Canan Salih. 2014 TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW LONDON TURKISH CYPRIOT YOUTH ‘PERFORM’ THEIR DIASPORA IDENTITIES THROUGH EMPLACEMENT AND MOBILITY CANAN SALIH PH.D IN APPLIED DRAMA PRACTICE-AS-RESEARCH SUBMITTED FOR PH.D. EXAMINATION ROYAL CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON NOVEMBER 2014 1 Canan Salih. 2014 Declaration of Authorship I understand the School’s definition of plagiarism and declare that all sources drawn on have been formally acknowledged. Signed: Canan Salih Date: 17 November 2014 2 Canan Salih. 2014 Acknowledgement There are a number of people, in different contexts that have helped this thesis into completion. First and foremost, I would like to emphasise the importance of the young people who took part in the practice as research, without whom there would be no new, exisiting and developed knowledge to discuss and debate. The Innes Park boys and Haileybury Girls of 2009 – wherever you are now – your time and contribution to the initial stages of my research were valuable, enlightening and truly appreciated. To the LTC youth who took part in the Practice as Research (PaR) from 2010 – 2012: Serhan, Korcan, Tarkan and Bilcan Tana, my four nephews, who provided me with much to discuss, interrogate and consider in regards to LTC youth Diaspora identities. A special thanks to Dilan Akkas and Safi Arioglu for their relentless support and participation throughout the three, out of four, years of the PaR. To Bayram, Selen, Zehra, Melda and siblings Mete and Demet who took part in the various points of the practice and gave so much of their time and selves to make this research as valid as possible. All your contributions are truly appreciated. I thank the families of the young LTCs for their individual narratives that have helped shape the Histories chapter. The mothers of the LTC youth for being there when I needed the young people, reassuring me of the importance of this research to their offspings’ understanding of their cultural identities; my strong, vigilant and tenacious sister, Mine Tana, and my adopted sisters Hatice Arioglu, Mine Beyzade, and Cimen for their encouragement and support. Thank you to Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, in particular Tony Fisher, Gavin Henderson and Simon Shepherd for attending my presentations and panel discussions and contributing to the dialectics of the practice and for their continuous help and advise. Thank you to the Elsie Fogerty Fund for covering half my fees for the past four years of my studies. I would like to thank my best friends and colleugues Rokshana Khan and Ruksana Begum for pushing me each time it got tough and life took over. You guys are my rock! I am also very fortunate to have a friend and boss like Geraldine Bone who, not only helped me get things clear in my head over numerous discussions and debates around youth culture and diaspora, but also kindly proof read my whole thesis and gave me lots of valuable advice. Special thank you to ‘A’ Team Arts and London Borough of Tower Hamlets Youth Arts tema, Ideas Foundation, Emergency Exit Arts and the London Metropolitan for their financial and artistic contributions to the DWOS project. I want to give a special thanks to my two supervisors, Sally Mackey and Shakuntala Benaji for their incredible support and enthusiasm of the thesis. They have been helpful, kind, firm, very frank and honest throughout this endeavour and have pushed (not shoved) me to do better each time I wrote a chapter. You are both my heroes. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my son, Ersan, and my mother and father for being my anchor, my moral compass and for always believing in me. And, no mum; having the title of Dr will not mean I will be able to issue you your prescriptions. 3 Canan Salih. 2014 Abstract Towards an understanding of how London Turkish Cypriot youth ‘perform’ their Diaspora identities through emplacement and mobility The London Turkish Cypriot (LTC) community has been described as ‘invisible’, a community at the point of eradication (Aksoy and Robins 2001). For three generations of LTCs the process of cultural identification has seen an evolution from migration and ‘homeland’ association, to critical displacement, assimilation and different perceptions of what is ‘home’. The growing diversity in cultural identification is further reflected in enhanced access to spatial consumption, mobility and choices of emplacement for its younger generations. This PhD is driven by practice-as-research. The practice, and therefore line of reasoning, behind this research is an ongoing, organic process that has shifted throughout the course of the thesis. The documentation of the practice-as-research is included in the accompanying DVD and is integral to the findings of this thesis. The thesis asks how LTC youth ‘perform’ their identities and negotiate a diaspora identity that is in constant flux. The enquiry consists of two main lines of enquiry. First, I am exploring how young people use public spaces through mobility and a ‘mobile’ culture, using