Journal Articles by Sinan Erensü
Social Text, 2022
Hall hosted a rst of its kind workshop on the future of the city's urban forests, registered tree... more Hall hosted a rst of its kind workshop on the future of the city's urban forests, registered trees, public parks, and recreational grounds. Aptly titled Istanbul Green Spaces Workshop, the event was organized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and attracted some twelve hundred participants across fourteen parallel sessions on a variety of topics ranging from rooftop gardening to how to protect Istanbul's ancient bostans (market gardens). The main venue was packed in the morning of the rst day. Municipal of cers, landscaping professionals, academics, college students, and urban activists were all scrambling for seats to watch the opening address of the new mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamog lu. Only six months earlier, his election campaign had ended the Justice and Development Party (AKP) cadres' twenty-ve-year-long control over the city government, a long political reign begun in 1994 by a then-rookie politician, now president, Recep Tayyip Erdog an. Mayor Imamog lu began his talk by hinting at the green record of the outgoing local leadership: "If we tell 50 random Istanbulites about this green spaces workshop," the mayor continued sarcastically, "most would react, 'What green space? Have they left any of it?' Sad, but true!" The same day, the new green spaces vision of the new municipal administration was made public as well. Accordingly, the immediate goals would be increasing participation in planning and design, bringing more
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Middle East Report, 2018
Turkey’s rush to energy, however, is more than a story
of a burgeoning energy market and the rapi... more Turkey’s rush to energy, however, is more than a story
of a burgeoning energy market and the rapid expansion of
the country’s infrastructural capacity. The field of energy
has been central to the AKP’s hegemonic strategy in myriad
material and symbolic ways as the party consolidated its
rule, in part through a heavy emphasis on infrastructure
provision. Opening up the energy industry created a new
accumulation opportunity for shrinking sectors and struggling
capital owners in the aftermath of the 2001 financial
crisis. 82 of the 100 richest business people in Turkey have
become active in energy, which was largely state-owned a
decade ago.3 Energy has become a sector not just for big
business and the well-connected, but also for a wide-range
of small players, including garment manufacturers, municipalities,
soccer clubs and retired bureaucrats.
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Review of Middle East Studies, 2018
Twenty-first century Turkey has been shaped by two conflicting trends: all-encompassing reform in... more Twenty-first century Turkey has been shaped by two conflicting trends: all-encompassing reform in almost all aspects of law that were transformative if not altogether progressive, and an increasing erosion of the rule of law, which finally culminated in a nationwide emergency regime and the April 2017 constitutional referendum. The pressing question for many is why the promising reform era was abandoned for crude repression? In this essay, we answer this question by challenging its very foundation and pointing instead to an alternative line of inquiry concerning Turkish politics and society, one that focuses precisely on the interplay between reform and repression. The constitutional referendum of April 2017 compels observers and scholars of Turkey to reevaluate the interplay between reform and repression. Rather than reading contemporary Turkey as a case of relapse from reform into repression, as many commentators do, we suggest approaching reform and repression as concomitant and complementary modes of government.
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Energy Research & Social Science , 2018
Turkish energy infrastructures have recently gone through an unprecedented expansion. The country... more Turkish energy infrastructures have recently gone through an unprecedented expansion. The country's energy production capacity more than doubled in a decade; the Turkish energy market became one of the world's fastest growing by attracting USD 50 billion between 2008–2015. This aggressive growth was met with opposition in the countryside, setting in motion an encounter between capital and society along energy infrastructures and land-use disputes, bestowing state a new role of brokerage along with new legal tools and authorities. In order to better understand this encounter, I first examine the fragmentary neoliberalization of the energy sector over the past three decades and highlight the uneven, variegated, piecemeal and conjunctural nature of its outcomes. Then I discuss, through the notion of energopolitics, the role of energy in enabling an authoritarian mode of power, which can help us to think through the arrival of a post-neoliberal future.
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In June 2013, Istanbul and many cities across Turkey became stages of massive demonstrations and ... more In June 2013, Istanbul and many cities across Turkey became stages of massive demonstrations and occupations, which were sparked by a conflict over Gezi Park in central Istanbul. For many, the 'park issue' was simply the last straw, and it led to unprec edented revolt, reflecting a huge number of grievances against the government for some, while for others it emphasized the impoverishing consequences of the Justice and Devel opment Party's (AKP's) urban policies. Instead of disentangling causes and effects, we think that a productive way of approaching the oppositional surge that erupted in Gezi Park is through the political work that space does in the context of the increasing prominence of speculationdriven and authoritarian interventions in urban spaces. Gezi, as an event, not only disrupted the routinized scripts of an increasingly autocratic government and defied the presumed consensus over realestate and infrastructureled economic growth policies, but also helped to articulate a series of political agendas across the urban–rural continuum that came before it. Even after the occupation, the Gezi spirit continued to politicize space through various delocalizations. By elaborating on a particular phrase popularized during Gezi, namely yaşam alanı (life space), the article discusses how the riot's political impact deepened and expanded not only through defending a space but also by creating new ones, both materially and conceptually.
