Ingredients Makes 20 pieces
300 grams All Purpose Flour
15grams Fresh Yeast
30ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8grams Sea Salt
160ml Warm Water
20 pieaces Double Hamsi Fillets, cleaned, skin on
25grams Clarified Butter
to taste Fine Sea Salt
to taste Cracked Black Pepper

To make olive oil bread
1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Add yeast to warm water and mix well.
3. Add salt and 10ml of olive oil.
4. Sift flour in and mix until it forms a smooth textured dough.
5. Knead dough on work bench until smooth and shiny.
6. Put the dough in a deep oven proof pan that has been brushed with olive oil.
7. Press out the dough into the corners and edges of the pan.
8. Smother the remaining oil over the dough.
9. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
10. Bake the bread for approximately 40 minutes at 200 C. No fan just top and bottom heat.
11. Allow the bread to rest on a rack over night. It will get a bit stale.
12. Slice itthinly, approximately 2-3 mm.
13. Cut the bread slices into rectangular shapes to fit you fish. Approximately 9 x 5cm.

To assemble Hamsi crisps
1. Place the sliced olive oil bread on a baking paper.
2. Season the Hamsi fillets with sea salt and black pepper.
3. Place one double fillet on each piece of bread. Skin side down and flatten. Wrap in cling film and keep in fridge for 4 hours. Hamsi filletsshould stick to the bread.
4. Melt clarified butter in a nonstick pan over medium heat.
5. Add bread and with the Hamsi on top.
6. Sear until the bread becomes crispy and light brown. Cook on one side only otherwise the Hamsi will dry out.

This paper on sustainable fisheries, marine reserves starts by referring to concepts such as agricultural production, farmers, global warming and ecological crisis. Please note that is not due to author’s confusion but a deliberate approach. For many years natural assets such as ground and underground water resources, seeds, land, sea, lakes, are considered by industrialized agriculture and the fishing industry as resources and with this regard they have come under the ownership of industrial capital.

However, for a substantial period of time as natural assets were perceived as resources, high quantity of production topped our heads and solution to all our problems were prescribed to growth, the terrors of climatic threat presented itself. This terrifying landscape simultaneously triggered a change in the perception of the world by ecologists. A number of attitudes began to proliferate arguing that ecology should not only be limited to environmentalism and that social aspects should also be considered. Therefore, poor communities greatly exposed to the effects of global warming such as farmers engaged in traditional production, traditional fishermen, coastal fishermen began to confide more and more in a liberation based on a structure that considers ecological cycles, principles of ecology and labour and respects traditional knowledge.

As he witnessed the plunder of land during the industrial revolution, Karl Marx asserted in Capital III: ‘the only possible freedom, is the regulations of mutual relations of common producers with nature in a rational manner.’ Daniel Tanuro also emphasis this issue in his book L’impossible capitalisme vert (The Futility of Green Capitalism) : ‘In fact, the ecological crisis we are exposed to is not a continuation of the past, on the contrary it is the work of a radical innovation. No society in history was inclined by a profit avarice that encouraged capitalists to accumulate more thereby constantly creating new needs in order to produce more and sell more….. The fact that this phenomenon referred to as the ecological crisis is a crisis of humanity’s historical relationship with its environment.’

Due to these changes of understanding and insight the United Nations and other international bodies merged on the idea that the only way to feed the world in a sustainable way and to rid the negative impacts of climate change is to support traditional/small producers that nurtures the environment and biodiversity. The ripples of this paradigm shift in the international arena were also felt in our country. This course of change was surely obtained with the stubbornness, persistence and the power of social struggle.

Witnesses of the bitter story of the sea
Seas are warming, glaciers are melting, direction of currents are changing and the sea level is steadily rising. The main dietary sources of marine life (plankton and krill) that reside in the bottom of the food chain as a whole have began to dissipate critically affected by temperature change. A major number of coral bleaching has occurred and was left to die. In 1998, 16 percent of the world corals were fatally damaged, reefs in South Asia and Indian Ocean lost half of its corals. The amount of waste created by modern fishing is colossal. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 75% of planet’s main sea fishing areas are completely depleted or nearly depleted. Waste and rate of consumption in this area is very high. As an example, more than 90 percent of the fish caught in the nets of shrimp industry boats are thrown back into the sea. Each year, the number of death of whale or dolphin due to this activity is over 300 thousand. Around 100 thousand albatross die due to being caught to long fishing hooks; turtles, seals and sharks fall victim to random and inconsiderate fishing practices. In total, the amount of fish discarded in a year is estimated to be between 7 to 39 million tons. Many of these consist of small dead fish and non-commercial marine organisms discarded by fishing boats.

