The "Other of the Other" and "unregulated territories" in the urban periphery: gecekondu violence in the 2000s with a focus on the Esenler case, Istanbul

Abstract

This article investigates the broader question of collective urban violence in "peripheral" (squatter) neighborhoods in the capitalist semi-periphery. Based upon a specific case, namely, the Karabayr neighborhood in Esenler, Istanbul, it aims to identify the potential sources of conflict and the conditions under which they turn into violence. To achieve this goal, first a review of the changing relationship of peripheral neighborhoods with the state is offered in a historical perspective. Then, the Karabayr neighborhood and the recent violence it experienced are briefly described, based on the information that appeared in the press and the Internet. And this is followed by a discussion of the possible causes of conflict and violence in the context of the changing conditions in the urban periphery in the 2000s. The transformation of peripheral land into commodity, the increasing physical proximity of residential groups due to land scarcity and building density, the asymmetric position of different residential groups with the state, and the unguarded socialization of the youth explain the increasing tendency towards violence in the urban periphery. In this process, the urban periphery emerges as "unregulated territories" that inhabit the "Other of the Other". © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.