Building Democratic Capacities

Although gentrification --the market driven transformation of cities-- is considered a dominant form of urban transformation many cities' urban landscape reveals a hybrid mode of urban change-- states continue to play a dominant role in collobration with private sectors in redesigning the urban spaces and houses. This hybrid structure offers a unique set of challenges and opportunities to residents yet its micro level implementation and impact on citizens' overall democratic experiences remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this analysis asks  how the power of the state, as well as economic and individual factors, interact in reshaping residents' ability to partake in democratic processes and negotiate policies that have direct bearing on their lives. The URPs of two dissimilar neighborhoods, Fikirtepe and Sulukule in Istanbul show that a polycentric context formed by several state institutions with overlapping authority, private construction companies and NGOs compel citizens to act collectively.   Drawing on a set of in-depth interviews with residents, non-governmental organizations and construction companies the analysis ask wether and how Istanbul's URPs differ from other Europelan cities such as the ones experiences in Berlin? A comparative asessment of Istanbul's experience by placing it in the broader context of other major Eupean cities enables us to evaluate if  individuals gain important democratic experience when their neigborhoods go through an urban renewal. Using existing survey and ethnographic data the analysis offers a a thorough assessment of whether and how citizens' democratic capacities are expanded as they are compelled to organize, protest (often for the first time), form associations, and seek to steer the process of the URP and why?