Divergent responses to urban transformation projects in Turkey: common sense and state affinity in community mobilization

《Divergent responses to urban transformation projects in Turkey: common sense and state affinity in community mobilization》

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作者: Azat Zana Gündoğan

来源: URBAN GEOGRAPHY,Vol.40,Issue7,P.893-917

语言: 英文

关键字: Urban transformation projects,hegemony,common sense,production of space,Gebze

作者单位: Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

摘要: This article examines the role of state affinity in community struggles against authoritarian, neoliberal urban transformation projects (UTPs) in Turkey. It argues that as neoliberal hegemonic devices, UTPs produce contentious political spaces within which communities negotiate, resist, or comply with state-imposed, pro-market rationales (i.e. common sense). As an alternative to depictions of subaltern communities in mobilization as totally ‘co-opted‘ or ‘victimized‘ in neoliberal renewal or as ’unwilling’ or ’unable’ to produce a collective rights identity, the analysis offers a more complicated picture of community resistance, inactivity, and co-optation. To do this, it adopts a combination of Henri Lefebvre’s theory of production of space and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony. The analysis is based on the findings from original ethnographic research on two ethnically distinct working-class neighborhoods under UTP threat in Gebze, a satellite city of Istanbul. It compares communities’ affinity with the state-sponsored ideologies (Sunni-Turkish nationalism, neoliberalism) by looking at their ethnic identities and social histories.KEYWORDS: Urban transformation projects, hegemony, common sense, production of space, GebzeAdditional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies Limited [2009]; Middle East Research Competition [7th Cycle]AcknowledgementsI am grateful to The Institute of International Education – Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), The Cornell Institute for European Studies within the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and Florida State University, Department of Sociology for providing me with a safe academic space to produce this article. I would also like to thank Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, Çağlar Keyder, Filiz Garip, Tuna Kuyucu, Tolga Tezcan, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.