While slum clearance projects in the Global South have displaced a large number of urban poor from the inner city to peripheral areas, peripheral mass housing estates have been developed as a spatial fix to improve the livelihood of the urban poor through slum development projects. Shifting the focus of displacement and poverty studies on changing assets and social experiences of displacement, this study makes an empirical contribution to the literature with a case study from Turkey. It demonstrates that mass housing projects that increase the importance of market-based processes and financial assets at the expense of intangible assets (household relations and social capital) make the urban poor more vulnerable to displacement pressure and external shocks. Using the example of a mass housing project in Turkey designed for the relocation of a highly concentrated Kurdish migrant squatter settlement, this research demonstrates that slum development projects can cause different types of displacement, divesting residents of opportunities to accumulate assets and reconstruct a sense of place. The research demonstrates that the dissolution of intangible assets and the exclusion of social spaces that are important to relocated residents in the mass housing estate bring about community displacement in the case of Kurdish residents. Also, relocated squatters feel pressured by the ongoing and daily experiences of displacement—notably everyday, symbolic and temporal displacement—as the spatial design of the mass housing unfamiliar with the livelihood of squatter dwellers constrains their opportunities to appropriate neighbourhood space in everyday life and enact a sense of place.

This article analyzes the reasons ethnic violence erupted in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s. Based on semi-structured interviews with civil society workers, local deputies and residents in Northern Ireland that took place during August-September 2014, it argues that in the Northern Ireland case, the cleavage structure and political competition which overlapped with bipolar ethnic divide rendered political parties incapable to appeal to ethnic diversity within Northern Irish society. This article shows that the unionist-nationalist cleavage structure and political competition based on plurality rule brought about ethnic polarization and intensified interethnic tensions by producing governments supported exclusively by Protestants and hindering the incorporation of Catholics into the political system. It also demonstrates that peace negotiations in Northern Ireland were a process of institutional innovation in order to incorporate both communities into the political system.

Informal settlements have been crucial sites of spatial dispossession and neoliberal urbanization with the displacement of the urban poor from profitable urban areas. This study examines the gendered implications of dispossession and changing dimensions of women’s poverty as a result of slum/squatter redevelopment projects. Based on the research of the Kadifekale Urban Transformation Project in Turkey that resettled residents of a highly concentrated Kurdish migrant squatter settlement into a new mass housing estate, the study highlights the impacts of profit-driven urban development projects on women's access to affordable housing, support networks, care work, and employment opportunities. Kurdish women's experiences of displacement and resettlement illustrate in particular the intersectional aspects of gendered dispossession and asset erosion with their exclusion from affordable housing options, dispersal of their communities, and separation from their ethnic employment niches. Drawing upon dispossession and feminist development literature, the study sheds light upon the gendered experiences of displacement, changing livelihood opportunities, gendered access and control over resources, and strategies of resistance that result from slum redevelopment projects.

The recent authoritarian turn and democratic backsliding around the world have raised concerns over increased instability and violent conflicts. Turkey is a striking example of this authoritarian turn with the transition from a multiparty democracy to a competitive authoritarian regime. With seven in-depth case studies from Turkey, this special issue sheds light upon the changing dynamics of violence and social coexistence in countries that experience democratic decline from a transdisciplinary perspective. In this introductory article, we briefly trace the authoritarian transition and societal fault lines in Turkey, discuss the case studies presented in this special issue, and draw out our contribution to the literature.