Linus Owens

Linus Owens thinks, writes, and teaches about movements, places, and the conflicts that bring them together and push them apart. In past work, he has brought these interests together in exploring how anarchists organize online and the place-making and storytelling practices of squatters in Amsterdam. He always seems to be teaching new classes, leaving a long list of former classes in his wake; these include courses on social theory, social movements, disasters, cities, globalization, the environment, tourism, visual methods, and even a class on performance and the body.

His books include both academic – "Cracking Under Pressure: Narrating Decline in the Amsterdam Squatters’ Movement" (Amsterdam University Press & Penn State University Press, 2009) – and popular – "Lost in the Supermarket: An Indie Rock Cookbook" (Soft Skull Press, 2008).

At the moment, he is working on several new projects, including a cultural history of Halloween and emerging adulthood, and researching the complicating ways that activists incorporate travel, movement, and space into their protest tactics.

Still, he remains true to his academic and political roots, as a founding member of a European syndicate of researchers working on and with squatting movements.