Politico-institutional change and urban renewal in the neoliberal era: The case of Ulus Square, Ankara

Date

2024-2

Author

Köse, Hami Doruk

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Due to the proliferation of rules governing urban renewal processes and the multiplicity of actors involved, renewal processes are increasingly confronted with challenges, many of which become subjects of judicial proceedings. In order to overcome these challenges that hinder urban renewal, public authorities navigate on the edge of legality/illegality and formality/informality, demonstrating a tendency to leverage legal indeterminacies and informalities. This dissertation focuses on examining this tendency by centering on urban renewal initiatives of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality (AMM) in Ulus Square, located at the heart of the historical city center of Ankara, in the post-2000 period. The study investigates why these initiatives failed and what administrative tactics the AMM employed to address this failure. Additionally, it analyzes how the AMM utilized legal indeterminacy and informality in the urban renewal process. It highlights Ulus Square as an overregulated and multi-actor urban space, thereby demonstrating the complexity and contentious nature of the urban renewal process. The study suggests that the challenges AMM faced in the urban renewal process stem from various factors, including financial constraints, urban policy priorities, the historical and cultural significance of the area, social resistance, legitimacy concerns, legal challenges initiated by professional associations and local residents, and upcoming elections. Furthermore, the study argues that the failure of AMM's urban renewal initiatives is closely related to the absence of large, monolithic, and negotiable interests in the region, hindering the formation of an urban coalition. It contends that the failure to establish an urban coalition renders informal channels ineffective. Consequently, it identifies that the AMM increasingly stepped outside the legal sphere to break the deadlock in the urban renewal process.

Subject Keywords

urban entrepreneurialism, legal indeterminacy, informality, administrative tactics, urban renewal

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108413

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis