From gecekondu to apartmankondu: economic transformation of the squatter settlers of Rumeli Hisarüstü from 1960 onward

Abstract

In this study the primary and secondary transformation of the economic lives of the squatter settlers of Rumeli Hisarüstü in line with the building up of gecekondu/ gunduzkondu/ apartmankondu from 1960 onwards, the impact of the neoliberal policies in the world and specifically in Turkey on this transformation process, and the modifying role of the Bogazic;i University and its students is analyzed utilizing a qualitative research methodology by directing open-ended and semi-structured interview questions to the respondents selected through a judgmental and purposive sampling from the population of Rum eli Hisariistii as well as through participant observation. The squatter settlers of Rumeli Hisarüstü have gone through a process of acculturation with the outcomes of assimilation, integration, marginality and separation at different levels. When the primary and secondary economic transformation process is viewed and analyzed within a dialectical socio-economic and historical continuum, the empirical evidence suggests that, contrary to the prevailing understanding on the social exclusion thesis with regard to the squatter settlements due to the global neo-liberal policies, Rumeli Hisarüstü squatter settlement is rather integrated into the system containing the prototype of the neoliberal economic relations and transformation within itself and at the same time giving rise to a minor urban underprivileged class. This economic transformation also paved the way for the transformation of Rumeli Hisarüstü squatter settlers' economic ideologies, forming a new Rumeli Hisarüstü identity.