Les tribulations du terme gecekondu (1947-2004) : une lente perte de substance. Pour une clarification terminologique.

Abstract

This paper starts with a basic statement: the term of gecekondu, emerged in 1947 and since continuously transformed, could not yet be seriously used without many precautions. The lack of a systematic analysis of its semantic variations is now making this word totally irrelevant for social research. In this respect, we try to draw the history of the term and, in the same time, to point out the various definitions that have to be distinguished. To sum up, we can distinguish four definitions: first, the juridical (related to the ownership of the land), secondly, the architectural, thirdly the metaphorical (here gecekondu means illegality of building) and the social one. The actual confusion of these various dimensions has to be solved for going on better with gecekondu studies.