The politics of noise: case study of the commercialization of Alaçatı Village, Turkey

Abstract

Employing the concept of biopolitics, this study explores noise and policy inaction as normalizing technologies of the body and as market discourse through the commercialization of a small village. Noise in Alaçatı Village, which has been increasing since 2015, is analyzed here in terms of its constitutive processes, which include mechanisms of power and resistance. This approach shows how the normalizing technologies of the body, in conjunction with the inaction and contingency policies of biopower, result in the emergence of new power mechanisms with privatized and individualized modes of action. This study employed a qualitative method involving two months of participant observation and 45 qualitative interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017. The outcomes of policy inaction are as follows: (1) excessive noise is accepted and resistants become silent, (2) connections between noise supporters and resistants are lost, (3) responsibility for overcoming noise is individualized, and (4) de-territorialization and re-territorialization occur.