift towards creative city policies. Concurrently, the area transformed into an urban commons called ‘Betonbos’ squatted by urban artists. Countering the hegemony of neoliberal interests in the housing realm, street art communities turned to squatting and counter-branding to reclaim urban spaces. Through eleven qualitative walking interviews with urban artists, our research reveals how these movements resist commodification and foster an alternative creative city ethos. The Betonbos commons and its ally, Groningen Undercurrent, exemplify how collective action can cultivate empowering social infrastructures. By prioritizing shared governance and use-value, the Betonbos experience demonstrates the potential for a reimagined urban landscape beyond commodification. We foreground how grassroots movements such as Groningen Undercurrent work together to generate alternative social infrastructures grounded in spaces of resistance and struggles for a creative city framework that embraces diversity, inclusion, and the transformative power of collective action.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2025.2469018

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