This book explores the movement of self-managed social centres, also known as squatting movement. It studies why this movement has been more active and stronger in certain cities, focusing on the relationship between environments and their different trajectories. Through a comparative analysis, the book studies the conditions under which left-wing activists, associated with urban and housing movements, local artists and the young, created this sui generis social movement in a well-defined group of cities in Western Europe. Thus, it offers the first systematic comparison of the movement of self-managed social centres in Western Europe. The book centres its attention on the larger social, political and urban contexts across the different periods that it covers, paying attention to the ways in which various aspects of these contexts helped this movement to settle down and thrive.