Understanding the experiences of the politics of urbanization in two gecekondu (squatter) neighborhoods under two urban regimes: ethnography in the urban periphery of Ankara, Turkey
Author
Erman, T.
Date
2011Source Title
Urban Anthropology
Print ISSN
0894-6019
Publisher
The Institute, Inc.
Volume
40
Issue
1-2
Pages
67 - 108
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
135
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views
174
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downloads
Abstract
This article investigates the politics of urbanization in the Turkish context. It is built upon the premise that the "urban coalition" in the era of nationalist developmentalism, which was populist in nature, is replaced by a "new urban coalition," a neoliberal one, since the 1980s. I argue that the bargaining power of gecekondu (squatter) residents with municipal authorities for their "extra-legal" practices in building their houses in the former era was lost after neoliberal policies were adopted. This argument is substantiated by the ethnographic fieldwork in which the experiences of gecekondu residents in building, improving and (not) defending their houses and neighborhoods were obtained. Two ethnographic studies were conducted in two different sites in Ankara: a neighborhood where the Alevis were the majority, which became the site of leftist mobilization in the 1970s, and a district where conservative Sunnis lived, who supported right-wing politics. By situating the two neighborhoods in the context of the two different urban regimes, namely, those in the populist and neoliberal eras, the article points out the changing relationship of the gecekondu residents with the state, showing variances with respect to the differing political positions and social compositions of the two neighborhoods. © 2011 The Institute, Inc.
Keywords
BargainingEthnic minority
Ethnopolitics
Housing conditions
Informal settlement
Islamism
Neighborhood
Neo-liberalism
Populism
Resident population
State-local relations
Urban geography
Urban politics
Urban system
Urbanization
Ankara
Turkey
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/11693/21829Collections
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