Another significant danger is that of bottom trawls. Bottom trawls is regarded as the most brutal killers of marine life. For the sake of few fish, corals that stand for centuries are crushed as by a bulldozer sweeping all the life they comprise thus eradicating sea mountains that host an abundance of life as much as a rain forest. The amount of fish caught by the world’s largest trawler in a month is equal to the amount of 7000 local small fishermen hunt a year. Pirate fishing boats without a license or fishing conducted outside a permit zone steal an incredible amount of fish, ruin marine life and exert killing blows to coastal economies.

Holistic Approach
In order to protect the seas, preserving a habitat of a single species or elimination of a single threat is not enough. All the seas can only exist as a single ecosystem. Due to this, we need marine reserves. Marine reserves consists of “core zones” that prohibit destructive activities such as fishing and mining and industrial discharge and where necessary any human activity. Implementation of these areas so as to form a network provides protection of areas prone to most immediate threats and that are in need of improvement. The remaining part shall of course be open to fishing and other activities, but in concordance with a necessary and essential condition: Good management!

Marine reserves provide protection. To protect the diversity of life and our desire to maintain the productivity on Earth, clearly explain the need for protection. Protection cannot be achieved by addressing a single animal, nor a single habitat alone. Effective protection methods function only by taking into account the complex relationships between living organisms and creating supportive solutions. The most important function of marine reserves is to protect ecosystems and key organisms as a whole. Therefore, studies carried out in a single area for a species of fish shall not contribute to healing of stocks or their habitats.

Therefore it is crucial to consider ecology and social structures as a whole and evaluate life by this means. Evaluation of a hydroelectric power plant to be established on a river, by taking into account its impact on small farmers engaged in production, the forest, the native animals, and the needs of sea shore fisherman that depend on fish that feed through the flow of the river to the sea or with the social and environmental needs of the traditional fisherman shall lead us to freedom.

[1] Tanuro, Daniel. “The Impossible Green Capitalism” TMMOB Chmaber of Electrical Engineers, Ecology Collective, Habitus Publicaitons (2011) pg. 56,
[2] Greenpeace Mediterranean http://www.greenpeace.org/turkey/tr/campaigns/defending-our-mediterranean/oceans/
[3] Greenpeace Mediterranean http://www.greenpeace.org/turkey/tr/campaigns/defending-our-mediterranean/solutions/

Photos: Courtesy of Aras Press ”Fish and Fishery in Turkey”, Karekin Devedjian, a re-edition of the 1926 publication, © 2006 

Fisheries policies since the beginning of the 20th century was modeled on a holistic perspective as was the approach on civil society organizations, international politics, individual initiatives and state of the economies. Hence as this modeling did not inhibit the exploitation of resources the outcome resulted in extinguishing of the existence of different nations, origins and communities.

Fisheries were regulated on relations of the political and economic sovereignty between the developed and developing 3rd world countries and were overlooked amongst other capitalist agriculture policies. As the main motive is to profit neither the small scaled local fish/eries nor the preservation of culture originating in centuries by fishing will be treated as an important issue in the developing 3rd world countries. The increase of capital as a result of privatization of the food resources is eradicating the accumulated local culture.

The brutal whale hunting of today is being banned. Using vessels equipped with latest technology and instruments whales are being hunted, killed, skinned, teared into pieces and gallons of spilled blood is tossed back into the sea. In a couple of hours…hundreds of them…at the same time! No need to chase a whale for weeks as was depicted in Melville’s Moby-Dick thanks to satellite navigation. Hunters under the guidance of supranational companies, provide for the needs of human beings in spite of exploitation of resources, environment, and culture.

Contrary to this, the Lamakera and Lamalera villages of Indonesia base their livelihood and culture solely on whale hunting. People living in these villages spend their days to hunt the ocean’s largest creature using harpoons small wooden boats of their own making and their bare hands depending on rituals and traditional methods handed down from father to son for centuries. The villagers preserve the fine balance of the life cycle between the prey and the sea. In the meantime the latest Japanese fishing vessels carry on reducing the number of whales which consequently affects and changes the hunting rituals of Lamaleraian villagers. The hunt runs of the villagers’ decrease every year in accordance with the decrease of the number of whales, thus leading to a vicious circle. As a result a culture comes under a threat of extinction and the gained knowledge faces the condition of not being transferred to future generations. Whale hunting can be completely banned; this could be a likely solution. Hence this ban will create a deformation in the identities of the local fishermen.

Wagenia natives in Africa hunt the fish from the River Congo for centuries in the most simple and primitive methods. Their culture also faces a threat of extinction as Lamaleraian villagers. The continuous high level of hunting in the Congo River has a significant impact on fish reserves. This influences the lives, ritual and culture of the natives which their livelihood depends directly on fishing. After all, the culture and livelihood shifts to tourism which leads to a deterioration of their culture.

