Autonomous Urban Spaces Between Critique, Compromises and Co-optation

a Study of Bolsjefabrikken in Copenhagen

Abstract

This article focuses on autonomous urban spaces in Copenhagen and their internal dynamics and interactions with municipal urban strategies. The article seeks to explore what we describe as the “co-optation thesis”. According to this thesis a wave of artistic urban critique arose throughout the 00s in Copenhagen originating from a string of newly appropriated autonomous spaces, however the critical potential of this movement was commodified and co-opted by a new “spirit of creative urban development”. We examine this thesis through a longitudinal case study of the autonomous space Bolsjefabrikken in its various incarnations in the neighborhoods of Nordvest and Ydre Nørrebro. Theoretically, we draw on the French pragmatic sociology of justification, value conflicts and critique of capitalism. The case study confirms the tendencies towards co-optation, but simultaneously gives a composite depiction of the development of autonomous spaces and their relations to municipal urban and cultural policy. The study reveals how autonomous urban spaces in themselves are heterogeneous in terms of values and political orientations, while municipal policies also contain conflicting values and rationales. Based on this analysis, the article discusses how the artistic urban critique can be strengthened to counter the tendencies towards co-optation.