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Toplum ve Hekim, 2017
Son on yılda hafriyatçı yatırımların artan bir biçimde ekonominin merkezine oturması ve dolayısıy... more Son on yılda hafriyatçı yatırımların artan bir biçimde ekonominin merkezine oturması ve dolayısıyla ekolojik yıkımın derinleşmesi ile birlikte çevre mücadeleleri de yaygınlaşmaya ve görünür olmaya başladı. Kabaran çevre ve ekoloji muhalefetinin en yaygın, en görünür, ve en ilham verici ayağını, hiç şüphesiz, hidro elektrik santral (HES) karşıtı hareket oluşturuyor. Ülkenin farklı kırsal bölgelerinde örneklerine rastladığımız sayısız dere, vadi, köy koruma platform ve dernekleri ile somutlaşan HES karşıtı hareket, yakın bir tarihe kadar dar bir alana sıkışmış olan çevreciliğin hem yaygınlaşması ve geniş kitlelerle buluşmasında, hem de yeni bir karakter ve söylem kazanmasında çok etkili oldu. HES karşıtı hareketin çevre mücadelesi içindeki bu merkezi konumuna rağmen dere savunusu yapan kırsal mücadelelerin tam olarak neye karşı çıktıkları hâlâ tartışılmaya muhtaç bir konu. Bu makale HES karşıtı harekeleri hidroelektrik yatırımlarının tetiklediği mülksüzleştirme süreçleri ve bu süreçlere maruz kalan nüfusun mekânsal ve sınıfsal farklılıklarına odaklanarak okumayı amaçlıyor. HES karşıtı hareketin imkânlarının aynı anda onun sınırlarına da işaret ettiğini iddia eden makale, HES meselesinin kırsal çözülmeden ve köy-kent dinamiğinden bağımsız okunamayacağını öne sürüyor.
Within the last decade environmentalist actions and protests have further spread and become more visible along with the rising economic importance of investments involving excavation and consequent deepening of ecologic crisis. The most common, visible and inspiring component of this rising environmentalist and ecologic opposition is no doubt the movement against hydroelectric power plants (HEPP). The anti-HEPP movement assuming a concrete character through countless platforms and associations in different rural parts of the country established to protect streams, valleys and villages has been quite influential in further spread and popularization of environmental concerns which once remained marginal, and also in giving these concerns a new character and discourse. In spite of this central position of anti-HEPP movement in overall struggle for the environment, what exactly rural actions defending streams are opposed to still needs discussion and clarification. This article intends to approach anti-HEPP movements by focusing on processes of expropriation triggered by HEPP investments and spatial and class-based differences in population groups exposed to these processes. The article maintains that possibilities of anti-HEPP movement points out, at the same time, to its limitations, and that the issue of HEPP cannot be addressed independently of rural dissolution and rural-urban dynamics.
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Teorik Bakış, Sep 2014
Komplo Teorilerinin büyüsünü büsbütün inkar etmeden toplumsal ve siyasal bağlamlarında anlamlandı... more Komplo Teorilerinin büyüsünü büsbütün inkar etmeden toplumsal ve siyasal bağlamlarında anlamlandırmak istiyoruz. Bu amaçla yazımızda iiktidat korkusunun ve büyüsünün bir aradalığını bize gösteren toplumsal bir olgu olarak komplo teorilerini antropolojinin büyü, korku, ve iktidarı beraber irdelediği bir alan olan 'cadılık' külliyetı bağlamında ele alıyoruz.
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The Arab Spring, Greek riots. Protests in Wisconsin and Indignados in Spain. The Chilean educatio... more The Arab Spring, Greek riots. Protests in Wisconsin and Indignados in Spain. The Chilean education conflict, rural uprisings in China, and the Occupy Movement. 2011 was a year of social uprisings. As we leave their anniversaries behind, we asked some of the top social movements scholars to reflect on these events and what we can learn from them.
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Contexts, Jan 1, 2011
It’s been years since the last episode of The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore, Maryland, air... more It’s been years since the last episode of The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore, Maryland, aired on HBO, but its dedicated fan base, including many social scientists, still continues to grow. Every term, another course in sociology, public health, or media studies is formed around the show, and students form long lines to enroll. Contexts reached out to several illustrious professors (and one eager student) to learn more about the social importance and pedagogical value of this groundbreaking series which examined Baltimore’s drug trade, seaports, government, schools, and media in five critically-acclaimed seasons.