There are efforts on the conservation of fish reserves. Especially severe pressure exerted by non-governmental organizations force the change of the current government policies. People are becoming more aware and are encouraged to consume more flavored, particularly local products. Although positive, these efforts still fall short. No matter all the struggle put forth, all of us still stand as Don Quixote in the face of the capital increase appetite as well as the desire of possession of energy sources by developed states.

Although prohibitions and bans regulate an environment ordinance nevertheless they lead to an extinction of local food and culture of everyday life.

Get you numbers straight and then you’ll get why…

Today “An eye for an eye” is apparently not enough!! We need more blood…
We have to kill at least 25 million sharks for each human killed by a shark.

Go to any beach in the world, including the feared South African and Australian ones and you’ll find many, many, many more people that drown, smack their head or just croke some other way other than being eaten by a shark. Period! That’s a fact!

We all know the statistics of Shark vs. Toaster… Duh!!
But for some messed up reason we still comfortably put the pseudo bread in the toaster every morning and smear some weird chemicals on in posing as fat and eat comfortably thinking it’s safe.While at the same time we are still scared of the amazing creatures that has been around for over 400 millions of years, long before dinosaurs and obviously us. We get all glossy eyed when watching Avatar, but then again, that’s the movies.

Please remember that more or less 150 people die of coconuts falling on their head next time you’re sipping a frozen cocktail in the tropics.

I’m not evengetting into drinking and driving, not wearing seatbelt and texting while driving… you make the math!

Don’t we all like our dogs, man’s best friend, isn’t that right?! Huh!! In the US alone 50 people are killed by dogs, give ot take a few. Sharks eat up more or less 5 of us a year, worldwide!

This list could go on and on… how much more do we need to convince people?

Eureka!! I’ve got an idea. Why doesn’t Steven and his mates make up for their sins? They are great at making movies, we all know that. How about if they publicly admit that they truly messed with peoples minds, apologize and promise to make up for it. Then start making movies that show a little more of what’s really going on. I’m sure they can make a great, easy to watch, “no need for intellect” movie and still make some cash out of it.

We asked Roddie a few questions about his life, work and passion. Read on to find out what a passionate guy and a pint stout can come up with…

MG: Why do you do what you do? I’m sure a lot of people ask this… but then again it’s not your average 9 to 5 job.

RS: I simply love what I do and the freedom it gives me.

MG: Why sea urchins?

RS: It started as a crazy idea over a pint of Guinness and then became a reality.

MG: What else do you find or catch?

RS: Sea urchins are my main fishery but we do other shellfish, like the mahogany clams and the softshell clams. But I’m still not fully comfortable with the fishing of other species, so they are still only in small numbers. I also do a lot of experimental fishing for strange things like starfish and sea cucumbers. I have just finished a small test fishery with Ben Reade of the Nordic Food Lab so you should be able to read the results soon.

MG: Can you describe your usual workday?Do you have some company or do you dive on your own?

RS: I think like all small business people, I can’t say I have a usual work day. There are always so many things to deal with and they all require different thinking, but an average fishing day might go like this. Start at 8 in the morning and go out to the fishing site. Dive for the day and return home at about 4. Some dinner, emails, and then bed 9:00pm. I then get up at 2 in the morning and go out to sea. I pick up the nets of sea urchins that we’d fished, bring them back to shore and then pack them ready for the 8am boat to the town where the airport is. I do really want a helicopter… I spendthe rest of the day stressing about snowstorms and planes and possible delays, hassling my logistics guys to hell and back. Fortunately they are quite nice to me.

MG: How cold is it really? We got to try the ice but how do you explain it when someone asks?

Note: Rod was a speaker at the MAD Foodcamp 2012 in Copenhagen. He made us all kiss small pucks of frozen sea water to get a feeling of his environment. The few brave that could hold on got numb and started to blabber rather than speak.

RS: The thing people don’t understand if they’re not from here is that in winter, the water is actually not the coldest place. The sea stays at a balmy +4 to -2, any colder and it is ice. The air temperature these days, midwinter, can be anywhere from zero to minus 13 or so which we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. Add the wind chill factor and if there is a light breeze I can be out in a boat in an effective minus 25. Now that’s cold.

MG: What’s the toughest part of your job? Other than the cold…

First of all, the cold is not a problem, it’s just there. The biggest challenge?Quality.Quality chain, the way from the sea to the table. There are a lot of links in the chain and one single mistake can break the whole system.

MG: Do you use any special equipment?

