The York Research Database

Gentrification has long been addressed as a class remaking of the city led by the state. In this talk, I intervene in this economic focus by examining a municipal-led urban redevelopment project in a former squatter neighbourhood in Turkey, a country that suffers from growing authoritarianism. Drawing on analysis of political speeches, I reveal the ways state actors 'invite' different social groups, including the squatter dwellers, to benefit from the project, while criminalizing those opposing it.
I suggest that gentrification triggers a process in which the state agencies communicate official notions of citizenship through the built environment. Drawing on the fieldwork material including interviews and observations, I argue that strict, state-led definitions are actively negotiated and challenged by different social groups who mobilized citizenship in different, competing ways.