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This is a paper Yasar Adanali and I wrote many years ago in Denmark well before the Danish Cartoo... more This is a paper Yasar Adanali and I wrote many years ago in Denmark well before the Danish Cartoon Crisis. It looks very primitive now, especially weak in theory; yet still fun to read.
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Book Chapters by Sinan Erensü
The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics, 2022
This chapter traces the multiple trajectories of neoliberal politics in Turkey from 1980 on ward ... more This chapter traces the multiple trajectories of neoliberal politics in Turkey from 1980 on ward by putting economic and sociological dynamics of neoliberalism in dialogue with ethnographic and anthropological analyses of its political configurations. The first two sections trace the two formative moments of neoliberal politics in Turkey as responses to the crisis conjunctures of the 1970s and 1990s. These sections provide an account of ne oliberal politics informed by class struggles at the macro-historical level. The subsequent two sections analyze the same historical periods at the level of micropolitics from two perspectives: (a) the formations of violence characterizing the enactment of neoliberaliza tion processes, and (b) the subjective processes through which neoliberalism harnesses economies of desire. The final section returns to the macro-historical level and offers crit ical reflections regarding the direction of the economic politics that is emerging as the in stitutional architecture of neoliberal governmentality is being dismantled under Erdoğan's "new Turkey."
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Neoliberal Modernization and Economic Growth in Turkey, 2017
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Neredeyse çeyrek asırdır çalışma hak ve imkanları sistematik olarak törpülenen, doğası halihazırd... more Neredeyse çeyrek asırdır çalışma hak ve imkanları sistematik olarak törpülenen, doğası halihazırda yüzyıllık bakır madenciliğinin kaçınılmaz bir sonucu olarak yıpranmış bu yorgun işçi kasabası nasıl olmuştu da siyanür havuzlarına karşı böylesine kuvvetli bir tepki verebilmişti? Özelleştirme dalgasına, işten çıkarılmalara, ücretlerin erimesine ve taşeronlaşma eğilimine dur diyememiş bu halk ne olmuştu da en nihayetinde ayaklanabilmişti? Üstelik bu mücadele herhangi bir şirkete karşı değil, siyasal iktidarın ekonomik düzeninin sembol yüklenicisi Cengiz Holding’e verilmiş ve tüm tehditlere rağmen hiçbir işçi işten çıkartılmadan kazanılmıştı. Bu direnişi motive eden, bu zaferi mümkün kılan etmenler nelerdi? Murgul, benzer mücadelelere nasıl ilham kaynağı olabilirdi? Bu beklenmedik zaferin Karadeniz, yerel mekan mücadeleleri ve bunların ötesinden en genel anlamıyla toplumsal muhalefet için anlamı ne olabilirdi? Bu makale bu sorulara cevap bulmayı ve Murgul’un direnişinin imkan ve sınırlarını zaman zaman örtüşen, zaman zaman ayrışan emek ve çevre mücadeleleri ekseninde incelemeyi amaçlıyor.
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Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scarcity, Marketization and Participation a, 2013
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İsyanın ve Umudun Dip Dalgası: Günümüz Türkiye'sinden Politik Ekoloji Tartışmaları (Tekin Yayınla... more İsyanın ve Umudun Dip Dalgası: Günümüz Türkiye'sinden Politik Ekoloji Tartışmaları (Tekin Yayınları, 2016) kitabı giriş yazısı
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Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scarcity, Marketization and Participation
Water’s use as energy has been one of the key channels through which hegemonic discourses on wate... more Water’s use as energy has been one of the key channels through which hegemonic discourses on water have been established. As state-owned, large-scale technical solutions, large dams have been archetypical products of modern water governance that ascertained water’s resource quality. As environmentalism and carbon control became policy drivers, principles of turning water into electricity have also been transformed. At this juncture, small-size, run-of-the-river hydro-power plants (SHP) gained currency against large dams in the emerging low-carbon economy. This paper traces a recent change in the Turkish water-energy nexus that is spearheaded by two thousand private SHP projects most of which are to be built across the Black Sea coastal region. Addressing the encounter between emerging concepts – such as privatization, carbon control and green energy – with old hegemonic discourses – such as scarcity, crisis and development, the paper aims to contribute to the discussions of continuity and rupture in the modernist water governance paradigm.
