The Turkish-German Bridge: A Unique Socio-Spatial Construction in Kreuzberg

The Turkish-German Bridge: A Unique Socio-Spatial Construction in Kreuzberg

With the migration of Turkish people to Germany came the need to negotiate identity in a different space. Interactions and connections with their origin space and destination space create an opportunity for a new type of hybrid identity and manifestation in the neighborhoods where they live. The Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin is a place with ephemeral, unspoken borders, where Turkish-German residents face inclusion and exclusion on both sides. This dual-othering has a deep impact on the social psychology of this group and how socio-spatial practices are negotiated. This article examines how Turkish-Germans in Kreuzberg re-appropriate their identity and its spatial component to produce a unique space of their own.

___

  • Aktürk, Ş. (2011). Regimes of Ethnicity: Comparative Analysis of Germany, the Soviet Union/Post-Soviet Russia, and Turkey. World Politics, 63(1), 115-164.
  • Atasü Topçuoğlu, R. and Akbaş, E. (2011). An Attempt to See the Soul of the Change: Kreuzberg from Margins into the Center. Sosyoekonomi Society, Issue 2011.
  • Aydıngün, A. (2002). Creating, recreating and redefining ethnic identity: Ahiska/Meskhetian Turks in Soviet and post-Soviet contexts. Central Asian Survey, 12(2), 185-197.
  • Barth, F. (1969). Ethnic groups and Boundaries: the Social Organization of Culture Difference. Boston: Little, Brown.
  • Faist, T. 1998. “Transnational Social Spaces out of International Migration: Evolution, Significance and Future Prospects.” Archives Europeennes De Sociologie/European Journal of Sociology/Europaeisches Archiv für Soziologie, 39(2), 213-246.
  • Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Parity.
  • Güney, S., Kabaş, B. and Pekman. C. (2017). The Existential Struggle of Second-Generation Turkish Immigrants in Kreuzberg: Answering Spatiotemporal Change. Space and Culture, 20(1), 42-55.
  • Hinze, A. M. (2013). Turkish Berlin: Integration Policy & Urban Space. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Hochmuth, H. (2017). The return of Berlin-Kreuzberg. Brought back from the margins by memory. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 25(4), 470-480.
  • Howard, M. M. (2012). Germany’s Citizenship Policy in Comparative Perspective. German Politics & Society, 30(1), 39-51.
  • Jenkins, R. (1996). Social Identity. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Lefebvre, H. (2014). Critique of Everyday Life, the One-Volume Edition. London: Verso.
  • Ludewig, A. (2017). Documenting self-loathing or ‘We are proud of not being proud:’ Neukölln Unlimited and Prinzessinnenbad as examples of failed integration. Journal of European Studies, 47(3), 275–289.
  • Mayer, M. (2013). New Lines of Division in the New Berlin. In M. Bernt, B. Grell, and A. Holm (Eds.), The Berlin Reader (pp. 95-106). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
  • Molotch, H., Freudenburg, W., and Paulsen, K. (2000). History Repeats Itself, But How? City Character, Urban Tradition, and the Accomplishment of Place. American Sociological Review, 65(6), 791–823.
  • Özyürek, E. (2009). ‘The Light of the Alevi Fire Was Lit in Germany and then Spread to Turkey:’ A Transnational Debate on the Boundaries of Islam. Turkish Studies, 10(2), 233-253.
  • Rittersberger-Tılıç, H. (1998). “Development and Reformulation of a Returnee Identity as Alevi.” In: T. Olsson, E. Özdalga, and C. Raudvere (Eds.), Alevi Identity (pp. 69-78). Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul.
  • Stehle, M. (2006). Narrating the Ghetto, Narrating Europe: From Berlin, Kreuzberg to the Banlieues of Paris. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 3(3), 48-70.
  • Sökefeld, M. (2008). Struggling for Recognition: the Alevi Movement in Germany and in Transnational Space. New York: Berghahn Books.
  • Tsing, A. (2004). Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Turkish Journal of Diaspora Studies-Cover
  • ISSN: 2717-7408
  • Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 2 Sayı
  • Başlangıç: 2021
  • Yayıncı: Göç Araştırmaları Vakfı