Final Report Summary - ITAMTUR (Politics beyond the state? Identity and territory dimension in anti-planning movements: a comparative perspective from Turkey)
Objectives, work performed, main results and conclusion
ITAMTUR aimed to examine the relationship between planning projects, exclusion in public policy management and the affirmation of minorities' identities within this process. The project focused on reactions against planning policies in Turkey with a comparative study of three urban and environmental projects and citizen actions against these projects. ITAMTUR studied these acts as an affirmation of citizenship, a will of minorities to exist in the public space with ethnic and political identities which were previously denied by public authorities. The fieldwork of ITAMTUR was undertaken in two phases. The first phase was between March and May 2011. One month (11 March - 11 April) was spent in Istanbul to make first contact with inhabitants and civil society representatives and activists involved in Sulukule and 1 Mayis. Then the researcher stayed with a family in Hasankeyf for 15 days in order to discuss with inhabitants and organisations like BDP, Göç-Der, Keep Hasankeyf Alive Initiative, and the Association for Nature. This phase aimed to observe the acts of resistance in everyday life, to analyse how the inhabitants perceive their living environment, and to assess what this space means in the construction of identity and protest. Interviews were undertaken with inhabitants affected by urban transformation projects, activists fighting against the destruction of the neighbourhoods, and associations or platforms working to organise resistance like Association of Sulukule Lovers, the Resistance Atelier, Urban Planners without Borders and The Urbanism Movement for Society and also researchers from the University of Mimar Sinan, involved in the preparation of alternative projects. The choice of neighbourhoods was motivated by the fact that they are known for their ethnic characteristics and have been the object of prejudices concerning the inhabitants' lifestyles, political orientations and ethnic origins. In the second phase, the researcher undertook focus group interviews with mostly activists and officials. This phase in December 2011 and July 2012 aimed to complete the information about the field and to collect some details about some events found during the first stage.
Our work has enabled us to achieve the three main objectives of the project (understanding : 1-the position of concerned parties in the realisation of planning policy, 2-relationship between the nature of policy and the resistance emerging, 3-policy context in Turkey with regard to the minorities). The detailed fieldwork permitted us to reach the following results:
(1) Public policy in Turkey, including regional and urban planning, is increasingly governed by a neoliberal order, which requires that cities be reorganised in order to make them more attractive to potential investors. Social classes with low incomes are often composed of ethnic minorities occupying old and dilapidated neighbourhoods, so the inner-city gecekondus (slums) or cities like Hasankeyf that stand in the way of a planning project are considered undesirable. However, the city-space and the neighbourhood make it possible for these minority groups to create enclaves where their identity is recognised without repression, and these environments enhance the development of a collective identity for the community.
(2) The spaces studied in this project are characterised by the relative social and ethnic homogeneity of their settlement, leading to a strong identification with a small territory in which the majority of dwellers' socialisation is realised, while the dense kinship connections in a local space establish effective networks of mutual aid. Their living environment is the main arena for the construction of social relationships and collectivity. The spatial roots and ties developed within this geographical space help individuals and groups maintain a consistent identity, and these relationships also encourage the inhabitants to resist the spatio-temporal divisions imposed by neoliberal social policy.
(3) The three locations studied in this project have been all constructed by the people themselves, with these neighbourhoods becoming legally recognised during the process of their construction. However, the inhabitants have produced this space as part of an ongoing symbolic and physical struggle against different State agencies, with their living space repeatedly being threatened by destructions. Their reasons for wanting to live in these locations are manifold: in 1 Mayis, the majority were rural economic migrants while the Romani have always considered Sulukule to be their ancient homeland. In Hasankeyf, the people who had been living in the ancient cave dwellings were removed to the city and decided to remain there rather than migrating any further afield. However, in each case, these residents were persecuted, stigmatised and marginalised; they were considered to be a problem requiring resolution by the State simply because they belonged to ethnic and/or political minority groups. Therefore, these groups created a protected world with its own rules and symbols where their way of life was not called into question within the city and a neighbourhood offering some security against the permanent threat of destruction.
(4) The resistance we observed does not always represent an organised social movement. It could be observed through the practices of everyday life that inhabitants realise individually and/or collectively. The main purpose of this resistance is to maintain the mode of being that is so closely related to the identity created inside their neighbourhood and city. Drawing on Scott, it rather explains everyday ordinary practices of people. Scott underlines that powerless people rarely have the resources or opportunity to resist openly against their superordinates, and thus massive protest movements are 'flashes in the pan'(Scott, 1985: xvi). Therefore, we argue that 'everyday' acts still qualify as resistance, to the extent that they 'deny or mitigate claims made by appropriating classes' (ibid). Resistance is expressed in different forms of challenge to social and cultural domination. ITAMTUR has shown the role of the neighbourhood and the city space in forming political identity. It has also charted the development of a new form of citizenship based on claiming the right to the city. In the three case studies, the inhabitants developed a type of local citizenship related to their sense of belonging to these places, based on the lifestyle and the origins of the inhabitants, as well as a collective memory of the past. These communities' attachment and loyalty to the political system is determined by the level of respect that the political system grants to their way of life. Without that respect, their citizenship is transformed into an act of resistance against the system, and a challenge to the legitimacy of public agencies.
