To squat is to occupy a space otherwise not in use, without the owner's permission. Squatting takes many forms, from building shantytowns on the outskirts of the megalopolises of the developing world, to claiming unused rural land for food production, to occupying vacant buildings in the city center. Squatting addresses unmet spatial needs, either indirectly, as a protest to draw attention to the vacancy and viability of alternative spaces and force authorities to intervene, or, more directly, by procuring space for the squatters themselves. Boundaries between squatting and squatters' movements are messy. They overlap, but are not the same. While all squatting is at least somewhat political – challenging property regimes and the elites benefiting from them – to squat is not necessarily to participate in a squatters' movement. The vast majority of the world's squatters do not actively take part in squatters' movements; conversely, these movements do not limit themselves simply to housing concerns, and their participants are not necessarily always squatters. When researchers study squatters' movements, these are both narrower and broader than merely squatting. Such movements are almost invariably urban, and usually in Europe. The history of these movements dates from the 1960s, peaking into the 1980s, and continuing in a smaller form to this day. The Netherlands, once numbering over 20,000 active squatters, had the largest and most influential of these movements, but other countries also experienced noteworthy squatting activity, including the UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, and Spain. Squatters' movements promote a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic in defending space and lifestyles against the influence of capital and state. Housing issues establish only the starting point for these movements.