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Books by Sinan Erensü
Elinizdeki derleme her şeyden önce, Rize’deki Fırtına Vadisi’nde yapımı planlanan bir dizi nehi... more Elinizdeki derleme her şeyden önce, Rize’deki Fırtına Vadisi’nde yapımı planlanan bir dizi nehir tipi hidro-elektrik santraline (HES) karşı 1997 yılında açılan davayı başlangıç noktası kabul edersek, yirmi yıla yakın bir zamandır sürmekle olan mücadele deneyimlerini şekillendiren saikleri, süreçleri ve failleri kayda geçirmeyi hedefliyor. 1980 darbesinden beri sağ iktidarların “arka bahçesi” haline gelmekle birlikte kimi kasabalarında sol mirasını hiçbir zaman için tam olarak yitirmemiş olan Doğu Karadeniz’den,3 tehdit altındaki kültürel mirası yüzünden sadece Türkiye değil dünya çevre günde- minin üst sıralarına yerleşen Hasankeyf’e, Ege’nin direniş ilhamı Yuvarlak- çay’dan, kutsiyet, modernite ve isyanın birbiri ile karşılaştığı Munzur vadisine uzanıyor; yereldeki örgütlenme pratiklerini ve bunların birleşip oluştur- duğu ya da temasa geçtiği Derelerin Kardeşliği Platformu (DEKAP), Karadeniz İsyandadır Platformu (KİP) vs. gibi grupların deneyimlerini aktarıyoruz. Bunu yaparken aslında HES karşıtı hareketliliğin hem yükselen çevre hareketinin ötesinde, daha genel anlamı ile toplumsal muhalefet ve yerel siyaset dinamizminin neresine düştüğünü gündemleştiriyoruz.
Bununla birlikte derlemedeki makaleleri Türkiye’nin hızla dönüşen kırsal yaşamına tutulmuş bir pencere olarak okumak da mümkün. Bu açıdan bakıl- dığında Türkiye kırsalının ve taşrasının son çeyrek yüzyıldaki dönüşümünü ve hidro-enerji temelli kalkınma vaadinin bu dönüşüm içindeki rolünü anla- mada bu deneyimlerin kilit bir öneme sahip olduğunu iddia ediyoruz. Tarım ve hayvancılık politikalarının 1980 sonrasındaki neoliberal dönüşümünün yarattığı ekonomik mağduriyetler herhangi bir uzun erimli muhalefeti tetiklemekte yetersiz kalırken, Türkiye taşrası ve kırsalının neden “sudan sebepler” nedeniyle ayağa kalktığını sormanın devlet, toplumsal mücadeleler, neoliberalizm ve ekolojiye dair kavrayışımızı derinleştirmek için zaruri olduğunu düşünüyoruz.
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Journal Articles by Sinan Erensü
of a burgeoning energy market and the rapid expansion of
the country’s infrastructural capacity. The field of energy
has been central to the AKP’s hegemonic strategy in myriad
material and symbolic ways as the party consolidated its
rule, in part through a heavy emphasis on infrastructure
provision. Opening up the energy industry created a new
accumulation opportunity for shrinking sectors and struggling
capital owners in the aftermath of the 2001 financial
crisis. 82 of the 100 richest business people in Turkey have
become active in energy, which was largely state-owned a
decade ago.3 Energy has become a sector not just for big
business and the well-connected, but also for a wide-range
of small players, including garment manufacturers, municipalities,
soccer clubs and retired bureaucrats.
Within the last decade environmentalist actions and protests have further spread and become more visible along with the rising economic importance of investments involving excavation and consequent deepening of ecologic crisis. The most common, visible and inspiring component of this rising environmentalist and ecologic opposition is no doubt the movement against hydroelectric power plants (HEPP). The anti-HEPP movement assuming a concrete character through countless platforms and associations in different rural parts of the country established to protect streams, valleys and villages has been quite influential in further spread and popularization of environmental concerns which once remained marginal, and also in giving these concerns a new character and discourse. In spite of this central position of anti-HEPP movement in overall struggle for the environment, what exactly rural actions defending streams are opposed to still needs discussion and clarification. This article intends to approach anti-HEPP movements by focusing on processes of expropriation triggered by HEPP investments and spatial and class-based differences in population groups exposed to these processes. The article maintains that possibilities of anti-HEPP movement points out, at the same time, to its limitations, and that the issue of HEPP cannot be addressed independently of rural dissolution and rural-urban dynamics.
