Research Article

Herstory of the Periphery: Approaching Placemaking through Feminist Autoethnography

Volume: 20 Number: 55 September 29, 2023
Leyla Bektaş Ata *, Simten Cosar
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Herstory of the Periphery: Approaching Placemaking through Feminist Autoethnography

Abstract

This article elaborated on the possibilities of feminist interference to the reading of informal settlements. In so doing, we focused on a squatter settlement (Limontepe) in a metropolitan municipality (İzmir Metropolitan Municipality) in Turkey, and tried to interrogate the institutional, official history, based on city registers, parliamentary decisions and state and municipality archives. We argue that the way peripheral populations and/or marginalized groups are treated in official histories of nation-states leads to partial knowledge of the place. We propose that the knowledge collected, accumulated and exchanged through everyday lives of the inhabitants, past and present might be a viable option to check the official history writing and fill in the blanks therein. The article is an attempt to walk through feminist (auto)ethnography to tie the knowledge of the past to today’s placemaking practices. As feminist researchers we consider engaging in the everyday life practices of inhabitants as a way to participate in the dynamic knowledge production processes of the place.

Keywords

ethnography , autoethnography , place making , everyday life , positionality , informal settlements

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Urban Sociology and Community Studies

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Early Pub Date

September 30, 2023

Publication Date

September 29, 2023

Submission Date

August 21, 2023

Acceptance Date

September 9, 2023

Published in Issue

Year 2023 Volume: 20 Number: 55

DOI

https://doi.org/10.26466/opusjsr.1347503

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA27MT52LY

Cite

RIS / Bibtex
APA
Bektaş Ata, L., & Cosar, S. (2023). Herstory of the Periphery: Approaching Placemaking through Feminist Autoethnography. OPUS Journal of Society Research, 20(55), 649-656. https://doi.org/10.26466/opusjsr.1347503