Structural violence and the urban politics of hope in Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

This paper examines the role of violence in Turkey’s state-coordinated pursuit of rapid urban transformation. We argue that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) implemented an urban development regime that relied on structural violence to control and distribute urban rent, housing and land. Despite framing this mode of urban transformation as a way to include marginalised urban populations in economy and society, it ultimately proved to be politically and economically unsustainable. In response to resistance, the AKP shifted its strategy to one of coercion in order to maintain control of the pace and scope of urbanisation. We present original research from Ankara and show how this strategic shift unfolded through an analysis of urban policy and planning practice. By highlighting the negotiated nature of Turkey's urban transformation and the limits of structural violence, this paper offers insights into the complexities of contemporary urban politics.

Keywords:

• structural violence
• politics of hope
• state-led urbanisation
• Ankara
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A propaganda animation about a Turkish family in the year 2071, reminiscent of the Jetsons, is a striking depiction of this ideal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON6xkigJ6aU.

2 While the ultimate outcome of this state-led urbanisation could be over-production of urban environment/housing, the immoral nature of this growth (see Akçomak 2018) radiates an optimistic hype (and yet passing/diffusing its costs to the stakeholders), and the very fact that it was politically constructed as a ‘scheme’, renders our case a Ponzi Scheme.

3 Part of the rent generated was also channelled by municipalities to the Islamic charities and the local party branches delivering aid to the urban poor without access to (land) assets, thereby allowing the municipalities to serve the previously excluded urban poor as ‘first class citizens’ (see Doğan 2016; Batuman 2013a).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship [grant number NAF2R2/100172].

Notes on contributors

Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ

Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye. Email: [email protected]

Seth Schindler

Seth Schindler is a Senior Lecturer in the Global Development Institute at University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Email: 
[email protected]

Mehmet Penpecioğlu

Mehmet Penpecioğlu is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Pamukkale University, Denizli, Türkiye. Email: [email protected]