KISMIF International Conference 2015 | Parallel Session 2.5 | Paper 2.5.

Punk and the city: DIY cultures and radical uses

of urban spaces in Porto, Portugal
Joo Queirs & Paula Guerra

To map and characterize the territorialized expressions of punk

in Portugal, and particularly in Porto, throughout time.
To identify the actors behind those expressions, and to get to
know their social profiles, trajectories, values and dispositions.
To understand the associations between these places of punk
and the countrys and citys social and political history and
social and political movements.

Squats, occupied public buildings, and grassroots community

centers as places of punk and, moreover, as expressions of DIY
cultures.
- Origin, structuring, everyday life and dissolution.
- Right to adequate housing (and to public space).
- Self-sufficiency and the relations with outsiders
and the outside world.
- Autochthony and sense of belonging.
- Links to social activism and political radicalism.

Es.Col.A da Fontinha, Porto [Self-managed Collective Space], 2011-2012

Source: http://oblogouavida.blogspot.pt/.

CasaViva, Porto
Source: CasaViva (http://casa-viva.blogspot.pt/).

DIY cultures and lifestyles and their places

Putting ideology into practice/Building communities of
practice.

Testing the possibilities and limits of economic and social

alternatives/Developing skills and modes of collective
organization.
Ethics vs. necessity.
Search for autonomy, place, belonging and expression ().

Some findings
Limited number.
Temporary, precarious character.

Enthusiastic adherence to DIY ethics.

Close affiliations with far-left and anarchist groups, but not
limited to their agendas.
The centrality of music scenes (including punk scenes).
Closure vs. openness.

Some challenges
Formalization, sharing, expanding.

Cooptation/Assimilation by neoliberalism.
Gentrification.