Self-managed space
Introduction
Squatted social center (CSO), self-managed squatted social center (CSOA) or youth social center (CSJ) are the names given to squatted buildings in various places in Europe and America,[1] with the aim of them being used totally or partially for carrying out their activities. The name "social center movement" is more common among the members of the movement than the "squatter movement", the latter popularized by the press.
The name social center is the one usually used in Spain, with the exceptions indicated in the Catalan and Basque cases. The full name of a social center is usually "self-managed squatted social center" (abbreviated to the acronym CSOA) or "self-managed social space" (the acronym ESA), followed by the proper name with which the squatted house is baptized. Apparently, the Spanish name was imported from Italy, a country where the movement has a long history and has very emblematic spaces, at the end of the 1980s; although in Spain we can place the work of the libertarian athenaeums during the first third of the century as a historical precedent.
A social center can be called anything, although it is very common for the name to refer to the street on which it is located (Seco, Lavapiés 15...), or to the previous use of the building (Minuesa, El Laboratorio, CSOA La Fábrika de Sueños", Fábrica Hamsa...).
In Catalonia the name social center competes with the Catalan casal, and names preceded by can or ca n', which means house of are common: Can Vies, Can Titella"), Ca n'Anglada"), etc. In places where Basque is spoken, gaztetxe is used (for example, Gasteizko Gaztetxea), that is, "house of youth."
Activities
The squatted social centers try to satisfy the need of a part of the youth to develop a series of alternative activities to leisure related to consumption such as that practiced in shopping centers, commercial movie theaters...
They hold workshops of all kinds (music, painting, sewing, bicycle repair, computing with Linux, etc.), concerts (free, or always very cheap), soup kitchens (usually vegetarian/vegan), championships (chess, darts, handball, etc.), talks on any topic, as well as any other activity to carry out a collection, either for the CSOA itself or for the benefit of detainees in demonstrations, political prisoners or any group that requests it and undertakes to organize it.