Description:

Hopes are high with infrastructures: They are expected to create jobs for the working class, overcome economic stagnation, and raise standards of living. But infrastructures are also central to any authoritarian project; they are used to garner political support, establish economic alliances, govern populations, and produce space. With its focus on politics of infrastructures, this talk provides an alternative lens to the rise of authoritarianism in contemporary Turkey. By looking the new legal instruments that were created to ease and accelerate infrastructure projects, this talk discusses the broader implications of infrastructural politics in governing a variety of policy realms from urban planning to counterterrorism.

Sinan Erensü is a Keyman Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Minnesota in 2016. His research and teaching interests include political ecology and political economy; urban and rural studies; and energy, infrastructures, and the politics of dispossession. Titled Fragile Energy: Power, Nature and Politics of Infrastructure in the “New Turkey”, his dissertation research explores the political work energy infrastructures do in 21st-century Turkey.

This is part of the Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium. On Fridays during the school year, the Buffett Institute hosts Northwestern faculty and/or visiting fellows to present their current research. This forum brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. The series helps promote dialogue on scholarship and develop a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Please arrive early to get lunch and find a seat.