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Paper short abstract:

Rapid change of rural lands in Turkey cause concerns about the death of Turkish peasantry. In Karaburun villagers are unsure themselves. Their experiences of puzzling transformation are entangled with stories of non-human agents. Multispecies perspectives are needed to reconceptualise peasantry.

Paper long abstract:

In 2012 Turkish government removed the status of 16.230 villages as juridical persons, transforming them into neighbourhoods. This has resulted in loss of villagers’ political power, and caused the rural population of the country to drop from %22,7 to %8,7 overnight. Similar events like a change in mining regulations which would allow olive trees – which have special protection status in Turkey – to be ‘moved’ for mining operations, and a recent presidential decree which declared over 6 million square meters of forestland were forest no longer, resulted in grim outlooks for the future of peasantry, rural life and landscapes in Turkey.

However, declaring peasantry dead betrays the fact that many still do live in such settings, even when it becomes puzzling; even to themselves. Rural life is composed of more-than-just-humans and the stories of their agencies are abundant in the ways villagers of Karaburun understand and share their experiences of rapid transformation. Villagers lament the loss of previous ways of co-living with animals; shepherds miss the wolves they used to shoot and the goats they used to herd. But they also form new companionships in their survival; like planting olive groves to combat energy companies’ plans for reforming surrounding landscapes; and also for getting yields without intensive labour their bodies can no longer afford. More than just companions, non-humans display their own will during rural transformations.

The paper presents their stories which tie the agencies of non-humans (animals, plants, infrastructure) with humans and their politics to understand peasantry today.