Yarım Kalmış Gelecekler: Güney Afrika'da Enformel Bir Yerleşim Biriminde Altyapı ve Özlemler Üzerine Etnografik Düşünceler

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 1 - Ethnography, 73 - 91, 15.06.2017

Laurin Baumgardt

Abstract

Bu yazı “yarım kalmışlık” meselesini saha çalışmasının temel niteliklerinden biri olarak ortaya koyuyor. Yazıda saha çalışmasının ontolojik ve dünyevi/zamansal bir koşulu olarak yarım kalmışlığın, insanların özlemleriyle altyapıya dayalı yaşam koşulları arasındaki karmaşık ilişkiden kaynaklandığını ileri sürüyorum. Yarım kalmışlığı saha çalışmasının doğasında var olan temel bir ilke olarak benimsemek, antropolojik araştırmanın nasıl yeniden yapılandırılabileceğine dair bir dizi potansiyel fikrin tartışmaya açılmasına da öncülük ediyor. Bu çalışmada Güney Afrika’da enformel bir yerleşim birimi olan Enkanini’de yürütülen saha çalışmasından elde edilen iki hikâye üzerinden, bu bölgede yaşayan insanların kendi özlemlerini içinde yaşadıkları özel altyapısal koşullarla nasıl müzakere ettikleri ve bu koşullarda nasıl idare edebildikleri anlatılıyor. Yanı sıra makale iShack adı verilen ve söz konusu yerleşim birimindeki çoğu hanenin güneş enerjisine dayalı elektriğe kavuşmasını sağlayan bir sivil toplum projesine de ışık tutuyor. Bölgede yaşayan insanların gelecek özlemlerinin şekillenmesinde yaşamsal bir rol üstlenen söz konusu proje, yarım kalmış geleceklerin doğmasına da vesile oluyor.

Keywords

yarım kalmışlık, gelecek, kentsel altyapı, etnografi, Güney Afrika

Unfinished Futures: Ethnographical Reflections on Infrastructure and Aspirations in an informal settlement in South Africa

Abstract

The paper introduces “unfinishedness” as a central feature of fieldwork. I argue that unfinishedness, as a temporal as much as ontological condition of fieldwork, is evoked through the complex relation of people’s aspirations and infrastructural life situation. In its consequence, the acceptance of unfinishedness as an inherent principle of fieldwork encounters opens up lines of thought about how to possibly reconfigure anthropological research. Based on field research in an informal settlement in South Africa, two particular field stories are presented that demonstrate how people negotiate their aspirations in conjunction with particular infrastructural conditions and how they get by in the meantime. Moreover, the article sheds light on the so called iShack project, a nongovernmental project, that has brought solar electricity to most households in the settlement. This particular project is crucial for the shaping of people’s future aspirations and gives way to states of unfinished futures.

Keywords

unfinishedness, future, infrastructure, ethnography, South Africa

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