Glocal securitization of urban space in Turkey

Contemporary securitization of space has been globally intensified across cities since the events of 9/11, involving authoritarian and violent national security, a new paradigm for engaging with terror. This thesis explores, examines and exposes conflicts and contradictions of securitization of space, problematizing it in three organically interpenetrated levels: theoretical, methodological and empirical. The thesis develops a constructive critique of the Copenhagen School securitization theory and its (empirical) application. At the same time, the thesis methodologically develops and puts forward an alternative diagnostic model through its theoretical framework: glocal securitization (glosec). The thesis applies the novel glosec model with its new conceptualizations and perspectives to study, examine, interpret and analyse multi-scalar complex social processes, actors and events through an empirical case study of Diyarbakır City, focusing on the period between 2000 and 2020. The development of the glosec model and its framework are informed by qualitative data collected during a methodologically-driven and theoretically-informed field trip to Turkey in 2017. The thesis shows how the glosec model elaborates upon the Copenhagen School and provides an avenue to build interdisciplinary dialogue with urban studies. It reveals how securitization of space is organically intertwined with gentrification, where strategic conflictual unity of actors is the key in understanding historical relations between the Turkish state and Kurds, involving the national (Kurdish) question and class relations. The thesis unpacks and discusses the dialectics of both complex processes incorporated under the glosec framework. This dialectical approach is vital for theoretical discussion and empirical illustration of how glosec shapes and transforms space and society at multi-scalar levels whilst reinforcing the reproduction of contested spatial hegemony of neoliberal glocal capital and capitalist classes. The thesis concludes by elaborating on the successive urban regime formations found in Diyarbakır, as read through the glosec framework, arguing that this approach provides a novel way of synthesising perspectives in international political economy, securitization and urban studies.