Restoring Masculinity through Multiple Displacements Vs. Struggle for Dignity in Istanbul’s Transformation

Sakizlioglu, Bahar

Gentrification of lower-class neighborhoods in Istanbul has disproportionately affected women and queer communities, disposing them not only from their homes but also from their social networks, workplaces, and access to the city. By altering gender norms, relations, and the safety of public spaces, gentrification has led to isolation, dissolved collective care networks, and increased material and emotional labor for women and gender minorities. Additionally, the AKP's urban agenda, marked by flagship projects like the construction of a mosque in Taksim Square, a symbolic site of feminist, LGBTQI+, and working-class movements, has furthered the reclaming of urban spaces for a conservative, patriarchal agenda.

This paper argues that these displacements are deeply gendered, racialized, and classed, and it traces these processes of multiple displacements as spatial manifestations of what Deniz Kandiyoti (2010) referred as the "restoration of masculinity" within the framework of authoritarian housing and urban politics in Turkey. Multiple displacements not only marginalize women and gender minorities, reshaping their dignity, but also reconfigure social boundaries among them, positioning some as "undeserving" or "irresponsible," which decreases opportunities for solidarity among the dispossessed.

This paper approaches housing and gender politics as mutually constitutive: gender politics inhibits housing politics, and housing politics reinforces gender dynamics. It maps the processes of displacement at the intersection of housing and gender politics, alongside the everyday struggles of women and gender minorities to reclaim their contested dignity and urban spaces amidst gendered, classed, and racialized dispossessions. The research draws on a triangulation of data from interviews with feminist and urban housing experts and activists, longitudinal fieldwork on displacement in Istanbul, and document analysis of housing and gender policies.