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Politics of place/space: The spatial dynamics of the Kurdish and Zapatista movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Zeynep Gambetti
Zeynep Gambetti*
Affiliation:
Boğaziçi University, Department of Political Science and International Relations, İstanbul, [email protected].
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Abstract

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This paper explores two examples of collective action, the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and the Kurdish movement in Turkey, by focusing on how these movements constructed two particular places, Diyarbakir and Chiapas, after the armed conflict subsided. My first aim is to show how this place-making has affected the discourses and practices of these movements. I argue that place-making is not only about locality or physical setting, but also about constructing a movement and a form of struggle in its own right. My second aim is to discuss the broad outlines of what may be called the “appropriation of space.” This refers not only to the spaces of visibility and solidarity opened up by a movement, but also to its chances of acquiring significance within local, national or global spaces of power. I look at how the Kurdish movement has had an impact on democracy in Turkey and compare it with the Zapatista movements local and transnational effects. I do so by relating physical and metaphorical notions of space to several concepts generated by social movement literature. As such, this study intends to contribute to spatial understandings of collective action. It is also likely to indicate various pitfalls and obstacles for emancipatory social movements in the present neoliberal era.

Keywords

politics of placespatialitysocial movementsZapatista movementKurdish movementDiyarbakir, Chiapas
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 41 , Fall 2009 , pp. 43 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2009

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