Relocation and disempowerment: a critical approach to gecekondu resettlement projects in Turkey through the example of Bezirganbahçe housing project

Abstract

This thesis examines the changes in the daily lives of the ex-gecekondu residents, who have moved to Bezirganbahçe Social Housing Project, after their houses in Tepeüstü and Ayazma neighborhoods were demolished. In Istanbul, gecekondu settlements that happen to be located in “strategic” locations in terms of urban rent are being subjected to big scale urban transformation projects within the scope of neoliberal urban policies that are based on place-marketing through re-planning the city as “global city.” Meanwhile, the residents of these settlements, without any right for participation in decision making process, are forced to empty their houses and move out to government housing projects. Throughout this thesis it is argued that this relocation in Bezirganbahçe not only aggravates the economic situations of the residents, but also transforms their relationship with the physical space; and this transformation leads to a change that penetrates into the daily lives. These changes in turn, instead of empowering the residents, push them to a more isolated form of living, depriving them of their social networks and subjecting them to constant social control and exclusionary practices. In this respect, focusing on changes in relationships among the residents and changes in perceptions towards the physical space and the neighbors is the main goal of this study. At the same time, the link between all these processes and neoliberal urban policies is scrutinized in detail.