A critical inquiry into migration through bodies: Van as a superdiverse city

Date

2023-11-10

Author

Ateş, Burcu

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Departing from conceptualising superdiversity in an urban context contested with diverse forms, motivations and actors of migration, this thesis aims to develop a socio-spatial analysis of how difference makes and takes place in Van. The urban landscapes of Van have been significantly diversified through the migration of human and non-human agents over its history. The thesis shows that urbanisation can no longer be understood only through material and physical change but also through the transformations in the urban culture. Due to the constant mobility of people as well as ideas, labour, and goods, it operates more at a biopolitical level informed by embodied socio-spatial practices of different social agents. Thus, the thesis adopts a cross-scalar approach, merging conditions of the urban and the body. It represents a methodological focus informed by feminist scholarship for urban research. The methodology is built upon a twofold structure based on archival and ethnographic analysis. The former includes analysis of the data reached via literature review and digital archives. For the latter, fieldwork was conducted in Van, which embraced encounters with different social agents such as transnational and internally displaced migrants, governmental and non-governmental institutes, and locals. Based on the socio-spatial narratives of these actors, the thesis shows that intersecting migration histories make not only the personal histories of people but of the city as well. This is proven with the collective urban narrative of Van, which is woven based on the conceptualisation of bodyscapes by tracing the socio-spatial practices of dwelling, labour and rituals as found in the narratives of fieldwork participants. The thesis ultimately proposes that beyond employing a traditional analysis informed by a single socio-spatial condition, a situated and embodied analysis should be followed to critically understand the everyday social realities of contemporary cities.

Subject Keywords

Migration, Superdiversity, Bodyscape, Collective Urban Narrative, Van

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/107724

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis