Space and Identity in Resistance against Neoliberal Urban Planning in Turkey

Abstract

International audienceThis article highlights the role of collective identity and space in the emergence of social resistance within a neoliberal context. It argues that the attempted eviction of residents from their established neighbourhoods through public planning projects generates resistance against the reappropriation of these spaces and has encouraged new forms of resistance among inhabitants in several neighbourhoods. I particularly emphasize that planning projects often displace particular populations by force, principally minority communities, in order to confine them to new resettlement areas far from their customary living places, which has a socioeconomic impact on people's identity, everyday life and social solidarity. The article is based on empirical research in two neighbourhoods in Istanbul — 1 Mayıs and Sulukule — to analyse practices of resistance of inhabitants in everyday life and examine how this resistance shapes their identity and daily life

From informal housing to apartment housing: exploring the ‘new social’ in a gecekondu rehousing project, Turkey

“…In the political economy of the neoliberal age, informal housing in the global South is demolished en masse to release the 'rent gap' (Smith, 1987), entailing the mass displacement of the urban poor (Lelandais, 2014;Roy, 2009) and their dispossession ('capital accumulation by dispossession' (Harvey, 2003)). In urban renewal projects implemented with a neoliberal logic, slum dwellers may be incorporated into the scheme of homeownership with state-subsidized mortgage loans (Salcedo, 2010), yet this may create financial burden on dwellers with limited financial capacities (Erman, 2016).…”

Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes

“…This situation has led to the initiation of urban movements by people directly affected by the planning decisions as well as people who oppose the neoliberalization of urban space. There has been a number of studies of movements against urban plans that introduce large‐scale infrastructure, renewal and redevelopment projects to urban centres (Pruijt, ; De Souza, ; Uitermark, ; Martinez, 2011; Loopmans and Dirckx, ; Nicholls and Vermeulen, ; Rutland, ; Lelandais, ; Schipper, ).…”

Formalization by the State, Re‐Informalization by the People: A Gecekondu Transformation Housing Estate as Site of Multiple Discrepancies

“…This victimization literature is an important introduction to an attempt at understanding UTPs by prioritizing disadvantaged populations. It supports the fact that, despite some resistance taking place in some UTPs (Karaman, ; Lelandais, ), people fail to organize themselves collectively once they are relocated in their new housing estates and are brought into the banking system via mortgage loans. Yet it is necessary to pay attention to the question of to what extent and in what ways this population can be active in shaping their new environment4 so that we can develop a more detailed understanding of the outcomes of UTPs.…”