«A FIGHT BY ZONES fight». THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION AND THE CREATION OS SPACE IN ZAD AREA IN NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES

Abstract

The emergence of an « occupation movement » is a turning point in the struggle against the airport project of the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL). Since 1972, the inhabitants of the villages around resist against the destruction of the agricultural lands and forests of this humid bocage where dozens of endangered species live. In 2009, the first drillings led to a series of “migration calls” to create a “great autonomous zone.” The influence of this occupation movement on french contemporary politics is such that in 2016, the word “zadiste”, designating a “militant who occupies a ZAD, zone to defend, to oppose a planning project that threatens environment”, entered the dictionary. Illegal occupation indeed plays a central role in militant’s daily life and in the production of space. The purpose here is thus, by analyzing the representations and practices that are associated to it, to contribute to a better understanding of the issues that this struggle raises. It is first understood as a blockage tactic adapted to the new organization of capitalist government. To territorial planning thought as a politic of enclosure (privatization, behavioral standardization), the occupation movement in the ZAD of NDDL opposes collectivization of resources and spatial dispersion.

illegal occupation (squat), ZAD, enclosure movement and commons, production of space.