Book Chapters by Sinan Erensü
Books by Sinan Erensü
Bununla birlikte derlemedeki makaleleri Türkiye’nin hızla dönüşen kırsal yaşamına tutulmuş bir pencere olarak okumak da mümkün. Bu açıdan bakıl- dığında Türkiye kırsalının ve taşrasının son çeyrek yüzyıldaki dönüşümünü ve hidro-enerji temelli kalkınma vaadinin bu dönüşüm içindeki rolünü anla- mada bu deneyimlerin kilit bir öneme sahip olduğunu iddia ediyoruz. Tarım ve hayvancılık politikalarının 1980 sonrasındaki neoliberal dönüşümünün yarattığı ekonomik mağduriyetler herhangi bir uzun erimli muhalefeti tetiklemekte yetersiz kalırken, Türkiye taşrası ve kırsalının neden “sudan sebepler” nedeniyle ayağa kalktığını sormanın devlet, toplumsal mücadeleler, neoliberalizm ve ekolojiye dair kavrayışımızı derinleştirmek için zaruri olduğunu düşünüyoruz.
of a burgeoning energy market and the rapid expansion of
the country’s infrastructural capacity. The field of energy
has been central to the AKP’s hegemonic strategy in myriad
material and symbolic ways as the party consolidated its
rule, in part through a heavy emphasis on infrastructure
provision. Opening up the energy industry created a new
accumulation opportunity for shrinking sectors and struggling
capital owners in the aftermath of the 2001 financial
crisis. 82 of the 100 richest business people in Turkey have
become active in energy, which was largely state-owned a
decade ago.3 Energy has become a sector not just for big
business and the well-connected, but also for a wide-range
of small players, including garment manufacturers, municipalities,
soccer clubs and retired bureaucrats.
Within the last decade environmentalist actions and protests have further spread and become more visible along with the rising economic importance of investments involving excavation and consequent deepening of ecologic crisis. The most common, visible and inspiring component of this rising environmentalist and ecologic opposition is no doubt the movement against hydroelectric power plants (HEPP). The anti-HEPP movement assuming a concrete character through countless platforms and associations in different rural parts of the country established to protect streams, valleys and villages has been quite influential in further spread and popularization of environmental concerns which once remained marginal, and also in giving these concerns a new character and discourse. In spite of this central position of anti-HEPP movement in overall struggle for the environment, what exactly rural actions defending streams are opposed to still needs discussion and clarification. This article intends to approach anti-HEPP movements by focusing on processes of expropriation triggered by HEPP investments and spatial and class-based differences in population groups exposed to these processes. The article maintains that possibilities of anti-HEPP movement points out, at the same time, to its limitations, and that the issue of HEPP cannot be addressed independently of rural dissolution and rural-urban dynamics.
Bununla birlikte derlemedeki makaleleri Türkiye’nin hızla dönüşen kırsal yaşamına tutulmuş bir pencere olarak okumak da mümkün. Bu açıdan bakıl- dığında Türkiye kırsalının ve taşrasının son çeyrek yüzyıldaki dönüşümünü ve hidro-enerji temelli kalkınma vaadinin bu dönüşüm içindeki rolünü anla- mada bu deneyimlerin kilit bir öneme sahip olduğunu iddia ediyoruz. Tarım ve hayvancılık politikalarının 1980 sonrasındaki neoliberal dönüşümünün yarattığı ekonomik mağduriyetler herhangi bir uzun erimli muhalefeti tetiklemekte yetersiz kalırken, Türkiye taşrası ve kırsalının neden “sudan sebepler” nedeniyle ayağa kalktığını sormanın devlet, toplumsal mücadeleler, neoliberalizm ve ekolojiye dair kavrayışımızı derinleştirmek için zaruri olduğunu düşünüyoruz.
Hükümet, şirketlerle omuz omuza, ÇED raporlarını ekarte etmek için durmadan sinsi hamleler yapıyor. En temel çevresel varoluş hakkı ve sermaye yatırımları arasında büyük bir mücadeleye sahne olan ÇED süreci nedir? Bir “yönetişim” biçimi olarak nereye oturuyor, ekoloji hareketiyle ne ilgisi var?
Ancak Artvin’in Laz’ı, Hemşin’i, Gürcü’sü, Poşa’sı, Türk’ü bu yatırımların, bu büyük kalkınma hamlesinin değerini bilememiş olacaklar ki rızıklarını İstanbul ve Bursa başta olmak üzere büyük şehirlerde aramaya devam etmişler.
Absürtlük sınırlarını hiç çekinmeden zorlayan bu slogan geçen hafta içi Artvin’in Arhavi ilçesinde gerçekleşen bir HES eyleminde boy gösteren dövizlerden birine ait. Ancak ironik olan şu ki ne HES eylemi HES karşıtı, ne de döviz Gezivari bir sarkazm içeriyor.
Fevzi Özlüer ile TMMOB 9. Enerji Sempozyumu Tebliğimiz