Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I am focusing on the implicit tension experienced by the Kurdish young women during their daily encounters in the urban public space, from the perspective of virtual maneuvers and capabilities, through which I aim to go beyond the dualism between certainty and uncertainty.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I am focusing on the everyday performances of Kurdish young women, who live in Dolapdere, Istanbul, a district populated by the displaced Kurds. I am interested in the implicit tension experienced by the Kurdish young women during their daily encounters in the urban public space. Through the theoretical framework drawn by Spinoza and Deleuze and their reflections in the current theories of Brian Massumi and Sara Ahmad, I will scrutinize these confrontations from the perspective of virtual maneuvers and capabilities, through which I aim to go beyond the dualism between certainty and uncertainty and underline the fragmented nature of subject.

My research group, Kurdish young women who live in Istanbul, are children of the families who were displaced to Western provinces of Turkey in 1990s, as a result of the war between Turkish army and PKK guerillas, that has been going on for the last three decades. Even though they were mostly born in Istanbul or at least had been living there since they were very young, they have been grown up with the memories of displacement and violence. However, unlike their parents, they are engaged to the urban public space, they speak Turkish and prefer to stay in Istanbul instead of returning to their hometowns, all of which radically change their experiences of the city. In this paper, I analyze their experiences in the urban public space of Istanbul through focusing on ruptures and breaks in their everyday performances that provide a challenge against the binarism between assimilation and exclusion.