Yaşar Adnan Adanali
Turkey
Yaşar Adnan Adanali used his Bertha Challenge year to connect with other Fellows, ultimately publishing a Bertha Challenge– influenced edition of the journal beyond.Istanbul, to which eight Fellows contributed.
Yaşar Adnan Adanali is director of the Istanbul-based Center for Spatial Justice and a Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow. The center’s flagship publication, beyond.Istanbul, has an audience comprising of activists, urban researchers, academics and artists in Turkey and beyond. In the Bertha Challenge’s pilot year, Yaşar became a leader in finding ways to connect with other Fellows. He was especially skilled at drawing on his co-Fellows’ experiences and expertise in gaining insights from their local partners and audiences. He showcased their work, as he puts it, through publishing “the most transnational issue of beyond.Istanbul so far.”
The Bertha Challenge provides opportunities for individuals to work on projects they are passionate about while also building strong professional and personal relationships. Although specific projects vary, each Fellow is responding to the same broad question and finding creative ways to investigate and amplify their work. After spending time with Fellows at the opening convening, Yaşar saw an opportunity to publish a “spatial justice and housing activism”–themed edition of the magazine at the end of the Bertha Challenge year. He asked Fellows to volunteer if they were interested in contributing. Ultimately four activists and four journalists published pieces in this special issue.
Yaşar Adnan Adanali is director of the Istanbul-based Center for Spatial Justice and a Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow. The center’s flagship publication, beyond.Istanbul, has an audience comprising of activists, urban researchers, academics and artists in Turkey and beyond. In the Bertha Challenge’s pilot year, Yaşar became a leader in finding ways to connect with other Fellows. He was especially skilled at drawing on his co-Fellows’ experiences and expertise in gaining insights from their local partners and audiences. He showcased their work, as he puts it, through publishing “the most transnational issue of beyond.Istanbul so far.”
The Bertha Challenge provides opportunities for individuals to work on projects they are passionate about while also building strong professional and personal relationships. Although specific projects vary, each Fellow is responding to the same broad question and finding creative ways to investigate and amplify their work. After spending time with Fellows at the opening convening, Yaşar saw an opportunity to publish a “spatial justice and housing activism”–themed edition of the magazine at the end of the Bertha Challenge year. He asked Fellows to volunteer if they were interested in contributing. Ultimately four activists and four journalists published pieces in this special issue.
Elfie Seymour (Activist Fellow from Northern Ireland) with activists Paige Jennings and Dessie Donnelly wrote about reclaiming public land to provide affordable housing for Belfast’s most vulnerable groups.
Glenda Girón (Journalist Fellow from Honduras) focused on the public health dimension of housing by telling the story of a kidney disease widely prevalent in rural communities of Honduras.
Jared Rossouw (Activist Fellow from South Africa) with Bevil Lucas (Cape Town housing activist) discussed occupying public buildings for housing.
Leilani Farha (Activist Fellow from Canada) was interviewed on the right to housing and the movie Push, highlighting film as a means to amplify housing activism globally.
Maeve McClenaghan (Journalist Fellow from the UK) wrote on investigating homeless deaths in the UK, showing the impact of socially responsible media on rendering the invisible visible.
Protus Onyango (Journalist Fellow from Kenya) reported from Nairobi on the city’s construction boom and its impact on fatal occupational ‘‘accidents.’’
Sotiris Sideris (Journalist Fellow from Greece) made use of data mining to uncover the dispossession caused by real-estate auctions in Greece.
Zsuzsanna Pósfai (Activist Fellow from Hungary) discussed the deepening of the financialization of housing with its inherent connection to household indebtedness under capitalist economies.
Zsuzsanna described how the experience of contributing to beyond.Istanbul complemented her Bertha Challenge project:
"My article was an analysis of how crisis affects the housing market. The idea was to convey the more abstract ideas behind my Bertha project, of how broader economic processes are linked to the debt of households and the housing-related consequences of this. It was in the middle of the starting wave of the Covid-19 crisis, so the article also became a helpful way for me to think through what was happening on that level."
This edition of beyond.Istanbul not only serves as a showcase of the scope and passion of the Bertha Challenge 2020 Fellows, but also offers many hopeful visions for a world where crises can be turned to opportunity.
CREDITS
Photo 1: Yaşar Adanali holds the special edition of beyond.Istanbul, with contributions from eight other Bertha Challenge Fellows. Image: Yaşar Adnan Adanali
Authors: The Bertha Challenge Team
Editorial Consultant: Karen Frances Eng
This story was originally published in the Bertha Fellows book and some of the information in this story may have changed since it was first published.
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