Repossession, Re‐informalization and Dispossession: The ‘Muddy Terrain’ of Land Commodification in Turkey

This paper examines the process of land commodification in the commercialization of agriculture and housing in Turkey. Specific mechanisms involved include cadastre modernization, land titling, land registration and land‐consolidation schemes. Through these techniques, the state increases its control over common‐public lands, reconfigures land‐use and access patterns, and deepens commodification. The paper traces historical variation in land use from the national developmentalist to the neoliberal phases of capital accumulation in Turkey, with comparative, contextual examples drawn from the Ottoman Empire. It highlights the combined and socio‐spatially differentiated processes of commodification across sectors that engender a multiplicity of outcomes in simultaneously framing commercialization of agriculture and housing. Contextual analysis of official documents and histories is complemented by information gathered from fieldwork and in‐depth interviews in several former wheat‐cultivating villages, a former gecekondu neighbourhood, and a small agricultural town in the province of Ankara.