RS: Yes and no. There are no tool shops that specialize in sea urchins so I whatever I need I have to make it, or adapt from something else. My diving gear is all ice qualified, having said that, though, we just had a visitor who came straight from having dived in the Antarctic – and his gear failed. We read a lot and we learn from our mistakes, after 10 years plus, I have a fair idea what works and not.

MG: I’ve read that you can estimate your daily catch by observing nature. Is it true and if so how?

RS: That is not really true, but we spend about a month a year surveying, qualifying the fields. So we know where to go at what wind direction, waveheight etc. Even so we still get it wrong sometimes, or theweather beats us to the ground.

MG: What is your average catch per day? If you don’t mind me asking… How much do you sell it for? People must think you’re making a fortune.

RS: Then they see my boat, and realize I’m not making a fortune at all. I could take a job tomorrow and make more money, but the real value in this is not the cash. I love the physical aspects of my job, except when I am thawing my hands out for hours after a day at sea, but the main reward is the response my product gets. Watching people eat my sea urchins – that never gets old. Plus it has brought me a lot of amazing contacts, experiences and knowledge that I would never have had otherwise. Oh, and the price per kilo of round sea urchin is about *cough* these days. Do you want to buy some?

MG: Is there any governmental body that supports or funds your job?

RS: Nah… Having said that, I have been paid for giving speeches, writing reports and statements, but that’s part of the job I guess. Perhaps that will change in the future. Resources of the sea are very much under-valued I think.

MG: How did you meet Rene & Co? How many locations or chefs buy your spiny balls?

I didn’t meet him, he phoned me. I had just decided to stop working with the urchins and this mad Dane phoned me. I tried my best to persuade him there would be too many problems to be worth it but you know,he is a powerful guy. Then I met him and he convinced me instead. He came to sea with me in February wearing trainers and he didn’t complain for five hours. That’s dedication for you.

MG: Other than Rene, have other chefs joined you? Do they have the balls for it?

RS: Oh, you mean in the north? We did a workshop this year, the F12, and are planning another one in 2014. The idea is to take not the chefs but the sous-chefs, and teach them about what we are doing; sea life – get a few journalists together, bring in some controversial topics – let them work it out. The sea and its resources, there is a limited amount of knowledge about it, and how to use them. Norwegians have fantastic fisheries policies that really work, but are condemned for their whaling, which to me is wrong.

MG: Do you notice any decrease in the sea urchin population as a result of the climate change?

RS: No, but I have read some scientific reports that claim I should see some change. I really don’t think we know the population cycles of the sea urchins well enough to understand them; I have my own theories but… Let’s just say if a mad scientist comes along and wants to compare notes, I am ready.

MG: Considering the difficulty of harvesting the sea urchins up north, are they that much better than urchins from other areas? Have you tried a lot from other places??

RS: I have tried California, East coast America, Ireland, Mediterranean and I have got to say that ours are pretty darned good. Irish may have a nice taste, but they are not as big, roe wise, and they are overfished to hell. I really think the Norwegian Green isa pretty good sea urchin, especially when picked with care, but I am just a stupid fisherman.

Click for Mehmet Gürs’ editorial text

Your mom always tells you to eat your fish. Fish is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins. Fish will make you smarter. Fish is lean. Fish is clean. Fish is good… This is probably true, or at least was, or still is depending on what fish and where. Hell I don’t know anymore?!

Now, we all know that fish should be good, at least in its purest form. The dilemma is, can we find it? And when we do, should we catch it? There’s so much information out there that we all get messed up. Should we go for the factory farmed beef, the big tittiechix or the high mercury swordfish?? Let’s say we picked the lovely fish for a moment… can we eat without being afraid (high in mercury or PCBs) or feeling guilty (well there’s nothing left) or selfish (there won’t be anything left for our kids). Hell I don’t know anymore?!

We also know that there’s no tuna left in the seas, right? So, as a chef that has stopped serving tuna and other endangered species in all of his restaurants, what do you do tell your seven year old son when you get one on your hook while sailing in the middle of the Indian Ocean? This is your dinner, an excellent one as a matter of fact, for the next couple of days… And you know that you eating it will not do anything to the remaining stocks but you still feel guilty! Hell I don’t know anymore?!

How about the farmed one? Tuna I mean. Most of it in cans… ‘The Other White Meat’ as it’s called. Is it really good for you and the oceans? How much perfectly edible fish is used to get a wild caught tuna fattied up? What about the hormones pumped into them to get them to reproduce in captivity? What about the mess that’s left behind? Is it really worth it? This one I know!!

Click on EDF’s Seafood Selector ‘Eco-friendly & healthy’ and all you get are FIVE species. That’s it, FIVE!! We know that there will not be anything left in the oceans in the near future. True fact! So, is it worth fighting for even if you know you will loose the fight? You bet!

