Urban House Model

INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THE CONCEPT OF URBAN HOUSING*

By Prof. Dr. Gurhan Fisek**

* The report was presented at the “Urbanisation in Ankara and Local Governments Symposium (June 22-23, 2001)”.

** Fisek Institute-Science and Action Foundation for Child Labour, General Director

phone: +90. 312. 4197811 e-mail: agf@fisek.org.tr

ABSTRACT

Objective: Adaptability of the migrants from the country side to the urban way of living; their being acquainted with urban values in order not to sustain their rural way of lives; organisation of the efforts in regard to the appropriation of these values by these migrants; and carrying out model studies in order to ease up the realisation of these efforts.

Conceptual Framework: Inhabitants of the country sideare the ones:

Having limited access to educational opportunities;

Not attaching any importance to the world outside, andto their place of importance in the world;

Having limited access to organisations from which theywould utilise (i.e. village headman, school, village clinic, andetc.)

Displaying different indicators in terms of their way ofesteeming children and human life;

Acknowledging the roles of women only within theboundaries of their homes or fields.

Having a negative attitude towards women’s workingor their being involved in the production process rather than familyproduction;

Not taking any “collective works” seriouslythrough which extra-family people may be involved in the small-scaleproduction process. For the production process, individuality is thedominant value; therefore, the concepts like team working or teamformation have not developed at all.

Having poor access to and feeling inadequate necessityfor participating in cultural, artistic and sportive facilities;

Having their works scattered in a broader range of time,except for some periods. Therefore, they consider time management notthat important.

Having limited stimulants around (i.e. technology, masscommunication means, number of people contacted, and etc.);

Having either no or a few social security options;

Commonly feeling the necessity of having children;expenses of children are very low indeed.

Having low living standards and consumption level;

Living in an environment in which children are notsubject to facing with various risks when they go out (i.e. gettinglost, involving in gangs or illicit activities, having and accident,and etc.).

On the other hand, life puts an intensive pressure on people who migrated from the country side; and they feel also pressured in terms of altering their traditional way of lives. Although people change easily in deeds, it takes more time to change in mind. This slow process both brings about delays in regard to the adaptation process, and furthermore it leads to the formation of some clusters sharing the same conservatism. The clusters resisting to change… Urban clusters who are not urbanised yet…

Even if they are not aware of their necessities yet, various active interventions should be deemed necessary in order to ease up the adaptation process of these migrants with the urban values. Besides, individual and social efforts are required in order to develop multi-sided studies regarding the socialisation process, achieve their conceptualisation, and then to improve them as one of the functions of the social state.

Method: Our studies will be organised in order to meet the above mentioned necessities; and the ways of overcoming the problem will be discussed by means of a model study called “Urban House”.

KEY WORDS

Urbanisation, human rights, child labour, woman labour, non-governmental organisations.

OBJECTIVE

Considering the migrants from the country side, this study aims that:

They would adapt to urban living conditions;

They would not sustain their rural way of lives atcities;

They would get acquainted with urban values;

They would participate in these kind of efforts;

The conveniences for accessing these efforts would bemodelled.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Big cities are exposed to migrations from the country side. It is expected that the wave of migration will persist during the following course of time, including 25-30 % of Turkey’s population. Bringing forth an environment where previous migrants (on which any policy to make them urbanised has not been implemented yet) would come together with the ones of the new wave, these migrations also bring about the danger of intensification of the rural behaviours, conducts and values. In that way, existing “non-urbanised” group will broaden; and this will give rise to an environment in which one would not be able to overcome various problems, especially the ones related with human rights abuses.

By means of active programs oriented towards our citizens who migrated from the country side to big cities, it should be provided that they would be acquainted with urban values. The most important matter to be discussed and underlined here is the significant differences between urban and rural values. Of these, the ones we have determined can be seen at Table-1:

