Territorial Stigmatisation: Urban Renewal and Displacement in a Central Istanbul Neighbourhood

In Tarlabasi, an Istanbul neighbourhood facing massive redevelopment and displacement, marginalized residents speak about belonging, stigma, and what their community means to them. Based on a long-term ethnographic study that includes interviews, photographs, and archival research, Constanze Letsch examines how territorial stigmatization is weaponized by the state and how differently stigmatized groups try to fight against the vilification of their mahalle. The contested plans of urban renewal threaten not only their homes and workplaces but a rapidly vanishing Istanbul: socio-demographic interdependencies and networks that have developed over decades.