Social centres in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom social centres can be found in squatted, rented, mortgaged and fully owned buildings. Social centers differ from community centers in that they are run autonomously, usually without assistance from the state and or corporations. The aims and policies of the centres are determined by those running them.

The UK Social Centre Network (also known as the Social Centre Network) is a grassroots initiative to establish a network between self-identified radical independent community social centres in the United Kingdom.

There is no single policy statement but a general desire to improve communication and co-operation between "the growing number of autonomous spaces to share resources, ideas and information". Network participants draw a distinction between their radical autonomous spaces and state or commercially sponsored community centres. The network of social centres in the UK is in its infancy compared to in Holland, Italy and Spain.

The last gathering of the network was at Kebele, Bristol, 28-29 November 2015, and the next is due on 26–28 August 2016 around various London social centres.

The group can trace its roots back to networking between the autonomous clubs of the 1980s such as Centro Iberico, Wapping Autonomy Centre and the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford.

The second national gathering of social centres was held at the 1 in 12 Club, in January 2007.

The fledgling network was profiled in 2008, in the pamphlet What's This Place? that was produced as part of the academic project Autonomous Geographies (funded by the ESRC).

In November 2014, the Sumac Centre in early Nottingham hosted the first weekend gathering of a (re)launch of the "Social Centre Network20. The network met again in April 2015 at the Next To Nowhere Social Centre in Liverpool and became known as the "Social Centre Network of UK and Ireland".

...
Wikipedia