Dr Oznur Yardimci

Profile

Biography

I am a postdoctoral research associate in the ESRC Vulnerabilities and Policing Futures research centre, co-led by the University of York and Leeds, exploring how shared perceptions of vulnerability inform the work of service providers.

I have an interdisciplinary background with an MSc in Political Science and a BSc in International Relations (Middle East Technical University), and a PhD in Sociology (Lancaster University).

In 2019, I moved to York and joined the department of Sociology as a visiting research fellow where I also played part in the management of the Centre for Urban Research hosted within the department and contributed to teaching at graduate level. In 2020, I worked as the chief field researcher in the London case-study in the ‘Citizenship Futures: The Politics of Hope’, which examines the links between hope-making and reinvention of citizenship in three global cities, namely London, Mumbai, and Paris, through comparative ethnographies.

In 2020-2021, I was an ESRC White Rose postdoctoral fellow in Sociology at York, with a project entitled ‘Remaking cities and citizens through urban regeneration’. Drawing on my PhD and postdoctoral research, I explored shared understandings of citizenship and belonging manifested through claims over the city space and housing in urban regeneration settings. This has informed three peer-reviewed journal articles, and an op-ed article (in Turkish).   

In 2021-2022, I worked on a research project (prepared collaboratively with Daryl Martin) on urban religious architecture and citizenship in North Yorkshire, which is funded by the Internally Distributed Funding at York.  

Publications

Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles

(In press) Drawing the boundaries of “good citizenship” through state-led urban redevelopment in Dikmen Valley, European Urban and Regional Studies

Yardımcı, Ö. (2020) State stigmatization in urban Turkey: Managing the ‘insurgent’ squatter dwellers in Dikmen Valley, Antipode, Volume 52, Issue 5, pp. 1519-1538.

Yardımcı, Ö. (2020) Anatomy of a right to shelter struggle in an authoritarian regime: Dikmen Valley, Radical Housing Journal, 2(2), pp. 235-242.

Co-Authored papers

Yardımcı, O., Gimel, J., Srivastava, K. & Borday, J., (2021) Inciting hopes for the future: Civic activism in London, Mumbai, and Paris amid the Covid19 crisis, Metropolitics, 8 June, https://metropolitics.org/Inciting-Hopes-for-the-Future-Civic-Activism-in-London-Mumbai-and-Paris-Amid.html

Srivastava, K. and Yardımcı, Ö. (2020) Everyday Activism amid the Pandemic: Civic Associations as Avenues of Hope for the Marginalized, Antipode Online, https://antipodeonline.org/2020/09/04/everyday-activism-amid-the-pandemic/

Book reviews

Yardımcı, Ö. (2019) Review of Within and Beyond Citizenship: Borders, Membership and Belonging eds. by Roberto G. Gonzales and Nando Sigona. Sociological Research Online, Volume: 24 issue: 3, page(s): 462-463.

Yardımcı, Ö. (2015) Review of Gentrification: A Working Class Perspective by Kirsteen Paton. The Sociological Review, 63 (3), pp. 727-729.

Op-ed paper

Yardımcı, Ö. (2020) Kentsel Dönüşüm ve Makbuliyetin Yeniden Cizilen Sınırları [Urban Redevelopment and Reframing the Boundaries of Worthiness], Ayrıntı Dergi, 1 April, https://ayrintidergi.com.tr/kentsel-donusum-ve-makbuliyetin-yeniden-cizilen-sinirlari/.

Research

Research

My research interests are centred on the lived experiences of urban marginalities and how these inform shared understandings of citizenship and belonging in the ‘community of value’. Combining insights from political geography, political sociology, and urban geography through qualitative methods, my PhD explored state-led inclusive urban redevelopment programmes providing insights into their implications for shared understandings of citizenship.          

Ongoing research

As part of the Citizenship Futures: The Politics of Hope project, I started my independent research in which I use the lens of hope to explore the lived experiences of hope(lessness) by the recent Turkish-speaking migrants in London within the context of the exodus of young, educated and politically liberal/left-leaning individuals from the country due to mounting authoritarianism.

Collaboratively with Daryl Martin, I am researching the role of urban religious architecture in developing a sense of belonging for their worshippers and opponents in their wider cities by looking at the planning histories of specific mosques in North Yorkshire.