Disasters as an ideological strategy for governing neoliberal urban transformation in Turkey: insights from Izmir/Kadifekale

Abstract

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Turkish cities have undergone large-scale change through a process referred to as urban transformation, involving, notably, the demolition of inner-city low-income settlements. The official authorities and business circles have resorted to various forms of discourse to justify these projects, which have led to the deportation of a significant number of people to peripheral areas. The discourse of 'natural disasters', for example, suggests that urban transformation is necessary to protect people from some pending event. Probably the most effective application of this discourse has occurred in Izmir, where the risk posed by 'landslides' has played a critical role in the settlement demolitions conducted in the huge inner-city neighbourhood of Kadifekale. By examining the case of Kadifekale, this paper provide some insights into how 'natural disasters' serve as a discourse with which to legitimise the neoliberal logic entrenched in the urban transformation process in Turkey.

A socio-spatial analysis of urban transformation at a neighborhood scale: The case of the relocation of Kadifekale inhabitants to TOKİ Uzundere in İzmir

“…4 However, according to narratives gathered from immigrant residents, the way this relocation has been conducted has caused severe problems in their daily lives, their socio-economic status in the city and their social networks. While other studies conducted on the Kadifekale urban transformation project have dealt with various consequences of and problems in the conduct of the project (see Demirtas ß-Milz, 2013;Saraçoglu & Demirtas ß-Milz, 2014), the main objective of this article is to critically analyze the incompatibilities between the residents' past socio-spatial habits in Kadifekale and the spatial features of the new district in TOK _ I Uzundere. The practices of urban transformation in Turkey have generated much debate.…”

“…The literature on urban transformation projects in the largest cities of Turkey indicate the following main problems in the way they are conducted: land and real estate speculation caused by the projects; relocation of low-income settlers from their neighborhoods either to other low-income settlements or to newly built apartment blocks on urban peripheries; and the physical and infra-structural problems of these newly built apartment blocks (see Demirtas ß-Milz, 2013;Kuyucu and Ünsal, 2010;Saraçoglu & Demirtas ß-Milz, 2014). This study mainly deals with the last two problems mentioned above by taking into account the fact that the social consequences of the new spatial contexts offered to the users have as much to tell as the spatial interventions themselves.…”

“…4 The risk of a landslide in the area cannot be underestimated. However, certain factors, such as the human-induced/policy-related causes of landslide, the delay of nearly 30 years before the municipality started the project, the possible underlying neoliberal concerns of urban regeneration behind the project, and the lack of a socially responsible agenda in the conduct of the project are considered by some scholars as factors that bring into question the sincerity of claims by the project holders regarding the risk of landslide (see Saraçoglu & Demirtas ß-Milz, 2014): ''The discourses of 'urgency' and that of 'natural disasters' served to conceal the structural problems and to depict the project as an unquestionable technical intervention to address the imminent dangers posed by a landslide'' (see Saraçoglu & Demirtas ß-Milz, 2014). 5 In the history of urban transformation in Turkey, the 1980s was a period of significant changes (Aydınlı & Turan, 2012).…”

Disaster Capitalism: Empirical Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

“…This decision aligned with the government's coastal development strategy and the preferences of multinational hotel developers (Gunewardena 2008;Shaw et al 2010: 20-22). 26 In more recent times, the mere evocation of landslide risks in Kadifekale, Turkey was used to justify the removal of lowincome, migrant settlements in favor of recreational zones and urban transformation projects (Saraçoğlu and Demirtaş-Milz 2014).…”

Repossession, Re‐informalization and Dispossession: The ‘Muddy Terrain’ of Land Commodification in Turkey

“…Discursive references are often made to the dangers for residents posed by natural disasters (i.e. landslides) (Saraçoğlu and Demirtaş‐Milz ), and to social problems presumed to be generated, for example, by the Roma population in İstanbul's historic heritage sites (Dinçer ).…”