Speakers
Description
Crises and conflicts at different spatial scales have some planetary consequences. Interventions on commons spaces (state or private sector) have increased with the acceleration of privatization policies in 2008, and debates on the commons theory have re-entered the agenda. The struggles on the commons offer a new perspective of space and a new ontology of politicization in the creation of this new path as an alternative. Constructing alternative multi-scale governance models can be a solution for spatial conflicts and crises emerging from planetary urbanisation (Brenner and Schmid, 2014). Therefore the most important pathway to create innovative solutions for spatial crisis is representing roles of different actors at different scales on the processes of spatial and political gains achieved through social movements. This study examines the multilevel governance and (upward and downward) scaling of on the commons (urban, systems and natural) by comparing different cases from Türkiye after 2008 crisis and afterward. Therefore, firstly a media search was carried out between 2008 and 2023 in digital newspaper archives. Different perspectives (liberal, right-wing, left-wing) were included in scanning newspapers and keywords such as "protest, struggle, urban movement and environmental action" and synonyms like "resistance, action, activism" were searched for defining our cases. As a consequence, the scans have led to several successful and influential movements that have shaped public sentiment. These include: Validebağ Grove; Kazdağları; Çeşme Tourism Project; Gerze Thermal Power Plant; Düzce Hope Houses Cooperative; Alpu Coal Thermal Power Plant; and BÜKOOP Consumer Cooperative's Cooperative Movement for the spatiality of food. In total, 125 in-depth interviews were conducted with locals, experts (planners, lawyers, academics, architects, doctors, engineers), NGOs (local, national, regional, global) and local governments involved in and supporting these movements between 24 April and 28 May 2024. The data were analysed by using an interpretive approach.
Findings on our cases have shown that the movements are firstly initiated by local level actors, then by national actors supporting throughout the spatial gain process. At the local scale, local people, local NGOs, and local governments (such as provincial-district municipalities and village-neighborhood heads) are typically considered the primary drivers of social struggle. At the national level, the support of professional chambers and national NGOs are particularly prevalent. An exception, the social movement in Kazdağları emerged from a regional actor's opposition to long-standing mining activities in the region, underscoring a distinctive down-ward scaling with local NGO’s and up-ward scaling with Global NGO’s as a case for multi-level scaling. In instances where local government support was found to be robust, such as in Gerze and Alpu, success was attained more expeditiously. While up-ward scaling was observed in these areas, gains were also made, and the presence of global actors during and post-gains underscores the interplay between up-ward and down-ward scaling across multiple levels. The achievements in the cases of Validebağ, BÜKOOP, Düzce, and Çeşme show a more bottom-up scaling. Considering the views of the actors in these spaces where gains have been made, it has been determined that the interaction between different levels of scales is much higher today, and therefore shows a need for multi-level forms of governance. The main success factor of these movements, which created a new alternative to planetary urbanization processes, is that they reclaimed and shared space through cross-scale interactions and multi-level governance.
References
Brenner, N.& Schmid, C. (2014). The 'Urban Age' in Question. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(3), 731–755.
| Keywords | Multi-level Governance, scaling, cross-scale interaction, commons |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
