Politics of decay and spatial resistance |
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Authors: | Elif Ekin Akşit |
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Affiliation: | Department of Political Science and Public Administration , Ankara University , 06590 Cebeci, Ankara, Turkey E-mail: elifaksit@yahoo.com |
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Abstract: | A historical and multi-cultural district called ?stiklal challenges the Turkish claim as a secular, culturally Muslim, and ethnically Turkish nation. This region is at the heart of the republic: it is in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara, and within a region called Ulus, i.e. ‘the Nation.’ This district is threatened by a continuous process of demolition that has been taking place around this region since the 1940s, in fact, in the last thirty years, a politics of decay has complemented actual acts of demolition. The female residents of the region counteract this politics by narrating the daily problems that the residents of ?stiklal encounter as a result of this politics. Their strategies of narration constitute a resistance against exclusion. By historicizing the experiences that the district has endured, they fight the temporalization of this space, and manage to transgress its isolation. |
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Keywords: | Turkey historical space gender ethnicity nation-building |
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