Re-territorialisation and the sites of autogestion within the periphery: Counter-hegemonic socio-spatial movements in Turkey

Geçtiğimiz 30 yılda Türkiye’de süregelen yeniden yapılandırma/ölçeklendirme süreçlerinde, periferik toplumsal ilişkilerin önemli mekan-toplumsal dönüşümlere uğramasına rağmen, neoliberal hegemonya büyük ölçüde muhalefetsiz kalmış ve ideolojik bir üstünlükten faydalanmıştır. Bununla birlikte, toplumsal mekanın üretiminin ve dönüşümünün neoliberal koşulları doğrudan kabul eden süreçlerden çok, dinamik ve çatışmalı süreçler olması, sınıflar arasında değişken bir dengenin varlığına işaret etmektedir. Bu bağlamda, çalışmamız, neoliberal yeniden yapılandırma ile koşullanan periferik kapitalist mekânları artan kapitalist gerilimlerin özyönetimsel momentumlar ile ayrıştığı muhtemel alanlar olarak konumlandırmaktadır. Bu makale, Türkiye’yi neoliberal yoğunlaşma ve genişleme süreçlerinin ‘farklılığın mekanları ya da fark gösteren mekânları’ üretmeye başladığı kapitalist zayıf noktalardan biri olarak tanımlamaktadır. Türkiye’nin hızlı neoliberal yeniden ölçeklendirilmesi, esasen kapitalist mekânın eşitsiz gelişiminin yeni bir formda - ihracata dayalı sınai kalkınma- yeniden üretimi süreci olmuş ve bu da neoliberal hegemonik konsensüsün ana dayanak noktasını oluşturmuştur. TEKEL mücadelesi ve Gezi Parkı direnişi gibi toplumsal hareketlerin artışı bu kontekst içinde analiz edilmeli ve bu karşı-hegemonik mücadeleler kapitalist devlet iradesinin ve neoliberal hegemonyanın zayıf noktalarının özyönetimsel anlara dönüşebileceği muhtemel alanlar olarak tanımlanmalıdır. Bu toplumsal hareketlerin, özellikle TEKEL mücadelesi ve Gezi direnişinin, kamusal mekânı mücadelenin ‘hem alanı hem de ve amacı’ olarak kullanarak, önemli özyönetim ve dayanışma pratikleri ortaya koyduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Bu makale, bu toplumsal/mekansal pratiklerin potansiyelleri ve limitlerini ‘neoliberal hegemonya çatlaklarını tespit etmek, bu çatlakları özyönetimsel pratiklerle genişletmek’ stratejisi bağlamında tartışmaktadır.

Çevrede mekanın yeniden üretimi ve özyönetim alanları: Türkiye’de karşı- hegemonik toplumsal/mekansal hareketler

During the last thirty years of rescaling/restructuring processes in Turkey, the neoliberal hegemony remained mostly unchallenged and enjoyed an ideological dominance while the peripheral capitalist social relations underwent a process of substantial socio-spatial transformation. However, this reflects an unstable equilibrium between classes, since the production and transformation of the social space is a dynamic and contested process, rather than a simple process of subordination to the neoliberal capitalist socio-spatial conditions. In that context, this study identifies peripheral capitalist spaces -conditioned by the contemporary neoliberal re- territorialisation- as the possible sites of intensifying capitalist tensions ready to be unclogged by an autogestional momentum. This paper defines Turkey as one of the capitalist zones of weakness in which the contradictions of the neoliberal processes of intensification and extension started to generate ‘spaces of difference or differential spaces’. The rapid neoliberal re-scaling of Turkey was in fact a process of reproduction of the uneven development of the capitalist space in a different form – export-oriented industrial development- which became the main pillar of the neoliberal hegemonic 1 consensus. The recent increase in the social movements and resistances such as the TEKELworkers’ struggle and the Gezi Park resistance should be analysed within this context and therefore should be identified as the possible sites of counter-hegemonic struggle where the weak points of the capitalist state power and neoliberal hegemony can be culminated into a moment of autogestion. It is possible to argue that these social struggles and particularly the TEKEL struggle and Gezi Park resistance demonstrated significant practices of self-management and solidarity by using the public space both as ‘the site and stake’ of the struggle, and this paper will discuss the potentials and limits of these socio-spatial movements in terms of the autogestional strategy of finding the fertile cracks in the neoliberal hegemony for the creation of the autogestional practices.

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