Open AccessPoor Women at the Grip of Neoliberal Urbanism
Author(s) -
Burcu Hatiboğlu Eren
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
kadın 2000
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1302-9916
DOI - 10.33831/jws.v17i2.210
Subject(s) - sociology , neoliberalism (international relations) , slum , citizenship , empowerment , political science , solidarity , economic growth , gender studies , political economy , politics , economics , law , population , demography
Neoliberal ideology and its profit-driven policies have rapidly gained worldwide popularity in urbanization process since 1970s. Especially in the global south, it is argued that slum renewal projects—as an engine of neoliberal capital accumulation—were constructed through gendered discourses which also relied on women’s capacity for the material and social welfare of the family and community. From this point, some feminists warn about the danger of producing neoconservative lifestyle for women via neoliberalism and its liberal gender mainstreaming policies which is called ‘new patriarchal reforms’. Turkish urban areas are no exception of this process. Especially after new regulations for urban transformation and decentralisation in 2000s, the rent-seeking slum renewal projects in the city centers based on women participation for developing informal solidarity and sustainability of the development are co-implemented by TOKI (Housing Development Administration) and the municipalities. Thus, I argue that there is a strong connection between the ‘gender specific characteristics of decentralization’ and the slum renewal projects in which many paradoxes have arised between the policy discourse and the daily life of women within the context of women civil rights. As a matter of fact, daily life experiences of poor women in Ankara-Aktaş district have showed that urbanization process has been shaped by patriarchal assumptions about citizenship, identity and needs which is paradoxically deepening gender inequalities. In this study, the paradoxes between slum renewal policy discourses and transformation of women daily lives which make the process 'impossible’ are discussed with respect to feminist ethnographic field study implemented in Ankara-Aktaş district (Altındağ) between January 2012-March 2013. Consequently, statements of poor women provide us significant information about paradoxical nature of neoliberal urbanization and the ideal urban structure based on gender equality.