Violence and freedom: the politics of Kurdish children and youth in urban space

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the politics of Kurdish children and youth in Gündoğan neighborhood, a slum area in Adana, populated predominantly by the forcibly displaced Kurds. Through their everyday practices and subjective narratives, I explore the ways youth and children construct their subjectivities in urban space. Post-memory, the spatial order of the neighborhood and violence emerge as overall themes in the narratives and ethnographic research. I argue that memory of violence transmitted by the older family members has imminent role in the formation of political subjectivities of youth and children. Children and youth, most of whom were born in city space have a sense of belonging to the neighborhood. The appropriation of urban space is inevitably linked to the struggle and violence. The politics of youth and children opens up a space to rethink the concepts of struggle, freedom, and the political in Kurdish movement/politics as well as contemporary Turkey.