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Urban and Regional Planning in Turkey pp 185–211Cite as

Policy and Planning in the Age of Mobilities: Refugees and Urban Planning in Turkey

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the challenges posed by Syrian refugee problem (a multifaceted “mobility” problem especially hitting metropolitan cities) on urban planning practices and discourses in Turkey. Here, we portray the refugee problem as a multiscalar one, where international, national and local authorities meet the challenge in different ways. The multiscalar lens allows us to detect how various problem areas (security, sheltering, etc.) have become intertwined and concentrated on urban areas after refugee influx. In that regard, first we depict the role of “urban planning” in “governance of (refugee) mobility” in neoliberal era. Secondly, we briefly touch upon the historical association between the mobility patterns and urbanization in Turkey since 1923 to detect how public authorities (at different scales of governing) reacted to these mobilities. This historical analysis helps us locate the Syrian refugee problem into its proper context as an urban planning problem (not simply as an IR or security problem). Lastly, we discuss Syrian Refugee Crisis ’ challenges on urban areas and planning practices in Turkey by referring to its international, national and local governance. We conclude by summing up the key empirical and theoretical lessons drawn while also introducing analytical questions about the future direction of research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here, it should be noted that not all technologies favour mobility as “free movement”. The advances in defence systems block the mobility of illegal migrants and traders as well as war wearies lacking required documents, especially in state borders. Nation states and their local authorities develop tactics/strategies to contain cross-border movements. And, as shall be discussed in detail later, such techno-spatial tactics/strategies are not proactive, but reactive, and thus fall short of developing better-grounded policies in addressing the migrant/refugee problem.

  2. 2.

    Despite the paradigm’s recent popularity in sociology and urban studies, its key arguments are not new. It is rooted in the spatial turn in sociology, dating back to the early 1970s. Lefebvre’s (1991) notion of “social space” and Massey’s (1984) “relational analysis of space” made scholars rethink space as a social process that is always under (re)production rather than “as a container” (Massey 2005; Sheller 2017). As a socially constructed process, space has that power to shape social relations and thus is to be reshaped by them in return (Lefebvre 1991).

    Spatial turn in sociology not only influenced spatial theorists’ view on urban space “as a set of relations between entities” (Gregory and Urry 1985; Soja 1989; Sassen 1991) but also found its reflection in human mobility discussions in, for instance, Castells’ (1996) “network societies” and “spaces of flow” notions. Rethinking the role of networks, flows and mobilities in spatial relations also revived the “scalar” debates in political–economy and urban studies (Brenner 1997, 1999; Swyngedouw 1997).

  3. 3.

    Gecekondus, resembling slums and squatter developments in spatial context, are housing units that are constructed on public and private lands (without permission and consent by rights owners) by urban poor whose housing and sheltering needs could not be met by central and local authorities. They are rapid and immediate type of housing units which are mostly constructed at one night and that is why they are called “gecekondu” (“gece” means “night” in English and “kondu” refers to “construction building”. In overall it means “constructed at night”).

  4. 4.

    2004—Law No. 5216 (paving the way for development in rural areas); 2005—Law No. 5366 (paving the way for urban renewal in historical areas, protected areas); 2005—Law No. 5393 (competences for local governments to develop urban renewal projects to rebuilt old areas and areas in risk; to provide space for new housing and industrial projects); 2010—Changes in Article 73 in Law No. 5393 (local governments have the right to develop urban renewal projects even in unimproved lands <imarsız alan>); 2011—Decree-Law No. 644 and 648 (Ministry of Urbanization and Environment with competences of developing and applying urban renewal , urgent expropriation, etc.); and 2012—Law No. 6306 (urban renewal in risk areas, reconstruction of buildings in risk).

  5. 5.

    Due to the fact that municipality budgets are legally determined with respect to the registered Turkish citizens within the municipal borders, any additional funding or financial support to be allocated for Syrians is not applicable. Moreover, since temporary protection status does not grant Syrians the right to vote in national and local elections , municipalities may act reluctant to care about refugee issue.

  6. 6.

    An earlier version of this analytical take on mobility and the example given was introduced in Bayırbağ (2016).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of City and Regional Planning, Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey

    Feriha Nazda Güngördü

  2. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ

Authors
  1. Feriha Nazda Güngördü
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  2. Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ
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Correspondence to Feriha Nazda Güngördü .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ö. Burcu Özdemir Sarı

  2. Department of City and Regional Planning, Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey

    Suna S. Özdemir

  3. Department of City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Nil Uzun

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Güngördü, F.N., Bayırbağ, M.K. (2019). Policy and Planning in the Age of Mobilities: Refugees and Urban Planning in Turkey. In: Özdemir Sarı, Ö., Özdemir, S., Uzun, N. (eds) Urban and Regional Planning in Turkey. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05773-2_10

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