Social movements “on the head of a pin”?

For a long time now, the sociology of social movements has preferred to historicize the protest process rather than analyze its spatial and localized dimension. Using the example of the “rent strikes” in SONACOTRA households in the 1970s, this paper demonstrates the importance of putting collective action in the context of its physical environment. Although space must be reintroduced as a central dimension in collective action, this can only be done by examining the mechanisms used by individuals and groups in interaction with the space and the places they create, manage, or occupy. In fact, understanding how this particular game affects collective action is only possible through a localized analysis of the social strategies for creating, appropriating, and reappropriating space.