ABSTRACT
Informed by postcolonial studies, this chapter offers an analysis of the temporal formations of a neighbourhood along the lines of class and ethnicity. For that, I draw on the ethnographic data from one of the Roma neighbourhoods in a small town in Western Turkey. I build my analysis on the observations and stories of young men who have had to wait in different ways. In that regard, I investigate time as a site of subjectification, as well as of alienation, where protagonists are usually waiting for something. They are waiting for someone to call, for a document to arrive, for an opportunity to exploit, and mostly, for a chance to leave town. In all instances, though, waiting denotes ‘passing time by doing nothing’ for prolonged periods, even years. In this context, I illustrate and discuss the intricacies of a habitus put ‘on hold’ and barely accruing ‘capital’ in any form, and a neighbourhood whose boundaries are not only drawn spatially but also by a different temporal regime.
