Social Polarization, a quite young event, has been
increasing especially since the 1970s and 1980s which are the years of the
transition from Fordism to Postfordism. Changing life standards, new job
opportunities, deindustrialization, globalization, different political views,
different education levels, migration which results in the obligation of
mixing, economical possibilities and impossibilities for people from different
levels of the society, unequal sharing of the city life between different
genders, racism and so many other things are the main reasons for the
polarization in the society.
Actually, Karl Marx’ word alienation gives a sense that an event like polarization would
occur sooner or later. The deep differences between the lifestyles of the
capitalist wealthy and the working class poor, different ethnicities and
cultures which come together in the city, alienated and isolated people from
each other. Some voluntarily isolated themselves, others by force. But for each
one, the words Us and Them exist.
Polarizing calls our minds the seperating differencies
and the gathering similarities in definite places. As a result polarizing in
society invites that different kind of people settle in segregated areas in the
city. After Postfordism, individuality’s rising, class inequalities, liberal
state policies, continuous immigration especially from rural to urban and
uneven development divided cities in several parts which are: the luxury
housing, the gentrified city, the suburban city, the tenement city and the
abandoned city.
Certainly, the United States can be given as the best
example for a segregated and polarized country as many different people from
different origins gather there. However, polarization is an issue that cannot
be limited only by the United States. Economic, politic and cultural factors
define one’s life style but the most effective one is the material wealth as
Karl
Marx maintained. Several researches on the American
class structure divides the society into five different groups that are: the
ruling class, the upper middle, the lower middle, the working class and the
lower class.
However, according to today’s Marxists, middle classes
do not exist and therefore there are still two groups: the capitalist and the
working class. Still, we can join these five groups with the five parts of the
city that are mentioned above.
Firstly, we can deal with the luxury housing, the
places of big decisions, that accommodates the wealthy which is considered as
the ruling and the capitalist class. The wealthy is originated from two kinds
of people: the elites and the upper class. The elites are the individuals who
are successful and leaders in their occupations while standing at the top of
the functional class hierarchy. The upper
class is a group of families whose
wealth come from three or more generations ago. These classes prefer spending
their time with the people exactly from the same level with them. As a result they are volunteer for being far away
from the public. In their free time,
in most of their time in other words, they prefer joining sports activities or
several things for socializing with other high society people. For this, they
become members of some principal clubs some of which do not accept the
memberships of the Jews and African Americans even if they can afford the
membership fees. Of course, joining these kind of clubs is a dream for working
class who cannot afford the fees. Usually, the wealthy people spend their times
in their houses and go somewhere from somewhere with the accompaniment of the
guards. They prefer to live in fashionable distincts and they slip out the
restriction of a place by having several houses in different places. Both in
the city center’s skyscrapers’ top storeys and in the high-walled villas of the
suburbs one can come across with them. Nob Hill in San Francisco, Beverly Hills
in Los Angeles and the Gold Coast near Lake Michigan in Chicago are some of the
places that they prefer to live in The United States.
The upper-class lifestyle is defined well in E. Digby
Baltzell’s (1958) Philedelphia Gentlemen.
In Turkey, we can consider İstanbul, İzmir, Bodrum, Çeşme and Antalya for these
people’s favorite cities. The
gentrified city, the city of advanced services, accomodates the yuppies (young
urban professionals) and dinks (double income no kids) who are the middle-class
professionals. They are responsible for upgrading housing in many part of the
city. They lead a comfortable life and in their free times they usually have
activities like the upper class. They cause the openings of many new shops,
restaurants and shopping centers in the city for their more specialized
everyday needs.
The suburban city, the city of direct production,
accomodates the middle class. Many of the American middle class people prefer
to live in suburbs instead of the center of the city. They lead their lives in
their villa type American houses with their gardens. They also lead a
comfortable life like the upper-class, of course, with a more modest budget. They
socialize with their neighbourhood relationships which are not so strong
actually and with some public activities which they are able to join at the
weekends usually.
The tenement city, the city of unskilled work and
informal economy, accomodates the working class and the working poor whose life
quality are dependent on the city services that the government provides. The
working-class housing was constructed in grid-pattern rows nearby the factories
which are opened in 19th century with Fordism movement. Today, the
closing of the factories is a dangerous situation for them as they can easily
become unemployed. Especially after World War II, U.S. cities contained a high
density of such working-class districts. Although working-class families have
suburbanized in large numbers since the 1960s, there are still many remain
residents of large cities. Their relationships between neighbours are very
strong and socializing on public areas are frequently and easier. The abandoned
city, the residual city NIMBY, accomodates the underclass, the ghettoized poor,
and the homelesses. The people living there are usually the victims of racial
and economic deprivation who have to live in extreme poverty and isolation.
Their isolation is made by force as they are not approved by the other levels
of the society. They never be welcomed. They have become so concentrated in
specific areas of the city that their needs fundamentally outstrip the
available municipal resources aimed at diminishing the condition of poverty. As
a result, it become impossible to rise children for a better life without the
criminal activity. Therefore, unfortunately, the life of the ghettoized poor
contains many terms such as AIDS, child abuse, tuberculosis, dropouts from
education, juvenile crime, drug addiction and the bearing of addicted babies,
juvenile motherhood, murder, rape and robbery. It is certain that all members
of the underclass are poor and many have made fortunes off of the drug-centered
illegal economy within ghetto areas. People sell everything from drugs, to
cigarettes, several store items to produce and even their own bodies. These
kind of works are dangerous especially in the drug or prostitution trade and
does not bring with it the kinds of benefits that people in the upper levels associate
with jobs, such as health insurance or social security. However, since 1980s,
the numbers of people and activities of the informal sector are growing. The
fact of street gangs can be taken
into account as a socializing way between the teenages. Continuous fights
between gangs for protecting their status and respect are also tragic as they
do not want to remain as losers, at least inside the borders of their own
garbage.