To whom does an object belong, once it becomes the personal property of a consumer and is then discarded? For what reason has the municipality organized a raid on informal waste collectors? Does garbage belong to the finder, or is everything abandoned on the streets considered state property? Does the former owner of an item also have the privilege of owning itas garbage? Whenathoughtful citizen collects discarded newspapers from her building and takes them to a paper factory,should we consider her a thief?
The tedious and everlasting processes that transform villages into towns, towns into cities, and cities into metropolises, as the population grows and density increases, have for centuries sheltered the newcomer, provided for the increasing needs of original inhabitant, and supported the emergence of increasingly personalized lines of work. The industrial developments and resurgent capitalismof recent years have changed the quality of consumed products and promoted an increase in their quantity. The discovery that the consumed object does not actually complete its life, but can be reused, enabled the emergence of the recycling/recovery market. With the breakdown in ecological equilibrium and the depletion of the world’s natural resource reserves, this market, hence “waste”, is becoming increasingly valuable. Furthermore, this value is of considerable substance, especially considering the irresolvable conflicts experienced by legal and illegal systems that aim to generate revenue from waste.

However, none of this can enter the general public consciousness due to the consumption policies of the capitalist order. The consumer is no longer concerned with the stages of production and recycling implemented on their behalf. The contemporary economic system makes the source and destination of the object unimportant; within this process, individuals are reduced to mere “consumers,” performing the only act remaining in their control at an increasing rate. After the moment of consumption, the object is without origin, trapped in eternity, as if it had disappeared. But, in fact, it changes form, re-enters consumption processes, and radiates value through the path determined by sociopolitical and economic systems. Similar to our alienation of waste, those who collect and separate the waste are also alienated. In terms of the ecological philosophy on which the recycling is based, recognizing the conditions of these people who are forced to be society’s other, making their demands for humane living and working conditions heard, and re-integrating them into the sociopolitical system within equitable circumstances, are inescapable.
The parallels between the “consumption object–waste” and “consumption–collector” dualities are intriguing. Despite the fact that these individuals are identified as street collectors and constitute not only the most important but also the most suffering elements of the unauthorized system, and despite the fact that their place as a community within the urban ecosystem is crucial, they are condemned to a state of invisibility. In fact, as much as the consumer lacks awareness of the collector, the collector does not complain about this state of invisibility either. Interestingly enough, the system sustains itself only in this way.

Waste cycle and Turkey:
The traditional disposal of waste in the sea was replaced in 1953 with uncontrolled disposal;in 1995, controlled disposal.[1] Currently, controlled disposal areas are developed in terms of minimizing their damaging effect on natural environments. In recent years, Turkish policy began to be influenced by the newly recognized value of waste as a commodity through worldwide recycling practices, emerging as a response to ecological damage. Therefore, new technological and economic arrangements have been introduced, oriented towards reducing the quantity of waste disposed in controlled areas and recovering as much waste as possible. Keeping in mind influential EU criteria and potentials for revenue extraction, the government has begun various pilot recycling practices. As a result, first illegal collectors and then the municipality became involved in the waste market. In metropolitan municipalities, the collection and recycling of all sorts of waste is under the authority of the Office of Environment Protection and Waste Management, within the Environment Protection and Control Administration. In local municipalities, this task is carried out by the Office of Environment Protection and Sanitary Works. Rather than by the municipality itself, the collection and recycling processes are carried out by authorized institutions and licensed transportation companies and recycling facilities within the regulatory framework determined by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. [2]
As much as these bureaucratic rearrangements could be seen as progress, they also placed in an “illegal” position the independent individuals who survived on this task under various qualifications (without a legal title) since the 1930s. Rather than replacing systems previously created by these people once and for all, the new systems created by the municipalities were annexed to the market and generated a duality. These systems can be labelled as formal and informal systems; the formal is, by nature, easier to examine and explain, whereas the informal system is more problematic in terms of its social, economic, and political aspects, more resistant totechnical analysis. Between these two, a phenomenon has arisen, with structural complexities comparable to the formal system but not governed by written laws. As a part of the EU project, the aim is to liquidate this dual structure and formalize the whole process.

