Contextualising the housing problem of the Roma community in relation to counterurbanisation in Urla, İzmir

Abstract

This paper examines how the housing problem of the Roma people, living already under severe socio-spatial circumstances, has been exacerbated by counterurbanisation over recent decades in the resort town of Urla, İzmir. Based on empirical socio-spatial research adopting methodological pluralism integrating qualitative and quantitative research techniques, the study uses in-depth interviews and secondary data (e.g., real-estate web data, official statistics, and local media) as well as spatial analysis of satellite images. We limited our study to the proximity of the town center of Urla, considering the Roma community's ‘right to the city’, ensuring their right not to be exiled to the spaces of discrimination, and not to be exempted from their right to appear and co-exist in the town center. As Urla became a prominent and attractive destination of counterurbanisation in Turkey, its growth was intensified by high-end housing production. Coming to 2000s, its urban-rural texture remained, at least physically, ‘rural’, but it had undergone significant transformation. And while this recent higher-end development accompanied by counterurbanisation is sanctioned by local authorities, the public and property owners, it leaves no room for the Roma people to find decent housing. An inquiry on the housing problem of the Roma people in Urla in relation to counterurbanisation and accompanying housing production contributes to understanding the dialectics between deregulated housing market, commodification and uneven distribution of treasury lands, neoliberal regulations, and fragmented development plans implemented in highly “path-dependent” ways.