Rhythmanalysis as an approach towards understanding culture intensive places: A study on Mersin Turgutreis Neighborhood

This study deals with culture intensive places that are a part of the cultural richness of the urban, but do not sufficiently come to the fore in urban planning studies due to their implicit structure, and cannot reproduce their original culture by losing their unique rhythms as a result of rapid changes and transformations. The study aims to define and understand culture intensive places conceptualized as microcosms and to reveal the importance of these areas for the urban. To achieve this aim and objective, the rhythmanalysis method, which is a socio-spatial approach, was used. The rhythmanalysis method, defined as a new field of knowledge and science that enables the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, is a tool that can offer new opportunities for analyzing and thinking about urban space. With the rhythmanalysis framework developed within the scope of this study, from a multi-disciplinary perspective based on rhythmanalysis and based on anthropology, sociology, and spatial sciences, it focuses on the repetitive rhythms inherent in culturally intense places and their rhythmic traces, both temporal and spatial. In this way, it is possible to understand the internal dynamics and unique structures of these places through their rhythms, to develop new explanation possibilities for these places, and to reveal the importance of these places in the multicultural urban structure. In the study, a case study was conducted on applying the framework for analyzing the rhythms of culture intensive places, which was developed to reveal the unique dynamics of culture intensive places. In this context, the cultural values and socio-spatial practices of the Romani people residing in the Mersin Turgutreis Neighborhood, defined as a place with intense culture were examined. This analysis was carried out through data obtained through in-depth interviews, surveys, participant observation, and non-participant observation. In the context of the rhythm analysis framework developed based on both the theoretical framework and the pilot study conducted in the study area, the daily life rhythms of the Romani people, an ethnic group living in the multicultural structure of Mersin; were discussed through the four rhythm group consisting of socio-cultural rhythms, natural rhythms, perceptual rhythms and spatial rhythms. Analyzing this rhythm group contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the daily life of the Romani people through rhythms. Research findings reveal that the main factor in the spatial differentiation of culture intensive places is the rhythms that create the unique characteristics of these areas. It has been determined that these rhythms are related to social, cultural, and economic phenomena, events and activities in daily life, the relationship established by the inhabitants with the natural elements and events in the area, and the perceptual factors based on sight, hearing, and smell in the area, and that these rhythms repeat temporally and spatially. These repetitions occur in weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual cycles, depending on the rhythm considered; It has been determined that they are concentrated in the Mersin Turgutreis Neighborhood and its immediate surroundings and that this area has become a place identified with the Romani identity.