The Occupation Cookbook, or the Model of the Occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb (2009/2011) [Croatian/English]

The Occupation Cookbook is a “manual” that describes the organization of the student occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences that took place in the spring of 2009 and lasted for 35 days. It was written for two reasons: to record what happened, and to present the particular organization of this action in such a way that it may be of use to other activists and members of various collectives if they decide to undertake a similar action.

What does it mean to “occupy” a school? A school occupation is not, as the corporate media like to portray it, a hostile takeover. A school occupation is an action by those who are already its inhabitants – students, faculty, and staff – and those for whom the school exists. (Which is to say for a public institution, the public itself.) The actions termed “occupations” of a public institution, then, are really re-occupations, a renovation and reopening to the public of a space long captured and stolen by the private interests of wealth and privilege. The goal of this renovation and reopening is to inhabit school spaces as fully as possible, to make them truly habitable – to make the school a place fit for living. – Marc Bousquet, from the Introduction

Originally published in the Croatian as Blokadna kuharica ili kako je izgledala blokada Filozofskog fakulteta u Zagrebu by Center for Anarchist Studies, Zagreb, November 2009
Written by students of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Translated by Drago Markiša
Introduction by Marc Bousquet
Foreword by Boris Buden
Released by Minor Compositions, London/New York/Port Watson, April 2011
ISBN 978-1-57027-218-9
82 pages

publisher [English]
publisher [Croatian]
further information (protest movement)

PDF [English]
View online and download (Scribd.com; from publisher) [English]
View online (HTML) [English]
PDF [Croatian]

Stevphen Shukaitis, David Graeber (eds.): Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations // Collective Theorization (2007)

“From the ivory tower to the barricades! Radical intellectuals explore the relationship between research and resistance.

What is the relationship of radical theory to movements for social change? In a world where more and more global struggles are refusing vanguard parties and authoritarian practices, does the idea of the detached intellectual, observing events from on high, make sense anymore? In this powerful and unabashedly militant collection, over two dozen academic authors and engaged intellectuals—including Antonio Negri and Colectivo Situaciones—provide some challenging answers. In the process, they redefine the nature of intellectual practice itself.

The twenty essays cover a broad range: embedded intellectuals in increasingly corporatized universities, research projects in which factory workers and academics work side by side, revolutionary ethnographies of the Global Justice Movement, meditations on technology from the branches of a Scottish tree-sit. What links them all is a collective and expansive re-imagining of engaged intellectual work in the service of social change. In a cultural climate in where right-wing watchdog groups seem to have radical academics on the run, this unapologetic anthology is a breath of fresh air.”

Edited with Erika Biddle
Publisher AK Press, Oakland / Edinburgh / West Virginia, 2007
ISBN 1904859356, 9781904859352
336 pages

Publisher

PDF (4 MB, updated on 2017-3-28)

Dirk De Wit, Nele Samyn (eds.): Media Art and Digital Culture in Flanders, Belgium (2011)

The publication presents a selection of some 100 media artists and organizations who have already developed a practice of their own, have met with international response and are located in Flanders and Brussels. This selection of short bios and photos is situated through a concise historical outline, an essay by Pieter Van Bogaert on attention for media and DIY and an essay by Liesbeth Huybrechts on crossover and lab culture.

Publisher: BAM, Flemish institute for visual, audiovisual and media art, Ghent
146 pages

publisher

PDF