Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T00:53:02.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Gypsies in the economy of Turkey: A focus on Gypsy flower sellers in two central districts of İstanbul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

Gül Özateşler*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey

Abstract

This article aims to explore the conditions and roles of Gypsies in the economy of Turkey through a focus on street flower sellers in two central districts of İstanbul, Şişli and Taksim. It proposes a multidimensional analysis that demonstrates different dynamics of social exclusion, socio-economic and political relations, and agency positions. After first reviewing several approaches to Gypsies’ roles in non-Gypsy economies, Gypsies’ conditions in Turkey are then examined in relation to their roles in the economy. Finally, their positions in the flower-selling sector in the two districts, Şişli and Taksim, are analyzed through working conditions, socioeconomic dynamics, social exclusion, and perceptions of Gypsyness.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acton, Thomas. “The Roma/Gypsies/Travellers – A Tale of Two Genocides.” 2006. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/34104901/The-RomaGypsiesTravellers---a-tale-of-two-genocides.Google Scholar
Alpman, Nazım. Başka Dünyanın İnsanları Çingeneler. İstanbul: Ozan Yayıncılık, 1997.Google Scholar
Ardıç, Engin. “Yemezler,” Sabah, July 22, 2012. http://www.sabah.com.tr/Yazarlar/ardic/2010/07/22/yemezler.Google Scholar
Barany, Zoltan. The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Beynon, Erdmann. “The Gypsy in a Non-Gypsy Economy.American Journal of Sociology 42, no. 3 (1936): 358370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonacich, Edna and Modell, John. The Economic Basis of Ethnic Solidarity: Small Business in the Japanese American Community. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre and Wacquant, Loic J.D. Düşünümsel Bir Antropoloji İçin Cevaplar. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2003.Google Scholar
Byrne, David. Social Exclusion. 2nd edition. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
De Haan, Arjan. “Social Exclusion: Enriching the Understanding of Deprivation.Studies in Social and Political Thought 2, no. 2 (2000): 2240.Google Scholar
Eren, Zeynep Ceren. “Imagining and Positioning Gypsiness: A Case Study of Gypsy/Roma from İzmir, Tepecik.” Master’s thesis, Middle East Technical University (METU), 2008.Google Scholar
Ginio, Eyal. “Neither Muslims nor Zimmis: The Gypsies (Roma) in the Ottoman State.Romani Studies 14, no. 2 (2004): 117144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
İncirlioğlu, Emine. “Secaat Arzederken Merd: Türkiye’de Çingenelerin Örgütlenme Sorunları.” in Türk(iye) Kültürleri, edited by Pultar, Gönül and Erman, Tahire, 167189. İstanbul: Tetragon İletişim Hizmetleri, 2005.Google Scholar
Karpat, Kemal. Ottoman Population 1830–1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael. Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the “Underclass”, and Urban Schools as History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Kolukırık, Suat. “Türk Toplumunda Çingene İmgesi ve Önyargısı.Sosyoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi 2, no. 8 (2005): 5271.Google Scholar
Kolukırık, Suat. “Çalışma Yaşamında Çingeneler: Çingene İş ve Meslekleri.” Paper presented at the Edirne Roman Symposium, Edirne, 2006.Google Scholar
Kolukırık, Suat. “Perceptions of Identity Amongst the Tarlabasi Gypsies, Izmir.” in Gypsies and the Problem of Identities; Contextual, Constructed and Contested, edited by Marsh, Adrian and Strand, Elin, 133140. İstanbul: Swedish Research Institute, 2006.Google Scholar
Kolukırık, Suat. Dünden Bugüne Çingeneler. İstanbul: Ozan Yayıncılık, 2009.Google Scholar
Ladanyi, Janos. “The Hungarian Neoliberal State, Ethnic Classification and the Creation of a Roma Underclass.” in Poverty, Ethnicity, and Gender in Eastern Europe during the Market Transition, edited by Emigh, Rebecca Jean and Szelenyi, Ivan, 6782. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2000.Google Scholar
Ladanyi, Janos, and Szelenyi, Ivan. Patterns of Exclusion: Constructing Gypsy Ethnicity and the Making of an Underclass in Transitional Societies of Europe. New York: Boulder Co, 2006.Google Scholar
Lawson, Bill E.Meditations on Integration.” in The Underclass Question, edited by Lawson, Bill E.. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992, 119.Google Scholar
Light, Ivan, Sabagh, Georges, Bozorgmehr, Mehdi, and Der-Marirosian, Claudia. “Beyond the Ethnic Enclave Economy.Social Problems 41, no. 1 (1994): 6580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, Ruth. Poverty. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Logan, John R. and Alba, Richard D.. “Minority Niches and Immigrant Enclaves in New York and Los Angeles.” in Immigration and Opportunity: Race, Ethnicity, and Employment in the United States, edited by Bean, Frank D. and Bell-Rose, Stephanie, 172194. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999.Google Scholar
Marsh, Adrian. “Ethnicity and Identity: Who are the Gypsies?” in We are Here! Discriminatory Exclusion and Struggle for Rights of Roma in Turkey, edited by Uzpeder, Ebru, Danova, Savelina/Roussinova, , Özçelik, Sevgi, and Gökçen, Sinan, 2131. İstanbul: Mart Matbaacılık, 2008.Google Scholar
Marushiakova, Elena and Popov, Vesselin. Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Çingeneler. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 2006.Google Scholar
Mayall, David. Gypsy Identities 1500–2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany. London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mischek, Udo. “The Professional Skills of Gypsies in İstanbul.Kuri: Journal of the Dom Research Center 1, no. 7 (2002). http://www.domresearchcenter.com/resources/links/mischek17.html.Google Scholar
Munck, Ronaldo. Globalization and Social Exclusion. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Oprişan, Ana. “An Overview of the Romanlar in Turkey.” in Gypsies and the Problem of Identities: Contextual, Constructed and Contested, edited by Marsh, Adrian and Strand, Elin, 163170. İstanbul: Swedish Research Institute, 2006.Google Scholar
Rath, Jan. “A Game of Ethnic Musical Chairs? Immigrant Businesses and the Formation and Succession of Niches in the Amsterdam Economy.” in Minorities in European Cities: The Dynamics of Social Integration and Social Exclusion at the Neighbourhood Level, 2643. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringold, Dena, Gillsater, Clare, and Varallyay, Julius. Roma in an Expanding Europe: Breaking the Poverty Cycle. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2005.Google Scholar
Sönmez, Faruk. Kesme Çiçek Sektör Raporu. Ankara: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kalkınma Bakanlığı, Doğu Karadeniz Kalkınma Ajansı, 2012.Google Scholar
Stewart, Michael. “Deprivation, the Roma and ‘the Underclass’”. In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia, edited by Hann, C.M., 133156. London; New York: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Alice. “Bourdieu and Education: How Useful is Bourdieu’s Theory for Researchers?The Netherlands Journal of Social Sciences 38, no. 2: 2002, 144166.Google Scholar
Toprak, Zerrin, Özmen, Ömür and Tenikler, Gökhan. İzmir Büyükkent Bütününde Romanlar. İzmir: Nobel Yayını, 2007.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loic. “Decivilizing and Demonizing: Remaking the Black American Ghetto.” in The Sociology of Norbert Elias, edited by Loyal, Steven and Quilley, Stephen, 95121. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Franklin D.Ethnic Concentrations and Labor-Market Opportunities.” in Immigration and Opportunity: Race, Ethnicity, and Employment in the United States, edited by Bean, Frank D. and Bell-Rose, Stephanie, 106141. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999.Google Scholar