Formal system:
Briefly, the system works this way: [3] municipality vehicles collect and transfer mixed garbage (wet and dry) from residences and institutionsto waste transfer stations. Transfer stations are the units created to reduce transportation costs and traffic density by preventing the direct transportation of waste to recycling, compost and disposal facilities located in the outskirts of the city. The locations of waste transfer stations are determined by the zoning specified in the Ministry of Environment’s solid waste master plan (KAAP). Zoning is specified with references to geographical location, topography, road conditions, economic transportation distance and population ratio of the region. In addition, the research carried out by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on the annual amount of quality (packaged/recyclable) waste produced by different regions shows the density of the collection system needed in each region. The analysis of annual filling capacity and garbage collection vehicles, on the other hand, reveals the effectiveness of current plans.
The mixed waste stored in transfer stations is compressed in large bins and transported (on highcargo-capacity, heavy vehicles) to main disposal fields. Here, the waste is separated, and each kind is processed differently. Organic wastes are separated and recycled into a high hydration-capacity material with a rich organic value, called compost, which constitutes the main content of fertilizers. Plastic, meanwhile, is recycled in two different ways. The first produces a fuel from waste (RDF), later sold to cement factories, which operate with very high temperatures. The second produces granules, sold to plastic manufacturers for reuse. The remaining waste that cannot be recycled is transferred to a disposal facility. At this stage, energy is produced from the gas emanating from the waste (methane), the water leaking from the waste is purified and directed into the sewage system, and finally, any remaining waste with zero recycling value is transported to controlled storage fields where its damage to nature is minimized. Medical waste, on the other hand, is collected from the source, transferred directly to medical waste incineration facilities located near disposal facilities, and incinerated. Citizens who would like to found facilities and operate in the field of packaging waste collection, separation and recycling can file an application for the Ministry enclosing all plans, projects, reports, technical data, explanations and other documents, and their process of authorisation is initiated by local municipalities. Packaging waste is collected periodically from residences and institutions in pilot regions. In non-pilot regions, it is collected from various institutions periodically in case of demand and from residences irregularly, again in case of demand. Packaging waste is sold directly to licensed recycling facilities.

Informal system:
The results of the research performed by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s KAAP indicate that “individual collectors and scrap dealers buy used packaging waste from storage facilities and businesses, or they collect it from the streets and waste containers.” This is the most common method in Turkey. It is estimated that the waste recycled by street collectors constitutes 10% of urban solid waste and 25 to 30% of recyclable solid waste. Although this type of recycling is not sanitary and legal, it persists due to the fact that the related groups are very wellorganized. The total capacity of the material recycling facilities operated by municipalities in Turkey is250,000 tons per year;nevertheless, these facilities operate at a volume as low as 30,000 tons per year. The amount recycled by municipalities is significantly low compared to that from street collectors.”
Despite the fact that there are no trade unions for collectors and few platforms on which they can make their voice heard, entities such as Ankara Recycling Association (founded in 2005) and KATIK (Recycling Workers Newspaper) actively workto protect collectors’ rights. However, the conflict with the municipality still continues. As the collectors play hide and seek with the municipality, they also make enormous contributions in the recycling of solid waste under difficult conditions.
As findings from our observations indicate, the system is composed of four or five elements and operates approximately as follows: collectors store separated packaging waste, collected from the streets or institutions with which they have verbal agreements, in indoor depots rented together by several collectors. After two or three days, thissolid waste is transferred to larger depots under the supervision of the first mediator. These are half-closed depots with certain technical equipment such as scales, separation bands, and compressors. Metals are taken to melting shops, while plastic goods are taken to shredders. Plastic, metal and paper waste are bought in kilograms, separated and compressed. Next, they are loaded in trucks and taken to a second or even a third mediator to be sold, again by the kilogram, to recycling firms. As we arrive at the final bidder, the system has now become formal; on paper, the firms appear as the collectors, and the commodity can be sold to factories with an invoice.
Ankara Recycling Association’s report at the Bogota Conference (2008) indicates that there are approximately 200,000 solid waste collectors in Turkey, half of them located in Istanbul.Waste collectors tend to come from immigrant, minority or other marginal groups, from all age ranges, and are predominantly male; they generally start the job as seasonal workers, then continue regularly. They usually live in shantytowns near high-status neighborhoods, where quality waste is discarded.

Endnote:
All of this information comes from the research we carried out in 2009. One must keep in mind that systems never stay constant in Turkey, a country changing at an accelerating speed every day. Apart from this, the research area, Tarlabaşı, is currently being demolished as a part of a top-down urban transformation project, and a large part of the aforementioned economic elements (middle and main depots, houses of collectors) are disappearing from the neigborhood; hence, the system is under transformation.

[1] Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Directorate of Waste Management Annual Report, October 2006
[2] The names of government agencies and the system’s operation mode mentioned herein is obtained according to data of 2009.
[3] Eylem Akçay, 2008

In the midst of this recession, we are bombarded with facts and figures of decreased growth and rapid declines. We are repeatedly reminded that growth is our only salvation. Anything else would mean financial meltdown, literally the end of all things good. But let us consider a possibility where this is not the case.
Still•ness (adjective) — a dynamic and innovative culture that is not based on growth. It can be understood as a sustainable and inclusive society. A still society is a society that has left behind the more negative connotations of the notion of growth, and has established post-expansion, post-depletion and post-exploitation values and practices. These values and practices may already be present.

