IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa14p228.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cooperative Response to Urban Transformation: Lessons from Istanbul

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Hanisch
  • Tuba Inal-Çekiç

Abstract

Turkey´s economy increasingly benefits from privileged trade, low wage levels and the steady influx of foreign direct investment. Capital accumulation produced by this rapid economic development has increased the land prices and triggered the reallocation of industry and trade. The effects of this tremendous transformation process are manifested mostly in larger cities of the country. In the megacity of Istanbul, government and financial investors realize ambitious infrastructure and commercial projects while in the so called centers of urban transformation centrally-located neighborhoods are becoming increasingly threatened by dispossession. This has led to criticism about the role of central government in urban development and about the lack of citizen involvement in decision-making culminating in the Gezi Park demonstrations in June 2013. In this paper we claim that in the process of urban transformation finding a compromise between commercial and community interest affords the redefinition of citizen and property rights accompanied by the emergence of a politically strong and tightly organized civil society. After a quick survey over contemporary theories of urban transformation and civil society development, we will analyze and explain current processes by which citizens organize their claims about customary, economic and political rights related to participation in planning. By means of case studies and interviews with leaders of neighborhood associations we analyze the instruments and potential of these types of civil society organizations for the inclusion of traditional and customary forms of neighborhoods into the planning and decision making in the process of urban transformation. We find that new types of neighborhood organizations aim at defending their members against forced eviction. Moreover, they organize voice thereby linking residents and local politicians. Our paper highlights the importance of securing both, economic property rights and customary residential rights of citizens for successful and sustainable conflict resolution. Our paper ends with recommendations for the development and further formalization of urban resistance movements' organized efforts to participate in the process of urban transformation. Likewise we give recommendations for the better integration of these organizations in future processes of politics and planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Hanisch & Tuba Inal-Çekiç, 2014. "Cooperative Response to Urban Transformation: Lessons from Istanbul," ERSA conference papers ersa14p228, European Regional Science Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa14/e140826aFinal00228.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ostrom, Vincent & Tiebout, Charles M. & Warren, Robert, 1961. "The Organization of Government in Metropolitan Areas: A Theoretical Inquiry," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 831-842, December.
    2. Tuna Kuyucu & Özlem Ünsal, 2010. "‘Urban Transformation’ as State-led Property Transfer: An Analysis of Two Cases of Urban Renewal in Istanbul," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1479-1499, June.
    3. Valeria Monno & Abdul Khakee, 2012. "Tokenism or Political Activism? Some Reflections on Participatory Planning," International Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 85-101.
    4. Max Rousseau, 2009. "Re‐imaging the City Centre for the Middle Classes: Regeneration, Gentrification and Symbolic Policies in ‘Loser Cities’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 770-788, September.
    5. Caglar Keyder, 2005. "Globalization and Social Exclusion in Istanbul," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 124-134, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mine Eder & Özlem Öz, 2015. "Neoliberalization of Istanbul's Nightlife: Beer or Champagne?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 284-304, March.
    2. Bahar Sakizlioğlu, 2014. "Inserting Temporality into the Analysis of Displacement: Living Under the Threat of Displacement," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(2), pages 206-220, April.
    3. Coskun, Yener, 2011. "Does re-design of the policies on housing finance and supply help to solve housing question of Turkey?," MPRA Paper 31729, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Gülçin Erdi Lelandais, 2014. "Space and Identity in Resistance against Neoliberal Urban Planning in Turkey," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1785-1806, September.
    5. Christos A Makridis & Andrew A Borkowski & Gil Alterovitz, 2024. "Perspectives on advancing innovation and human flourishing through a network of AI institutes," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 557-562.
    6. Deller, Steven C. & Hinds, David G. & Hinman, Donald L., 2001. "Local Public Services In Wisconsin: Alternatives For Municipalities With A Focus On Privatization," Staff Papers 12658, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    7. World Bank, 2015. "Republic of Yemen," World Bank Publications - Reports 23660, The World Bank Group.
    8. Monika Streule & Ozan Karaman & Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid, 2020. "Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 652-672, July.
    9. Martin G. Kocher & Fangfang Tan & Jing Yu, 2018. "Providing Global Public Goods: Electoral Delegation And Cooperation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 381-397, January.
    10. Gaetano Martino & Giulia Giacchè & Enrica Rossetti, 2016. "Organizing the Co-Production of Health and Environmental Values in Food Production: The Constitutional Processes in the Relationships between Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups and Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-22, March.
    11. Amir B. Ferreira Neto & Joshua C. Hall, 2019. "Economies of scale and governance of library systems: evidence from West Virginia," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 237-253, September.
    12. Esin Özdemir & Ayda Eraydin, 2017. "Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 727-748, September.
    13. Cihan Tuğal, 2021. "Urban Symbolic Violence Re‐Made: Religion, Politics and Spatial Struggles in Istanbul," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 154-163, January.
    14. William J. Luther, 2021. "Behavioral and Policy Responses to COVID-19: Evidence from Google Mobility Data on State- Level Stay-at-Home Orders," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 36(Fall 2021), pages 67-89.
    15. Tavares Antonio F., 2018. "Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 22(1), pages 5-15, March.
    16. Galaz, Victor & Crona, Beatrice & Österblom, Henrik & Olsson, Per & Folke, Carl, 2012. "Polycentric systems and interacting planetary boundaries — Emerging governance of climate change–ocean acidification–marine biodiversity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 21-32.
    17. Mark Lubell & Adam Douglas Henry & Mike McCoy, 2010. "Collaborative Institutions in an Ecology of Games," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 287-300, April.
    18. Mark Schneider & Byung Ji, 1987. "The flypaper effect and competition in the local market for public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 27-39, January.
    19. Cavalcante, Ana Helena A. P., 2015. "Barriers and opportunities for climate adaptation: The water crisis in Greater São Paulo," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 04-2015, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.
    20. Gaigné, Carl & Riou, Stéphane & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2016. "How to make the metropolitan area work? Neither big government, nor laissez-faire," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 100-113.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban transformation; neighborhood association; housing cooperatives; movement; Istanbul;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p228. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.