What do mothers do, what do their daughters want? A squatter (gecekondu) neighborhood through the female narratives of two generations

This research focuses on the daily lives of the urban poor who live on the periphery of the city and tries to understand the manifestation of urban policies on home and neighborhood levels. It examines the home, neighborhood and city experiences of women living in Limontepe, one of the squatter (gecekondu) districts of Izmir, on the edge of urban transformation. The research I conducted in the region, where I also lived my own childhood, is based on the narratives of life that belong to two generations of women living in the neighborhood. It tries to understand the importance of the migration stories of the neighborhood residents, the establishment of the neighborhood, the relations developed among the neighbors, the place of being in Limontepe in the relationship they established with the city, on this region’s narratives of life. By looking at the issue through generations, it allows to trace the continuities and separations in the experience of space. The research, which tries to understand how local women act in the space extending from their homes to urban life, their usage of private and public spaces in their daily lives, and how they relate to each other and to the space, tells
the story of a squatter neighborhood. While this story builds on the motivation developed by the firstgeneration women in the neighborhood and its manifestation on the second-generation women, it seeks answers to two comprehensive questions: First of all, what kind of responsibilities has the firstgeneration women undertaken since the establishment of the neighborhood and what kind of struggle have they carried out? Secondly, considering the second-generation women who have been brought up and raised with great efforts, what is the relationship between their expectations and what they got from the neighborhood life they are a part of, as well as, what are the possibilities and limitations of starting life in today’s urban space from this neighborhood? To summarize: What do mothers do (during this process) and what do their daughters want?