Gender is another important factor that causes
polarization. The roles of the women are restricted in the city so many people
think that city is a man-made fact and only on the condition that men let
women’s participation in the city then they can. For years, there have been
different periods for women. There have been days when they stayed at home
and looked after the domestic things
and the children and days when they worked with men for the development of the
country and parallelly for better lives. Especially during war periods they
worked really hard even instead of their husbands who usually had been sent to
army. Today, most of the women are both working and looking after their
domestic responsibilities and
children. It is a crucial point that for years the things about house have
always been the responsibility and the
field of women. Even now, when they also work outside for a double income
and for leading a better life, producing this second labor is expected from them. On the other hand, recently, some men
also willing to share the responsibilities about house and children which
invites the idea that the gender roles may change due to the living conditions
by the time. In the city, especially the spaces like shopping malls, nursery
schools and children parks are opened according to the density of women and
families in the area so it can be said that the role of women in the society
has an effect on space. No doubt that in every society a woman’s house is a
sign of her status. That’s why its decoration and its beauty is very important
for her. Her perfect freedom exists inside her house because women are not
really free in the city. Several things such as going out alone at night and
going to some specific places are dangerous for them and unacceptable for the
others. Creating safe environments for women, mothers and children is an
important issue in terms of planning.
Now, our environment can be changed in the coming
years by the affect of changing gender roles and new demands of family life.
Moreover, it’s known that we cannot limit the term gender with only men and women. The third gender, homosexuals, and their lifestyles are
also a strong effect on polarization. In many countries, including ours, they
are excluded as they have been seen as monsters
by many people. As a result they are
forced to be isolated from the other members of the society and they come
across with difficulties such as being accepted in many business sectors.
Although the situation seems to be changing recently as in several countries
they have the right for marriage, from the general view they are not welcome
too.
Immigration, another important factor for
polarization, creates a totally mixed space and if one or more kind of people
do not like this situation, they exclude the others and prefer closing a
specific area with the ones they know, they are willing to live together and
they are feeling comfortable with. In the conflict between different
residential and commercial interests, control of space is one of the very
important features, especially for cultural reasons. In homogeneous societies, lifestyle
differencies may exist but they are usually not expressed as ethnicity. Class,
gender, religious, subcultural and age differences may be more important. After
the immigrate to another country, subcultural differences take on the
dimensions of ethnic differences. These symbolic differences clash with the
dominant society or the culture of other ethnic groups in a diverse society. We
can take African Americans as an example who unwillingly immigrated America as
slaves of the white man and for years
they lived in the South and the rural parts of the country. In the 1800s many
slaves fled the South for freedom and come to the North for a better life. As a
result of discrimination against blacks, however, the areas that they came soon
became segregated. By the 1950s African Americans were almost as urbanized as
were whites. Now, they are much more accepted by the whites, however, still
there exist many racists who disturb them. We can also say the same thing for
both Mexican and Native Americans both of whom lands were held by force by the
people who exclude them later. And approximately the same situation continues
occuring in Turkey. Not as various as in the United States but also in our
country there are people who have different ethnicities, different cultures and
different beliefs live. Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks of Turkish Nationality
and many others live in here. People not only polarized through the different
tips of the city but also polarized through the parts of the whole country.
Not only ethnicity and culture but also religious
beliefs and political views are effective for this polarization. The contrary
ideas always seperate individuals from each other even make them fight with
each other. Just like the Iraq War’s dividing America into two groups, one side
of the supporters, Conservative
Republicans who supported George Bush, and to the other side, the opposers, Liberal Democrats who
supported John Kerry; in Turkey, the issues like Armenian Genocide, the
situation of KKTC and PKK Terror on the East divide people into some groups and
seperate them each other which is unfortunately possible to result in a civil war in the future. Especially it
is very hard for people who have different ideologies’ living together.
Disrespect to the different ideas entails bad incidents. Unfortunately, we have
been experiencing a strong example of this these days. Hrant Dink who is an
important journalist and a shining intelligence is killed by the supporters of
division and the enemies of democracy, peace and brotherhood. This event shows
the intolerance of the people, especially of one region, for the contrary ideas
and races.
We are living in a polarized city, a polarized
country, even we are living in a polarized world. Polarizing is a natural
outcome of gathering so many kinds. Rival between the opposites is required and
beneficial sometimes for reaching the best. However, when people begin to
exaggerate this, all the things start going wrong and threat our lives.
Different education levels and being politically aware
or not also classify people a lot. For reducing this abyss firstly a government
should educate its citizens in whichever class they are. Media is a very
important factor in terms of publishing beneficial and educational things and
pure news from all over the world as now technology gives us this opportunity.
Actually, today’s globalizing world gives us the opportunity to become a
citizen of world.
All in all, if governments do not let provocations of
some specific groups and create areas where many different people would be able
to spend their time together with common activities and one of the most
important issues, the unequality between classes, can be balanced and got
closer to each other in terms of better opportunities and more comfortable
lives for every people, then the violence
of the polarization lessens. I strongly believe that especially in these days
when such issues as global warming, several catastrophes and vanishing
creatures exist, the world and the people living in it should come closer
instead of polarizing and developing devilish scenarios for each other. Because
we do not do anything new and useful with our continuously suspicious
approaches except for preparing our own chaos by our hands.
Dalya, 2007
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