Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes

Abstract

We would especially like to thank the many residents and activists in Gülsuyu and Gülensu who made this research possible by providing us with their valuable memories and comments.

Türkiye’de Kentsel Dönüşümün Dönüşümü: Kurumsal Bir Açıklama Denemesi

“…Mesela Fener-Balat projesinde, bölge halkı haklarını korumak ve yaşam alanlarına kendilerinden habersiz ve dâhiliyeleri sağlanmadan yapılacak müdahalelerin önünde durmak için etkili toplumsal muhalefet örmüş ve hukuki yolları kullanarak projeyi durdurabilmişlerdir (Ahunbay, Dinçer ve Şahin, 2016). Yine Gülsuyu-Gülensu, Başıbüyük ve Derbent mahallelerinde halk dönüşüm projelerine karşı etkin bir muhalefeti örerek belediyelere geri adım attırmayı başarabilmişlerdir (Karaman, 2014;Özdemir ve Eraydın, 2017).…”

The role of the expert knowledge in politicizing urban planning processes: A case from Istanbul

“…The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and the Maltepe District Municipality (MDM) 4 introduced several urban plans in the neighbourhoods beginning from 2004, in order both to make use of the rent generating potential of the neighbourhoods and to solve the property-related problems. As examined and analysed by Özdemir and Eraydin (2017), these plans resulted in a collective mobilization in the neighbourhoods, which still continues.…”

“…More antagonistic relations surfaced between who were willing to continue to the planning process and meet with the municipalities to negotiate the details of the plan and who rejected any kind of plan or communication with the local authorities, which they saw as tools of neoliberal capitalism. This antagonism crystallized in the form of an ideological fragmentation between cooperationists, those who wanted to continue to work with the municipalities and radicals who wanted to stop the planning process (Özdemir and Eraydin, 2017). Antagonistic relations were dominant until 2012.…”

“…The second phase of the planning process in the neighbourhoods was started in 2012 by the MDM, who announced that it was going to prepare an IP for the neighbourhoods. The perspective of a new plan was perceived as a new opportunity both by the radicals and the cooperationists, which ended the ideological fragmentation; yet, it forged this time a property-based fragmentation for it was expected to bring new building rights (Özdemir and Eraydin, 2017). The property-based antagonistic relations occurred in between the above-mentioned three different resident groups in terms of property ownership.…”

“…The combination of these two roles constitutes the politicizing role of the expert knowledge in the planning process. The first role is emphasized elsewhere (Özdemir and Eraydin, 2017; Özdemir and Taşan-Kok, 2017; Uitermark and Nicholls, 2017), yet I aim to have a more in-depth look into it. First of all, the discussion here is not on the expert knowledge of municipal professionals, but of voluntary planners, as well as architects and lawyers specialized in urban planning, who ‘want to use their technical knowledge and capacity for the deprived groups in the society’, as expressed by one of the experts I interviewed (E1).…”