Self-managed social center
community self-managed spaces in which anti-authoritarians self-organise activities
A self-managed social center, also known as an autonomous social center, is a self-organized community center in which anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venues affiliated with anarchism, can include bicycle workshops, infoshops, libraries, free schools, meeting spaces, free stores and concert venues. They often become political actors in their own right.
The centers are found worldwide, for example in Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom. They are inspired by the anarchist movement along with left-wing movements and intentional communities. They are squatted, rented, or owned cooperatively.
Uses
Self-managed social centers vary in size and function depending on local context. Uses can include an infoshop, a radical bookshop, a resource centre offering advice, a hacklab, a café, a bar, an affordable gig space, independent cinema or a housing co-operative. As well as providing a space for activities, these social centers can become actors in opposing local issues such as gentrification or megaprojects. Alongside protest camps, social centers are projects in which the commons are created and practiced.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q56827005. The Library of Congress control number is sh2001000111. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Self-managed social center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.