This article investigates the development of squatting and house occupations in the Dutch city of Leiden during the 1970s to challenge stereotypical images of squatting and squatter protest in the Netherlands and beyond. Based on a historical analysis of 344 newspaper articles on squatting in the middle-sized city of Leiden from 1970 to 1980, this research not only shows the diversity of the squatter population and the ways in which the authorities responded to their actions—thus challenging the radical, confrontational, and metropolitan nature of squatting—but also analyzes how squatters were portrayed and how and why their image changed over time.

All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 66 4 Squatting in Leiden and Leipzig in the 1970s and 1980s: A comparison of informal housing practices in a capitalist democracy and a communist dictatorship Udo Grashoff, Charlotte van rooden, Merel snoep and bart van der steen