mobile initiated technology to further explore the idea of movement and flux. Second, I progress towards a greater understanding of the participating young LTCs’ concept of ‘home’ and what elements of their every day performative behaviour, their environment and relational spaciality construct and support these home-making practices. The thesis addresses complex issues arising out of auto ethnographic practice-as-research of the LTC community, conducted through applied drama practices with its youth. Issues include identifying young participants’ relationship to cultural space, place making and notions of ‘home’ as part of their identity construction process. The thesis also discusses the ‘fit’ of applied drama as a qualitative research tool within this context and the fluidity of changing technologies that can be, and are at times, used to document examples of practice. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Figures 5 Preface 8 Introduction 16 Construction of the thesis 18 The Practice 19 Summary of the theoretical fields 20 Outline of the thesis 22 Chapter 1: Histories 28 Diaspora 30 The Cyprus Problem 34 The Family 35 The Rag Trade 38 Language 42 The Homeland 48 Belonging 54 Religion 58 Conclusion 62 Chapter 2: Considerations of Practice-as-Research Methodologies Introduction 65 Practice-as-Research 66 Applied Drama 73 Ethnography and Auto Ethnography 78 Psycho Geography 82 Psycho Geographical Homes 89 Youth Media Culture 93 Ethical implications of using technology with young people 94 Final thoughts 100 Pauses in public spaces 101 5 Canan Salih. 2014 Chapter 3: London Turkish Cypriot’s Performance of Public Spaces Introduction 104 Participation and context of practice as research 107 Authority gendered space and territorialism 114 Gendered consumption of space 117 Authority and public spaces 120 Complexities of ‘spatial’ and ‘platial’ differentiation 122 Relational space 128 Detachment of cultural identity through mobility 130 Glocalisation 138 Extinction or distinction 145 Citizenship and empowerment 149 Conclusion 155 Chapter 4: Private Places: Home Making Practices of LTC Youth Introduction 159 Context of Practice 161 LTC Diaspora youth’s mobilization of home 163 Home as non-tangible place 178 Dwelling and the performance of home 189 Assimilation and the performativity of home 194 Conclusion 205 Conclusion 207 Performance of space and place 208 Home thoughts 210 Temporariness 212 Further questions 214 Broader implications of the research 215 Limitations 216 Areas for further development and research 218 Bibliography 221 6 Canan Salih. 2014 Appendix A – Context of Participants 237 Appendix B – Cyprus Timeline 240 Appendix C – Disgraceful Waste of Space (DWOS) – 2009 250 Appendix D – Disgraceful Waste of Space (DWOS) 266 Appendix E – Home Projects Workshop Plans 2012 275 Appendix F – Home 1 Project Workshop Plans 2011 283 Appendix G – Notes from Home 2 Project – Panel Discussion 289 Table of Figures Figure 1. DVD Map ____________________________________________ 09 Figure 2. Signposts in Innes Park (DWOS 2009) ____________________ 86 Figure 3. Dilan's Bedspread Installation (Home 2011) _______________ 92 Figure 4. DWOS 2009 Project Outline ___________________________ 110 Figure 5. Innes Park Boys' Plaques (DWOS 2009) _________________ 112 Figure 6. Haileybury Girls Palimpsest Mapping (DWOS 2009) _______ 113 Figure 7. Planning Maps (DWOS 2010) __________________________ 114 Figure 8. Palmers Green Map (DWOS 2010) ______________________ 140 Figure 9. Zehra's Mobile Phone Installation (Home 2011) ___________ 170 Figure 10. Safi's Photo Display (Home 2011) _____________________ 171 Figure 11. Selen's Home Exhibition (Home 2011) __________________ 181 Figure 12. Dilan's Bedspreads (Home 2011 & 2012) ________________ 185 Figure 13. Dilan's Home Exhibition (Home 2011) __________________ 187 Figure 14. Dilan's Home Exhibition Continued (Home 2011) _________ 187 7 Canan Salih. 2014 Preface This thesis uses applied drama practice as research to explore the place making practices of a select number of London Turkish Cypriot (LTC) youths. The purpose of this preface is to guide the reader through the mechanics of the PaR and the DVD. This PaR thesis is 75% written document and 25% practical. The practice of applied drama that operates as research, has taken place in three different contexts. In the first I led the research as youth arts officer for London borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) (see appendix C and Chapter 3). This involved working with two youth groups, one was a group of young Bengali women, set in a youth centre, the other a site-based group of young Bengali men that occupy a public park in Tower Hamlets. The project took place as part of a summer project called A Disgraceful Waste of Space (DWOS) in 2009. In the beginning of summer 2010, I embarked upon A Disgraceful Waste of Space - Roots to Routes (DWOS-2). This project was a replica of the first DWOS but as an independent project in which I worked as a freelance artist with eight second and third generation LTCs.