Impact, target groups
The findings of this research have been distributed through three channels. One is the dissemination of results in lectures, seminars, international conferences, congresses, workshops, journal articles and book chapters. The results have also been transmitted by the networking of institutions, researchers, inhabitants' associations and professional associations on urban planning and architecture. In the second channel the findings (especially the working papers) have been passed to the organisations which led local mobilisation in the three case studies, especially the Initiative of Keeping Hasankeyf Alive, the Urbanism Movement for Society, and the Association for the Romani Culture. The third channel was the diffusion of the results to public institutions in order to make them aware of the consequences of this project and to push to think more about adaptation and mitigation plans for people affected by these projects. Copies of published papers have been sent to local public actors like Hasankeyf's governor and Suluke's governor. They have been also informed about our project's website (see http://www.gulcin-erdi-lelandais.com(öffnet in neuem Fenster) online for further details)
Contribution to European excellence and competitiveness
ITAMTUR is the first comprehensive research study discussing minority rights and new ways of their expression in response to neoliberal urban and regional public planning policies. There have been several studies of urban social movements since the 1970s, especially concerning European countries, but Mediterranean cities have recently begun to attract attention, and there are only few studies about the social and human impacts of planning policies in these areas. Moreover, much of the earlier research has focused on the mobilisation of citizens with the help of civil society. ITAMTUR goes beyond this perspective by assessing the impacts of these policies on the everyday life of inhabitants, and whether or not this change creates a daily resistance against the loss of life-space.
Through its results about minorities and their place in city construction, ITAMTUR helps policy makers to frame and redefine their policy instruments (schemes, solutions, processes, means, etc.) to meet important goals such as protecting human rights and promoting respect and democracy. Indeed, these goals are at the heart of the European Union (EU)'s multilateral agreements, declarations and actions. A major contribution is also to strengthen democracy, human rights and citizen participation in public policy making. The challenge is to translate the tolerance of diverse cultures, beliefs and religions into effective policy schemes that take into account different perspectives on identity and cultural recognition thus enhancing their efficacy. ITAMTUR helps this process of mutual understanding by singling out and contextualising different meanings and practices of identity, democracy, human rights and respect in civil society organisations and state institutions.
Project websites: http://www.u-picardie.fr/labo/curapp/spip.php?rubrique80(öffnet in neuem Fenster) and http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/lelandais/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)
ITAMTUR aimed to examine the relationship between planning projects, exclusion in public policy management and the affirmation of minorities' identities within this process. The project focused on reactions against planning policies in Turkey with a comparative study of three urban and environmental projects and citizen actions against these projects. ITAMTUR studied these acts as an affirmation of citizenship, a will of minorities to exist in the public space with ethnic and political identities which were previously denied by public authorities. The fieldwork of ITAMTUR was undertaken in two phases. The first phase was between March and May 2011. One month (11 March - 11 April) was spent in Istanbul to make first contact with inhabitants and civil society representatives and activists involved in Sulukule and 1 Mayis. Then the researcher stayed with a family in Hasankeyf for 15 days in order to discuss with inhabitants and organisations like BDP, Göç-Der, Keep Hasankeyf Alive Initiative, and the Association for Nature. This phase aimed to observe the acts of resistance in everyday life, to analyse how the inhabitants perceive their living environment, and to assess what this space means in the construction of identity and protest. Interviews were undertaken with inhabitants affected by urban transformation projects, activists fighting against the destruction of the neighbourhoods, and associations or platforms working to organise resistance like Association of Sulukule Lovers, the Resistance Atelier, Urban Planners without Borders and The Urbanism Movement for Society and also researchers from the University of Mimar Sinan, involved in the preparation of alternative projects. The choice of neighbourhoods was motivated by the fact that they are known for their ethnic characteristics and have been the object of prejudices concerning the inhabitants' lifestyles, political orientations and ethnic origins. In the second phase, the researcher undertook focus group interviews with mostly activists and officials. This phase in December 2011 and July 2012 aimed to complete the information about the field and to collect some details about some events found during the first stage.
Our work has enabled us to achieve the three main objectives of the project (understanding : 1-the position of concerned parties in the realisation of planning policy, 2-relationship between the nature of policy and the resistance emerging, 3-policy context in Turkey with regard to the minorities). The detailed fieldwork permitted us to reach the following results:
(1) Public policy in Turkey, including regional and urban planning, is increasingly governed by a neoliberal order, which requires that cities be reorganised in order to make them more attractive to potential investors. Social classes with low incomes are often composed of ethnic minorities occupying old and dilapidated neighbourhoods, so the inner-city gecekondus (slums) or cities like Hasankeyf that stand in the way of a planning project are considered undesirable. However, the city-space and the neighbourhood make it possible for these minority groups to create enclaves where their identity is recognised without repression, and these environments enhance the development of a collective identity for the community.
