Territorial Stigmatisation : Urban Renewal and Displacement in a Central Istanbul Neighbourhood

In Tarlabasi, an Istanbul neighbourhood facing massive redevelopment and displacement, marginalized residents speak about belonging, stigma, and what their community means to them. Based on a long-term ethnographic study that includes interviews, photographs, and archival research, Constanze Letsch examines how territorial stigmatization is weaponized by the state and how differently stigmatized groups try to fight against the vilification of their mahalle. The contested plans of urban renewal threaten not only their homes and workplaces but a rapidly vanishing Istanbul: socio-demographic interdependencies and networks that have developed over decades. In Tarlabasi, an Istanbul neighbourhood facing massive redevelopment and displacement, marginalised residents speak about belonging, stigma, and what their community means to them. Based on a long-term ethnographic study that includes interviews, photographs, and archival research, Constanze Letsch examines how territorial stigmatisation is weaponised by the state and how differently stigmatised groups try to fight against the vilification of their neighbourhood. The contested plans of urban renewal threaten not only their homes and workplaces but a rapidly vanishing Istanbul: socio-demographic interdependencies and networks that have developed over decades. Contents 9 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 17 Chapter one: Looking for Resistance in all the Wrong Places 31 Chapter two: Waking the Poisoned Princess 49 Chapter three: Judging Books by Their Covers 83 Chapter four: Experiencing territorial stigma in Tarlabaşı 113 Chapter five: Belonging 143 Chapter six: Have you heard? 179 Chapter seven: In the eye of the beholder 207 Chapter eight: Giving in to stigma 229 Chapter nine: Speaking back 249 Displaced 275 References 285