Browsing by Subject "Urban society"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Open Access
Emergent local initiative and the city: the case of neighbourhood associations of the better-off classes in post-1990 urban Turkey
(Sage Publications Ltd., 2007) Erman, T.; Yıldar, M. C.
This article investigates the voluntary local organisations of the better-off classes in the Turkish urban context. Based on empirical research conducted with four neighbourhood associations (NAs), information is provided regarding their process of establishment, leadership, autonomy, goals and projects, resources and obstacles, which points to the significance of context. The research demonstrates that Turkish NAs differ from those in the West in terms of their commitment to ideological as much as pragmatic issues. In their response to the 'Islamist' versus 'secularist' polarisation in society, they seek to create their own localities as the places of secular and cosmopolitan people; and in their response to the increasingly unregulated and poorly serviced city, they struggle to create orderly localities protected from unlawful rent-seeking practices and equipped with adequate amenities. The NAs may be regarded as civic initiatives that empower the locality. Yet, by doing so, they may cause uneven development in urban space.
Open Access
Money-earning activities and empowerment experiences of rural migrant women in the city: the case of Turkey
(Pergamon Press, 2002) Erman, T.; Kalaycıoǧlu, S.; Rittersberger-Tılıç, H.
Synopsis — This article investigates empowerment in relation to money-earning activities in the context of rural-to-urban migrant women in poor families in Turkey. Acknowledging the exploitative character of employment accessible to migrant women, it asks whether working migrant women gain something in their families in return for their economic contributions. The article points to the traditional role of men as the heads of the family and family honor (namus) as the cultural basis which acts against the empowerment of migrant women in Turkish society. It attempts to understand empowerment as articulated by the women themselves based upon their lived experiences. While doing so, it examines women’s positions in the family with regard to their role in the intra-family decision making, their degree of control over their earned money, and male violence in the family. It further discusses whether or not the experiences of migrant women can be considered as empowerment, and in this way it aims to contribute to the theoretical development of the concept ‘‘empowerment.’’