(2) The spaces studied in this project are characterised by the relative social and ethnic homogeneity of their settlement, leading to a strong identification with a small territory in which the majority of dwellers' socialisation is realised, while the dense kinship connections in a local space establish effective networks of mutual aid. Their living environment is the main arena for the construction of social relationships and collectivity. The spatial roots and ties developed within this geographical space help individuals and groups maintain a consistent identity, and these relationships also encourage the inhabitants to resist the spatio-temporal divisions imposed by neoliberal social policy.
(3) The three locations studied in this project have been all constructed by the people themselves, with these neighbourhoods becoming legally recognised during the process of their construction. However, the inhabitants have produced this space as part of an ongoing symbolic and physical struggle against different State agencies, with their living space repeatedly being threatened by destructions. Their reasons for wanting to live in these locations are manifold: in 1 Mayis, the majority were rural economic migrants while the Romani have always considered Sulukule to be their ancient homeland. In Hasankeyf, the people who had been living in the ancient cave dwellings were removed to the city and decided to remain there rather than migrating any further afield. However, in each case, these residents were persecuted, stigmatised and marginalised; they were considered to be a problem requiring resolution by the State simply because they belonged to ethnic and/or political minority groups. Therefore, these groups created a protected world with its own rules and symbols where their way of life was not called into question within the city and a neighbourhood offering some security against the permanent threat of destruction.
(4) The resistance we observed does not always represent an organised social movement. It could be observed through the practices of everyday life that inhabitants realise individually and/or collectively. The main purpose of this resistance is to maintain the mode of being that is so closely related to the identity created inside their neighbourhood and city. Drawing on Scott, it rather explains everyday ordinary practices of people. Scott underlines that powerless people rarely have the resources or opportunity to resist openly against their superordinates, and thus massive protest movements are 'flashes in the pan'(Scott, 1985: xvi). Therefore, we argue that 'everyday' acts still qualify as resistance, to the extent that they 'deny or mitigate claims made by appropriating classes' (ibid). Resistance is expressed in different forms of challenge to social and cultural domination. ITAMTUR has shown the role of the neighbourhood and the city space in forming political identity. It has also charted the development of a new form of citizenship based on claiming the right to the city. In the three case studies, the inhabitants developed a type of local citizenship related to their sense of belonging to these places, based on the lifestyle and the origins of the inhabitants, as well as a collective memory of the past. These communities' attachment and loyalty to the political system is determined by the level of respect that the political system grants to their way of life. Without that respect, their citizenship is transformed into an act of resistance against the system, and a challenge to the legitimacy of public agencies.
Impact, target groups
The findings of this research have been distributed through three channels. One is the dissemination of results in lectures, seminars, international conferences, congresses, workshops, journal articles and book chapters. The results have also been transmitted by the networking of institutions, researchers, inhabitants' associations and professional associations on urban planning and architecture. In the second channel the findings (especially the working papers) have been passed to the organisations which led local mobilisation in the three case studies, especially the Initiative of Keeping Hasankeyf Alive, the Urbanism Movement for Society, and the Association for the Romani Culture. The third channel was the diffusion of the results to public institutions in order to make them aware of the consequences of this project and to push to think more about adaptation and mitigation plans for people affected by these projects. Copies of published papers have been sent to local public actors like Hasankeyf's governor and Suluke's governor. They have been also informed about our project's website (see http://www.gulcin-erdi-lelandais.com(öffnet in neuem Fenster) online for further details)
Contribution to European excellence and competitiveness
ITAMTUR is the first comprehensive research study discussing minority rights and new ways of their expression in response to neoliberal urban and regional public planning policies. There have been several studies of urban social movements since the 1970s, especially concerning European countries, but Mediterranean cities have recently begun to attract attention, and there are only few studies about the social and human impacts of planning policies in these areas. Moreover, much of the earlier research has focused on the mobilisation of citizens with the help of civil society. ITAMTUR goes beyond this perspective by assessing the impacts of these policies on the everyday life of inhabitants, and whether or not this change creates a daily resistance against the loss of life-space.
Through its results about minorities and their place in city construction, ITAMTUR helps policy makers to frame and redefine their policy instruments (schemes, solutions, processes, means, etc.) to meet important goals such as protecting human rights and promoting respect and democracy. Indeed, these goals are at the heart of the European Union (EU)'s multilateral agreements, declarations and actions. A major contribution is also to strengthen democracy, human rights and citizen participation in public policy making. The challenge is to translate the tolerance of diverse cultures, beliefs and religions into effective policy schemes that take into account different perspectives on identity and cultural recognition thus enhancing their efficacy. ITAMTUR helps this process of mutual understanding by singling out and contextualising different meanings and practices of identity, democracy, human rights and respect in civil society organisations and state institutions.
Project websites: http://www.u-picardie.fr/labo/curapp/spip.php?rubrique80(öffnet in neuem Fenster) and http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/lelandais/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)