TABLE-1

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN URBAN / RURAL VALUES

RURAL	URBAN
Education is not considered important; educational opportunities are limited.	Education is considered important; educational opportunities are unlimited.
Division of labour and the necessity of a family felt for others are limited.	Division of labour is advanced; the necessity of people felt for each other is too much.
People do not attach any importance to the world outside, and to their importance in the world	People living and working in crowds attach importance to being in an interaction with other people in the country and in the world, as well as to their relations with their close circles.
People have limited access to organisations from which they would utilise (i.e. village headman, school, village clinic, and etc.)	There are countless organisations (domestic or foreign) through which people would contact with their environs and from which they would utilise.
Esteeming children and human life is curbed due to despairs on protecting and enriching human life, low living standards, and limited opportunities allowing getting pleasure out of life.	Children and human life are esteemed to a great extent. In any case, the society intervenes to the opposite cases.
People acknowledges the roles of women only within the boundaries of their homes or fields.	The role and place of women within the society have been transformed to a great extent. Manager woman profile takes place beside the educated, working woman profile.
People do not take any “collective works” seriously through which extra-family people may be involved in small-scale production process.	Home-based production is rarely found. Most of the people works for people that are not from their family.
People have a negative attitude towards women’s working or their being involved in the production process rather than family production	Women take part in the working life due to the constraints in the family budget at the beginning, then for individual liberties and satisfactions.
For the production process, individuality is the dominant value; therefore, the concepts like team working or team formation have not developed at all.	For the production process, organised structures through which more than one person (some times thousands) works as teams and in which modern management techniques are used have come on the scene.
People have poor access to and feel inadequate necessity for participating in cultural, artistic and sportive facilities.	Starting from the educational institutions, participation to the cultural, artistic and sportive facilities and team sports is encouraged.
People have their works scattered in a broader range of time, except for some periods. Therefore, they consider time management not that important.	Since working is so important, there is no difference between day and night. Time is considered highly important.
People have low living standards and consumption level.	Although at different levels, living standards and consumption level are higher than the rural regions.
People have limited stimulants around (i.e. technology, mass communication means, number of people contacted, and etc.).	There are many stimulants.
People have either no or a few social security options.	The rate of participation in a social security system and utilising from the favours of the system is much higher.
People commonly feel the necessity of having children; expenses of children are very low indeed.	A child is not a necessity, but a problem. Because, the value and expenses of a child are too high to meet.
People live in an environment in which children are not subject to facing with various risks when they go out (i.e. getting lost, involving in gangs or illicit activities, having and accident, and etc.).	People live in an environment in which children are subject to facing with various risks when they go out (i.e. getting lost, involving in gangs or illicit activities, having and accident, and etc.)
People are not aware of the idea of organisation and organised struggle.	People are aware of protecting their rights by means of organising.

Advancing towards being a contemporary civilisation by means of eliminating these differences is one of Turkey’s most indispensable preferences. In order to eliminate these differences, we may numerate 5 different interventions that would pave way to new transformations (thus, they are also prolific).

Holding off children from working life;

“Life support” studies for mothers;

Citizens’ learning how to utilise from socialinstitutions;

TABLE-2

DEPARTMENTS & TARGET GROUPS

DEPARTMENTS	TARGET GROUPS
Vocational Training Department Computer laboratory Foreign languages laboratory Drafting – graphic studies Other classrooms Civics courses	Young girls
Life Support Department Small-scale production unit Educational unit (preventive medicine, mother-child health, environmental health, law) Conversations and specialists’ visits	Mothers
Identity Training Department Music room Drawing workshop Sporting room Drama and psycho-drama room Chess, and etc. room Library and reading room Video-DVD-TV room Summer camp Civics courses	Child Labourers
Consultation and Orientation Department Law Health Social services Psychological consultation Consultation for womanly problems Civics courses	All new city dwellers
Governance and Supervision Raising awareness on governance and supervision Encouraging the formation of new societal organisations and participation of these formations to the governmental mechanisms	Local Governments (municipalities, provincial administrations, and etc.) Volunteer organisations All new city dwellers

With the application of “Urban House” model, it is expected that:

• Urban values would be appropriated by broader segments of society;
• Each and every city dweller would be aware of their rights and duties;
• This awareness at the large scale would bring forth moving forward speedily on the human rights issues, and hence accelerations in social production and transformation;
• It would provide for future generations (both male and female) to grow in a more egalitarian, more qualified and many-sided way, while being aware their place of importance in this world. And this would make things easier for them in regard to employment issues.
• Children and youth would become strong, self-confident, co-operative and not monotonous personalities who are competent enough to develop games. On the other hand, it is also expected that their parents participating in this program are also understanding people and educated enough to conform their behaviours with their children?s attitudes and conducts.
• New city dwellers and children would be able to participate in organised struggles via societal organisations.

  For this study, the major criterions of success should be these:

• The number of participants who take part in the activities organised by the centre;
• Attendance rate of the participants;
• The rate of girls who find jobs in line with the training facilities of the centre, who delay their marriages, and who continue to work after getting married;
• In order to achieve sustainability, improvements in small-scale production facilities, and increases in the quantitative contributions of the society;
• Quantitative and qualitative state of volunteer organisations that are to be newly formed by the contributors of the Urban House project and by the city dwellers.
• Evaluation of the annual activity reports by the participants.

  THE LAST WORDS

  Aiming the appropriation of urban values, such a model study should be enriched and widespread by means of feed backing acquired through its implications. Because, there are numbers of people in the same situation, except from the new city dwellers to which this project reaches. Hence, the study would become widespread horizontally as the new dwellers are included through continuous migrations.