Mine Islar

Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

We explore the emergence of two contemporary mega water projects in Turkey that are designed to meet the demands of the countrys major urban centers. Moreover, we analyze how policy makers in the water sector frame problems and solutions. We argue that these projects represent a tendency to depoliticize water management and steer away from controversial issues of water allocation by emphasizing large-scale, centralized, technical, and supply-oriented solutions. In doing so, urgent concerns are ignored regarding unsustainable water use, impacts on rural livelihoods, and institutional shortcomings in the water sector. These aspirations build heavily on prevailing discourses of modernity, development, and economic growth, and how urban centers are perceived as drivers of this growth. In the light of these tendencies, social and environmental implications are downplayed, even though the projects will change or already have changed the dynamics within urban-rural life and agricultural water resources practices. We develop an understanding of how such projects are presented as the only solution to problems of water scarcity in Turkey.

Struggles for recognition: privatisation of water use rights of Turkish rivers

This paper inquires into privatisation of water use rights for energy production. It is argued that contemporary struggles over rivers in Turkey are not only about conflicts of interest, but also reflect a discursive struggle of recognition. On the one hand, discourses associated with modernisation and neoliberalism construct the rivers as governable resources in ways that are normalised through legal and political practices. On the other hand, alternative framings of rivers are promoted by resistance movements that strive to challenge these hegemonic and power-laden representations of the rivers that dominate formal legal, political, and institutional frameworks. By framing water as a hybrid resource incorporating social, discursive, and physical relations, this article deals with the question of how rivers have become sites of contestation, in which various actors struggle for their representations, and thereby recognition.

“We are not in this to save the polar bears!”: the link between community renewable energy development and ecological citizenship

The transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system to a renewable one has emerged as a priority for many governments. This, in turn, has facilitated a rapid increase in renewable energy investments. However, this development raises important questions about the sustainability of energy governance when it comes to access and control of energy, public participation and transparency. In this article, decentralized renewable energy production is presented as one of the pathways towards more participation in sustainable energy development. Community renewable energy projects help to enable communities to act as citizens, rather than consumers. In this article, we aim to understand the interactions between community renewable energy transition and collective practices of citizenship. We investigate collective practices in energy development within the ecological citizenship framework by addressing the extent to which each community’s energy project displays the characteristics of ecological citizenship, in terms of how their collectivity is organized, articulated and shaped the future goals and vision. Based on the empirical data collected in Feldheim (Germany) and Samsø (Denmark), we find out that when collectivity is embedded in community renewable energy development, it resonates with the particularities of communitarian ecological citizenship that has a local focus rather than a political focus, and primarily prioritizes the cohesiveness and interests of the community (i.e. economic development) rather than the global commitment to sustainability discourses (i.e. climate change). This article also raises questions about the importance of intentionality in bringing about ecological outcomes of renewable energy transitions.

Neoliberalism, Nature, and Changing Modalities of Environmental Governance in Contemporary Turkey

This piece analyses some of the recent environmental governance changes in Turkey that could be described as neoliberal: privatization of watercourses, decentralization of water user associations (WUAs), and increasing use of market instruments, such as full cost recovery and privatization of urban water. In line with debates on variegation and neoliberalism (Brenner, Peck, and Theodore 2010), we argue that there are key historical traces and contextual factors that make the contemporary situation in Turkey unique and interesting with respect to broader debates on neoliberal environmental governance. Neoliberal practices and policies build on, accentuate, and articulate with these historical and contextual specificities. Historically, there are key connections to Ottoman policies and legacies, situating current pollcies as a disjointed continuation of some earlier and longer-term efforts (even as in other ways, contemporary policies also represent a sharp break from earlier policies and norms). The European Union accession process, recent economic crises, and the recent politics associated with the Islamic AK party all similarly bear a clear imprint on the pathways and effects of neoliberal environmental governance practices in this context. Our aim here is to untangle, and situate, contemporary environmental governance practices in Turkey in relation to some of these historical and contextual processes and pathways.

Grassroots practices of citizenship and politicization in the urban: the case of right to the city initiatives in Barcelona

ABSTRACT This article aims to produce an analysis of the politicization of the citizens after Spain’s Indignados movement from a citizenship framework. The article suggests that claiming the right to the city involves more than issues of access to urban amenities: it is also about claiming the right to participate in the formation and transformation of the city and the right to appropriate the city center. This positions these rights within the larger issue of citizenship by defining it as a collective practice rather than a state-sanctioned status. Our analysis is based on the empirical evidence derived from the semi-structured interviews, politicians’ speeches, information based on media resources and official websites, and participant observation during three months of fieldwork in Barcelona in 2016.