Blackwell Reference Online

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Infoshops (sometimes also called social centers) are physical spaces serving as nodes for the distribution of anarchist and other radical material and the exercise of such ideas and practices. Infoshops exist across the world, with a particularly prominent presence in North America and Western Europe.The origins of contemporary infoshops can be traced to autonomism in 1970s Germany and Italy, as well as the peace and justice centers in the US during the Vietnam War era (Munson 1998). Germany's autonome focused on campaigns against nuclear weapons and airport expansions. The Italian autonomia was based around worker struggles (operaismo, or “workerism”). Both social movements utilized occupied spaces as centers wherein they could promote their propaganda and develop a political culture that was autonomous from, and antagonistic to, the mainstream.In the early 1990s the sharp rise of urban gentrification threatened rented and occupied infoshops alike. This threat ignited an ongoing discussion on the appropriate occupational status of infoshops. Such debate is particularly relevant in the light of recent evictions of social centers in Europe. Copenhagen's Ungdomshuset and London's RampART were evicted in 2007; Berlin's Koepi was under imminent threat in the summer of 2008.Infoshops can be understood in relation to the Temporary Autonomous Zone tactic as described by Hakim Bey (1985). ... log in or subscribe to read full text