From state commodification to local reproduction of vulnerability

Ethnographic insights from a Risk Zone Urban Renewal Project in Turkey

Bibliographic Data

ID3898261
AuthorsCansu Civelek (0000-0002-0599-234X, College of Fellows University of Tübingen Germany, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume50
Issue1
Pagese70024-e70024
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDisasters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/disa.70024
PMID41041717
OpenAlexW4414778101
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited23

This paper explores how vulnerability is not only defined by the state but also actively reshaped through policy implementation and lived experience. Drawing on ethnographic research in Eskişehir, Turkey, I propose an analytical distinction between the 'commodification of vulnerability'-framing risk in technoscientific and moral terms to justify intervention-and the 'reproduction of vulnerability'-capturing the emergent precarity produced by such action. Following the 2011 Van earthquakes, Turkey's central government advanced disaster prevention as a national imperative. In 2012, Law No. 6306 was enacted to facilitate large-scale urban transformations in the name of risk prevention. Eskişehir's Metropolitan Municipality quickly adopted the 'Renewal Law', initiating the Risk Zone Urban Renewal Project with the stated aim of protecting lives and property. While official definitions of vulnerability centred on the structural durability of the built environment, residents of the designated area have encountered new and unanticipated vulnerabilities, ranging from housing insecurity and prolonged legal limbo to socioeconomic instability and emotional distress

Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Disaster Management and Resilience · Global Security and Public Health

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