The politics of everyday life: solidarity-based organization and squatting in an Istanbul neighborhood

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore emerging political action repertoires that interact in both public and private arenas, through multiple forms of both institutionalized, state oriented forms of political participation and more recently emerging the politics of everyday life. To this end, through a single case study, this thesis examines Yeldeğirmeni Solidarity which is one of the neighborhood organizations in Istanbul established in the aftermath of the Gezi Resistance in 2013. This thesis finds that in terms of its organizational structure, its targets and its goals, the case of Yeldeğirmeni Solidarity provides an example for the multi-dimensional (including both institutional and non-institutional activities for political engagement) and multi-targeted (aiming to affect politics both in public and private spheres) modes of political participation. Therefore unlike the studies on institutionalized forms of political participation which measure the level of engagement in governmental politics, this thesis contributes to the literature on political participation by providing detailed explanations regarding political preferences of citizens, their reasons to engage in non-institutional political activities, the interaction between institutional and non-institutional modes of political participation, the potentiality of non-institutional activities in promoting social change and the effects of the neighborhood as a socially constructed space on the residents’ choices regarding engaging in both institutional and non-institutional activities.