Markets, finance, and economics make up the frame through which most of humankind looks at the world. Within this world of surplus exchange, growth is all that is holy. Even the Papal authority would bemoan a slowing in its flock’s growth. We have come to this point of luxury, dependency, and polarisation through the pursuit of constant and ever accelerated growth. Certainly, no one would say that times have not been flush. Yet can this same growth, this modern paradigm, continue or even sustain itself? This frame has led to undeniably amoral activities in the past, and now humankind has led the world into an uncertain future. So the quick answer is, “No.” In 1972, the Club of Rome stated that there is a limit to growth, and we seem to be creeping ever closer to that limit. Though growth has been and continues to be the dominating paradigm of the modern condition, there must be an alternative paradigm. Since 1972, statements have been made, and thoughts visualised, hinting at an imagined world beyond the growth paradigm. None have been able to provide a truly alternative future—one that is no longer pinned to growths or shrinkages. This is why we propose “Still” as an alternative paradigm, and when applied, the Still City.

Every city is an agglomeration of contradictions, dynamics, and imagination. The development of the modern city has been thoroughly inspired and (one could even say) created by the emergence of the growth paradigm. When the giants of industrial capital began to tumble and rust away, however, the city itself started showing signs of a nascent alternative. In the case of Detroit, amongst a plethora of other mono-industrial cities, shrinkage was the term of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Yet these frames cater neither to the economic and demographic realities we see today, nor to those predicted by the Club of Rome in 1972. The city has become the home for the majority of humankind, and the cities that continue to swell to immense size are far more complicated than the shrinking cities of coal production or the auto industry. The Still City, in itself, represents the complexity inherent in the megalopolis of today and tomorrow. Though the growing population continues to urbanise, there will inevitably come a limit. Understanding this limit, and what that limit means for social transformation and cultural formation, reveals the intricacy of this alternative paradigm.

There are cities all around the world that exhibit tendencies of the Still City, from New York with its aging economy to Hong Kong with its physical limits to horizontal urban expansion. However, no city presents a better example at the moment than Tokyo. In some ways the Still City’s muse, it exhibits the main signifiers of being in Stillness: its economy has seen little to no growth over the last two decades, its rate of population increase has come nearly to a halt, and its urban development seems to have reached its outer limits—what we call the maximum sprawl size, determined by the basic idea that no one wants to commute to work for more hours than they are able to work.

Imagine a greater metropolitan area of 13,555.56 square kilometres with a population of 35.6 million. Or, more succinctly, visualise the great grey blimp, as seen from space when looking at the eastern coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. However, Tokyo is not only a muse for the Still City because it exhibits the basic elements of a state of stillness. Rather, Tokyo inspires because it fundamentally complicates the idea of stillness. When one looks at Tokyo there are two images, two faces that vie for attention—the macro-state of stillness exemplified by post-growth and post-development and the micro-state of stillness that shows a unique vibrancy, dynamism and contradiction. What does it mean? Where can it take us?

When you put this Still City under the microscope, you see exactly what a city is—a bustling network of individuals and environment relating and sometimes working intimately together. It is far more organic than programmed, more Metabolist than data-aggregated. In fact, the city consists not of statistical spreadsheets but of the collection of each individual’s interaction with another, with infrastructure, with the air, and even with the self on a daily basis. Thus we may say that, though Tokyo is huge, at times overwhelmingly so, it is also small, at times even miniature. The foundation of its economy is comprised of small- to medium-sized business. Political change erupts with collective social trauma, and individual imaginations dominate the streetscape—even if most houses are picked from catalogues. The Still City is thus not actually “still”; the stillness of the city is in its relation to growth. Stillness, in effect, demonstrates the very impotence of growth, which can only be seen playing out on a macro-scale.

It is clear that there is no real need for the continuous explosive growth demanded by today’s market and capital system. Considering what a city is, we have been programmed to think that a city is only the physical icon of mass production and technological innovation, the increased consumer luxuries of high-end fashion brands and fast cars, or even the acquisition of larger living spaces beyond what is necessary. This is the city of growth; its antecedent and only alternative is the city of desperation, best associated with urban scenes from nations ravaged by hunger or war. In order to even begin to imagine a viable future city, our first task is to disassociate the city from growth, even if it was begotten by it. With Tokyo as an example, the Still City presents such an alternative; now we must push forth and begin imagining, fantasising, and creating this new condition. It is no longer about, bigger, faster and cheaper. We must collectively weave new narratives that look at our present so that we may have a more individual, sustained and real future.

