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The Conflictual (Trans)formation of the Public Sphere in Urban Space: The Case of Diyarbakır

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Zeynep Gambetti
Zeynep Gambetti*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University
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Extract

“In the East, understanding is a surreptitious shroud.”

Kemal Varol

“Men come into existence through their struggles”

This study aims to contribute to efforts to understand how redress occurs in local contexts impaired by armed conflict. Its particular focus is on events, dynamics and forms of relationality that (re)create public spheres on a local level. It takes the city of Diyarbakır, the largest in Southeastern Turkey, as the vantage point from which to explore the transformation of a site of violent conflict into a space for the expression of differences that were either nonexistent or suppressed. Since the beginning of the armed uprising of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1984, the majority of political actors in Diyarbakır have in effect been polarized into two antagonistic camps (the Turkish state vs. the PKK). With the end of armed conflict five years ago, Diyarbakır has been astoundingly transformed into a paradise for civil society activists. The dynamics through which new urban spaces of existence and of expression have been created have not ceased being conflictual. In exploring the formative function of micro and macro struggles on publicness, the theoretical intent of this study is to argue against the Habermasian conceptualization of the public sphere.

Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 32 , Spring 2005 , pp. 43 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2005

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