The Refugees’ Right to the Center of the City and Spatial Justice: Gentrification vs Commoning Practices in Tarlabaşı-Istanbul

Abstract

During the recent refugee crisis and following the common statement-agreement between the European Union and Turkey (18 March 2016), more than half a million refugees have been trapped in Istanbul. Although the vast majority is living in remote areas in the perimeter of the city, there is a remarkable exception in the central neighborhood of Tarlabaşı. Over the decades, this area has become a shelter for newcomers from eastern Turkey and, recently, for thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. In this neighborhood, refugees with the support of local and international solidarity groups establish communal houses, social centers, and collective kitchens, creating an example of commoning practices, mutual help, and transnational togetherness in the urban core. At the same time, over the past few years, Tarlabaşı has been the target of gentrification policies that aim to dislocate poor residents and refugees and to transform the area into a highincome residential area and a tourist destination. Thus, ongoing urban conflict is taking place for the right to the center of the city. This article follows the Lefebvrian concept of ‘the right to the city’ and Soja’s and Harvey’s notion of ‘spatial justice,’ taking also into account the discussion on the spatialities of ‘urban commons’ and ‘enclosures.’ It combines spatial analysis, participatory observation, and ethnographic research, and its main findings concern the refugees’ daily efforts against social segregation and exclusion shaped by commoning practices for spatial justice, visibility, and the right to the center of the city.

El derecho a la ciudad de las personas vulnerables. Perspectivas del caso de Estambul

“…Today, the city's residents are subject to socio-political and economic polarization, spatial segregation triggered by gentrification-driven urban regeneration projects, and resulting rising anxieties in the public sphere (Oz & Eder, 2018). In Istanbul, the right to the city is thus characterized by tensions between the state and a polarized society, as well as socio-spatial exclusion that targets vulnerable groups and individuals, while attempts to claim the right to the city are focused on protests against enviro-spatial destruction, such as the Gezi Park protests of 2013 (Kuymulu, 2013) and those against displacement via urban regeneration (Tsavdaroglou, 2020;Waite, 2020;Oz & Eder, 2018;Lelandais, 2013).…”

Urban Politics of Human Rights

“…Right to housing as a human right is being mobilised through the urban movements of right to the city and practices of spatial commoning in the urban area. Spatial commoning is briefly defined as collective social relations that retain, resist or demand bounded or abstract spaces beyond the market-led or state-led administration and are arranged by the following: community, mutual-pool resources and activities of sharing, caring and support in a community (Tsavdaroglou, 2020). People are not fully aware of or do not fully believe that they are entitled to housing as a human right.…”

The refugees’ right to the centre of the city: City branding versus city commoning in Athens

“…resources without a clearly defined ownership status). However, beyond the managerial resource-based discourse, numerous critical theory scholars (De Angelis, 2017; Federici, 2012; Stavrides, 2016; Tsavdaroglou, 2020) have recently emphasised the verbal form of commons, the so-called ‘commoning’, that further describes the social relations that have the ability to produce and reproduce, constitute and reconstitute, invent and reinvent the commons. This theoretical shift marks a variety of studies that highlight the productive and transformative character of commons.…”