The making and unmaking of Tarlabasi, Istanbul: an account of territorial stigmatisation

Territorial stigmatisation has been drawing attention in the past decade as an important concept in analysing the bad reputation of run-down neighbourhoods and how this bad reputation is used and produced by state agencies. Especially, the links between territorial stigmatisation and urban policies that are followed by state-led gentrification processes have been an emerging discussion in this analysis of understanding the phenomenon of stigmatised places. This paper aims to examine the links and relationships between the concepts of territorial stigmatisation, state-led gentrification and state power in the neighbourhood of Tarlabasi in historic Istanbul. The questions this paper responds to through the analysis of Tarlabasi are: What were the motivations of agencies of power to mobilise stigmatisation of Tarlabasi during urban renewal projects? Why did territorial stigmatisation increase during processes of state-led gentrification? How did the inhabitants of Tarlabasi behave in the face of increased stigma? The paper concludes with reflections on the use of territorial stigmatisation as a tool and accelerator for urban renewal/regeneration/transformation projects as well as its use as a mechanism by which to procure consent from the public.

Beyond a standardised urban lexicon: which vocabulary matters?

This epilogue reflects on the introduction and three papers of this special issue in order to highlight the issue’s contribution to the vital conversation of re-wording and re-theorising the urban. To further advance this conversation, we must recognise the very real imbalances of access to resources and power to influence that exist between the global North and global South, including resources to conduct research and power to publish journals. As our cities face multiple and urgent challenges such as the climate crisis, urban inequality, global pandemics and inadequate infrastructure, it is never too soon to re-think, to re-word and ultimately, to re-act the urban lexicon.

Policy analysis of Korea’s development cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa: a focus on fragile states

It has been ten years since the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States was endorsed by the global community. The government of South Korea set out development initiatives to put fragile states at the top of its development agenda and substantially increased its bilateral aid to them. This study analyses the policy orientations of South Korea’s aid to fragile states by exploring the determinants of Korea’s official development assistance to forty-eight sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 2010-2019 with reference to the top ten OECD donors to SSA countries as a group. The study found that South Korea does not give special consideration to the needs of fragile states. Unfortunately, this result is not only for South Korea but for the top ten OECD donors as well. While South Korea’s aid has been responsive to post-natural disaster displacement in SSA countries, the overall results indicate that donors in general have failed to embrace their commitment to state-building and peacebuilding in the New Deal for Fragile States and the 2030 Agenda. Given that pursuing ‘development and peace’ is a collective and enduring process with shared obligations and responsibilities across countries, donors shall prioritise development efforts on countries that need most assistance.

Beyond a standardised urban lexicon: which vocabulary matters?

Urban vocabulary has been influenced by global patterns of modernity, capitalism and anglophone academia. These lexicons are increasingly standardised and shape dominant conceptual approaches in city debates. However, contemporary urban theories indicate a shift toward understanding the ‘urban’ and ‘cities’ from multiple perspectives. An emerging urban vocabulary is being built to capture the significance of place, complex power dynamics and changing geographical landscapes. This special issue presents diverse perspectives on how urban lexicons can be decentred from anglophone thought, operate as organising urban logics, serve larger political projects, and shape and are reshaped by grounded urban practice. Articles from the Middle East and South Asia discuss the margins of vocabulary and how vocabularies located in the global South enable us to think through dilemmas of knowledge production. We contribute to debates on decolonising power and authority in urban thought by expanding on how to theorise from the South.

Waste recyclers, embodied research and planning: evidence from Guangzhou, China

The continued flow of rural migrants into cities has created major challenges for planning and urban management in China. Despite the growth of research concerning the embodied dimension of rural migrants’ urban lives, the development of integrated embodied knowledge and its significance for planning and urban management is yet to be articulated. In connection with waste recyclers in Guangzhou, a conceptual framework involving the body of power, the experiencing body and the embodied encounter is established to integrate embodied knowledge. Reflection on the ways in which rural migrants struggle to live in cities and their agency and capability is imperative to inform socially sensitive planning in a diverse and heterogeneous metropolis.

Labour power, materiality and protests in Ghana’s petroleum and gold mines

We examine the role of resource materiality in extractive labour protests in Ghana. Focusing on petroleum and gold mining, we centre contestations as part of the resources’ socio-natural constituents. Research data was obtained from social conflict databases, newspapers and field interviews. The analysis focused on themes and discourses on protest emergence, mobilisation, negotiation and impacts. Findings show how petroleum labour protesters use passivity and chokepoints to impede gas supply to households. Ghana petroleum workers attempt to garner structural power through workplace power, albeit unsuccessfully. Conversely, gold mineworkers protest by actively reappropriating machinery and extraction spaces. They centre protests in mining towns to emphasise their work as lifeblood. The ‘landedness’ of gold and the introduction of surface mining reshaped such protest tactics. Thus, materiality can help excavate the relational and comparative logic, tactics and potentialities of labour power in resource extracting countries. We suggest extractive labour to forge stronger cross-class coalitions to align workplace exploitation with broader issues of accumulation by dispossession.

Marginal cities in conflict: emerging geographies of spatial accumulation

This paper discusses how marginal cities surrounded by rich hinterlands in geographies of conflict display city-building processes that transform them into emergent geographies of spatial accumulation. Embracing recent debates on geographies of accumulation in the global South, this paper reveals three interrelated strategies that shape capitalist urbanisation in marginal cities of conflict. The empirical findings of a case study in the Colombian Pacific region indicate that: 1) extractive economies supported by national neoliberal policies nurture weak governance, as reflected in city-building processes that increase sociospatial segregation; 2) the circulation of illegal capital within status quo spatial politics seems to result in rapid urban transformations via land use changes; and 3) spatial accumulation in marginal urban settlements conceals processes of systematic social injustice through euphemisms of economic development. This paper contributes to new conceptualisations derived from an analysis of spatial transformations in marginal(ised) cities under geopolitical economies of violence.