Gaining freedoms : claiming space in Istanbul and Berlin / Berna Turam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turam, Berna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political participation--Turkey--Istanbul.

Political participation.

Social conflict--Turkey--Istanbul.

Social conflict.

Public spaces--Political aspects--Turkey--Istanbul.

Public spaces.

Public spaces--Political aspects.

Turks.

Politics and government.

Istanbul (Turkey)--Politics and government--21st century.

Istanbul (Turkey).

Istanbul (Turkey)--Social conditions--21st century.

Turks--Germany--Berlin--Politics and government.

Social conflict--Germany--Berlin.

Public spaces--Political aspects--Germany--Berlin.

Kreuzberg (Berlin, Germany).

Social conditions.

Turks--Politics and government.

Germany--Berlin.

Germany--Berlin--Kreuzberg.

Turkey--Istanbul.

Physical Description:

xiii, 250 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Gaining Freedoms reveals a new locus for global political change: everyday urban contestation. Cities are often assumed hotbeds of socioeconomic division, but this assessment overlooks the importance of urban space and the everyday activities of urban life for empowerment, emancipation, and democratization. Through proximity, neighborhoods, streets, and squares can create unconventional power contestations over lifestyle and consumption. And through struggle, negotiation, and cooperation, competing claims across groups can become platforms to defend freedom and rights from government encroachments. Drawing on more than seven years of fieldwork in three contested urban sites-a downtown neighborhood and a university campus in Istanbul, and a Turkish neighborhood in Berlin-Berna Turam shows how democratic contestation echoes through urban space. Countering common assumptions that Turkey is strongly polarized between Islamists and secularists, she illustrates how contested urban space encourages creative politics-the kind of politics that advance rights, expression, and representation shared between pious and secular groups. Exceptional moments of protest, like the recent Gezi protests which bookend this study, offer clear external signs of upheaval and disruption, but it is the everyday contestation and interaction that forge alliances and inspire change. Ultimately, Turam argues that the process of democratization is not the reduction of conflict, but rather the capacity to form new alliances out of conflict. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : the city and the government

Between state spaces and autonomous places

Part 1. On neighborhood politics. A neighborhood divided by lifestyles

Affinities in the zones of freedom

Part 2. On campus politics. Fault lines on campus

New coalitions in safe zones

Part 3. On "ethnic" neighborhoods. Kreuzberg's divided diaspora

Emerging solidarities in immigrant zones

Conclusion : unified opposition to the divided supremacy of the AKP.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804793629

080479362X

9780804794480

0804794480

OCLC:

894746227