ViDSS Short-term Finishing Contracts, University of Vienna
2027
Arjin Taş
PhD Candidate
Counterinsurgency
Urban restructuring
Informal settlements
Bureaucracy
Displacement and Dispossession
Connect:
arjin.tas@univie.ac.atBio
Arjin received her BA in Sociology from the Boğaziçi University in 2019. She completed her MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology with a Specialization in Global and Urban Studies at Central European University in 2022. Her MA research, awarded with the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) SEE Graduate Scholarship, examined the relationship between urban destruction, urban redevelopment, and counterinsurgency strategies through the case of Sur, Diyarbakır, Turkey.
Since March 2023, Arjin has been pursuing her PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. She is a sowi:docs fellow at the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences (ViDSS). She is also a research affiliate at the “The Challenge of Urban Futures” Research Platform at the university.
Her PhD project investigates the normalization and generalization of counterinsurgency strategies in urban restructuring in Diyarbakır. Her case study examines various aspects of counterinsurgent urban governance by analyzing the spatial, political, economic, social, legal, and bureaucratic processes involved in the declaration of risk and urban transformation in the Kaynartepe neighborhood of Old Bağlar. She is interested in understanding the relationship between economic and political motivations and their facilitation and manifestations in and through space, exposing the interrelation between neoliberal urban governance, displacement, dispossession, and the subjugation of specific populations by preventing future insurgencies.
Publications
Publications
Selected publications
- The counterinsurgent urban governance in postwar Diyarbakır: political securitisation alongside criminal insecurities - Journal Article
In: Special Issue on Violence and Urban Transformation in Turkey, edited by Dölek, Ç. & Crane, N. J.
- The Limbo of Post-war Sur: A Strategy of Counterinsurgent Urban Governance - Journal Article
- Turkey’s government uses disaster for profit - Newspaper Article
- Urban Destruction and Redevelopment as Counterinsurgency: The Void, The Limbo and New Face of Sur - Journal Article
- Urbanism as Counterinsurgency: Subjugation Through Urban Destruction and Redevelopment in Sur, Diyarbakir - Thesis
Master’s Thesis in Sociology and Social Anthropology
Talks and Events
Past
“Risky Areas” of Diyarbakır: Emergence and Expansion of Counterinsurgent Urban Governance in Post-War City - Presenter
Aug 2026
Warsaw, Poland
European Sociological Association (ESA) 2026, Strengthening Democracies: Social Action, Solidarity, and Sustainable Futures
‘Risky’ Kaynartepe: A Case of Counterinsurgent Governance Through Urban Regeneration - Presenter
Jul 2026
Vienna, Austria
RC21 Urban and Regional Development Conference: Ineuqalities and the City
University of Vienna
Securitization of Space and Non-intervention in Crime as Strategies of Counterinsurgent Urban Governance in Turkey - Presenter
Jul 2026
Vienna, Austria
RC21 Urban and Regional Development Conference: Ineuqalities and the City
University of Vienna
Domination Through Counterinsurgent Urban Governance: The Case of “Risky” Kaynartepe - Presenter
Jun 2026
London, UK
British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2026 Conference
SOAS, University of London
Counterinsurgent Urban Governance in Post-war Diyarbakır: Contemporary Urban Manifestations of a Colonial and Imperial Pacification Paradigm - Speaker
May 2026
Vienna, Austria
CEUrban Research Group Seminar
Central European University, Vienna
Counterinsurgent Urban Governance in Post-war City: The case of Kaynartepe - Speaker
Apr 2026
Online
Webinar on Kurdish Urbanisms: Urban Research from Turkey’s Internal “South East”
Risky Areas’ of Diyarbakır: The Formation of Risk and (De)securitization - Presenter
Jul 2025
Rabat, Morocco
5th ISA Forum of Sociology
International Sociological Association (ISA)
Limbos of Diyarbakır: Ambiguous Urban Redevelopment Processes and Counterinsurgency - Presenter
Jul 2025
Rabat, Morocco
5th ISA Forum of Sociology
International Sociological Association (ISA)
The Role of Law in Urban Restructuring and Counterinsurgency in the ‘Risky’ Areas of Diyarbakır. - Participant
Jun 2025
London, UK
Workshop on Authoritarianism, Law, and the Remaking of Society
The Social Life of Law Academic Research Project, The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
‘Risky Areas’ of Diyarbakır: Dissemination of Counterinsurgency in Urban Restructuring - Presenter
Jun 2025
London, UK
3rd Kurdish Studies Conference
London School of Economics (LSE) & University of Sheffield
Workshop on Urban space in tension between financialization and the right to the city - Participant
May 2025
Vienna, Austria
Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences, University of Vienna
‘Risky Areas’ of Diyarbakır: Use of Urban Redevelopment in Urban Governance and Counterinsurgency - Presenter
Feb 2025
Fukuoka, Japan
The 11th Meeting of East Asian Regional Conference in Alternative Geography (EARCAG)
16th EthnoDoks workshop: Interdisciplinary approaches to ethnographic research - Organizer
Oct 2024
Vienna, Austria
Central European University & University of Vienna
The politics and spaces of encounters: advancing dialogues between and within the Global North and the Global South - Participant
Jul 2024
Santiago de Chile, Chile
7th Doctoral School in Comparative Urban Studies
RC21 Urban and Regional Development & International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR)
‘Risky Areas’ of Diyarbakir: Normalization of the use of counterinsurgency strategies in urban restructuring - Speaker
Jan 2024
Vienna, Austria
The Challenges of the Urban Future Platform, University of Vienna
How are the urban counterinsurgency strategies, developed during the urban conflict, normalized and generalized by the state? - Participant
Jun 2023
Berlin, Germany
Multimodal Research and Publishing Workshop
ZOIS, DeZIM & VISION
Counterinsurgency and Spatial Subjugation through Urban Destruction and Redevelopment in Sur, Diyarbakır - Presenter
Feb 2023
Lisbon, Portugal
Conference Turkey at 100: (Dis)Continuities and (Dis)contents
The Orient Institute & The Institute of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP), University of Lisbon
Counterinsurgency and Spatial Subjugation Through Urban Destruction and Redevelopment in Sur, Diyarbakir - Presenter
Nov–Dec 2022
Barcelona, Spain
4th International Conference on Anthropology of Urban Conflict
The Observatory for the Anthropology of Urban Conflict