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Contribution short abstract:

I focus on the AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) municipal services for women in lower- and middle-class neighborhoods in Ankara. I aim to indicate how AKP changed women's lives. The lower classes have historically and spatially gained opportunities that they never had.

Contribution long abstract:

In this presentation, I focus on the AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) municipal services for women in lower- and middle-class neighborhoods in Ankara. I will speak against the argument claiming that the party deceives the poor, asking following questions: How did the AKP change women’s lives? Why did women living in the peripheries of the city continue to support AKP? I argue that the lower classes have historically (I mean their personal history) and spatially gained opportunities that they never had. My study based on understanding two municipal community services for women governed by AKP: Mamak and Altındağ. Following my fieldwork conducted in 2018, I question how the activities of these municipalities governed by AKP are now more centralized and systematized, both spatially and institutionally, on the basis of the cultural centers established in each neighborhood. I aim to focus on the relationship of lower-class women with politics, the experiences of those living in slums, and what party politics brings to the lives of these women.

The widespread formation of community centers as safe spaces offered women new possibilities in employment, network and solidarity building, and to obtain new skills through courses. I aim to explore how the community centers served to facilitate women’s agency as social, political and economic actors. My aim is to understand how the party has evolved in the process of establishing its relationship with the women living in the peripheries of the city, and how women experience and make sense of these processes.