The project was realized in five phases. In Phase 1, a career development plan was prepared. The fellow had introductory meetings with scholars at the Department of Geography at Leicester. In this phase, the fellow engaged in the literature review and case study design. She started writing the paper entitled ‘Rethinking the Gender- Gentrification Nexus’ which was published in the edited volume called Handbook of Gentrification Studies by Lees and Phillips (2018). The researcher started writing the second paper on social reproduction and gentrification nexus. The researcher co-organized and presented at the early career researchers’ workshop entitled “Everyday politics of social reproduction and place-making” at the Geography Department of the University of Leicester. Phase 2 engaged in a contextualized study of gender, gentrification and displacement in two cities, Amsterdam and Istanbul. The researcher reviewed the relevant policy documents, academic papers regarding urban policy, gentrification and displacement in Amsterdam and Istanbul and made a review about gender regimes/policies in relation to urban policy. During Phase 3, the fellow conducted the case studies. Before starting each fieldwork, she completed the preparation of the interview questions, planning participatory observations, finding contacts to recruit participants. She conducted 50 interviews in total and did participant observations at various places and organizations in both cities. The researcher realized secondments in Amsterdam and Istanbul as the part of her ‘comparative urbanist’ training. After completing each fieldwork, she worked on the data analysis through thematic coding and analysis. She wrote her third paper based on the Istanbul case study. Phase 4 engaged in comparative analysis. The fellow compared the findings of the two case studies; and worked on theory generation based on the results. She started drafting the comparative article on gendered geographies of gentrification in Istanbul and Amsterdam. In Phase 5, the fellow disseminated the research results. She worked to complete the submission/revision of the prepared academic papers to send them to peer review journals for publication. The fellow organized individual and collective meetings with professional and neighborhood-based organizations, grassroots groups, researchers and urbanists, journalists in both cities to talk about the research and its findings.
The main results of the project were 1) the development of a theoretical and methodological framework on how to study gender and gentrification nexus using social reproduction theory: The study drew a fresh framework to discuss the link between social reproduction and gentrification approaching gentrification as a part and parcel of the contemporary crisis of social reproduction and ecological crisis;
2) analysis and comparison of gendered geographies of gentrification: Conducting fieldwork in Amsterdam and Istanbul, the project shed lights on contextually dependent as well as universal elements of gender constitution and gentrification in different geographies of gentrification. It showed how urban renewal projects produced the social space for different gender relations and norms in both cities. While the gendered inequalities and dispossessions resulting from gentrification were heavier in Istanbul case, in both cases, low-income women shouldered the material and emotional burdens of pursing social reproduction of their households and communities in their gentrifying neighborhoods.