Monnik is a cultural research collective made up of the independent practices of Edwin Gardner, Christiaan Fruneaux and Vincent Schipper, who have just launched the Still City Project with an international workshop in Tokyo looking for signs of what the Still City could mean

A leap into a global future beyond local post-industrial conditions, alongside Eindhoven design firm Lucas Maassen & Sons.
The new frontiers for contemporary design, those which establish our states of being, have relocated. Change is inevitable and necessary, as free producers set their sights on further and further limits.

Struggles in classes
The design firm Lucas Maassen & Sons engages with the world from its basis in Eindhoven, a city that has proclaimed itself to be the “smartest region in the world”—a city that has renamed itself as “Brainport”. Eindhoven was essentially built upon the rise of Philips, the international electronics giant, in the aftermath of the industrial revolution, and it became established during the era of consumerism.
Eindhoven is a typical “Western” post-industrial city. In the 20th century, many people were drawn to Eindhoven by the job opportunities at Philips. The first influx consisted of nearby farmers unable to maintain their small farms, followed by former workers from the eastern Netherlands’ textile industry, labourers from Spanish, and, after 1970, an increasing amount of Turkish and Moroccan workers. The people that gave rise to this industrial city were primarily of rural descent and minimally educated. Therefore, the old population of the city is solidly working-class, living up to the motto, “Stop talking, get to work.”
At present, this working-class population is either unemployed, working in office jobs, or retired. Meanwhile, their sons and daughters have enjoyed the fruits of education and a welfare-oriented economy. They are able to enjoy the typical Eindhoven education, such as the Technical University (developed under Philips), or even the elitist Design Academy Eindhoven—more than anything, for those who would rather “start talking”.

New kid’s concepts
In a way, Lucas Maassen is one of these children. His parents moved to Eindhoven from a small nearby village in the early 1970s, as his father took on an architecture professorship at the Technical University. Maassen, who in turn attended the Design Academy, developed a conceptual mind and a keen awareness for new opportunities in modes of production, technical methods, and the quality of manufactured outcomes. He graduated in the early 2000s, shortly after the first wave of “Dutch Design” icons—including Hella Jongerius, Richard Hutten and Piet Hein Eek—inspired by the Design Academy’s artistic leadership of Gijs Bakker and Li Edelkoort.
Maassen was trained to appropriate conceptual thinking as a means to produce the applied anew. But what was there to apply? Why would he design another chair? Instead of producing new chairs, he started to conceptualise chairs that, through irony, would reflect upon the entire neoliberal industry and the rise of design–art as a token of high-culture. Often using a strategy known in the art world as “over-Identification”_, he applied extremes within his one-offs—extremes in size (Nano Chair), in value (Sitting Gold), in reproduction (Script Chair) and in other parameters.[1]

Towards new statuses
Although post-industrial dogmas are still vibrant, as recognised in Eindhoven’s profile, the actual economic viability of creating a post-industrial form of production is arguable. There may indeed be knowledge in town, but there is little available production capacity beyond a few rather frivolous 3D printers and several exclusive fields of craft. Furthermore, for now and the foreseeable future, the real Eindhoven population is unable to buy these products at a level that would substantially support the design sector in line with its education. In other words, the actual market for “design” as knowledge-based production is very much exclusive and limited.[2] Even more, in the aftermath of the post-industrial era, the push towards the new has become questionable.
The inevitable conclusion is that the “Western” economies have reached their maximum, and can no longer be protected with the protectionism and financial dominance that gave the “West” its post-colonial dominance. Progressive people in Eindhoven, as in other post-industrial areas in the “West”, are now reconsidering the means of production.

Another turn
In this context, Maassen’s practice has taken another turn. Over-identifying the sphere of the chair’s capacity does not seem to enhance the vitality of design or infect design thinking; therefore, he has begun to play upon the realm of production, exploring the foundations of its current post-industrial mode. In this sphere, Maassen again applies over-Identification in multiple ways. For example, in Sitting Gold, he proposes a business model that defines value on the basis of material rather than on the basis of cultural meaning and authorship. This model allows decadent Westerners to transfer their wealth in euros (money earned in the consumer societies of the late 20th century) into the more fundamental, solid value of pure gold by purchasing a one-kilogram golden chair. Apart from the value of gold, authorship becomes an added value: as a designed object it becomes even more costly. The more golden chairs are sold, the more valuable the price of gold becomes. Therefore, this model is based on authorship of the circulation of gold in the form of the best design object—the chair. This model pushes the limits of entrepreneurship in the aftermath of the decadence of the neoliberal order.
A second model undermines this order culturally. While the gold model over-identifies the capacity of a financial order to sustain itself purely on the basis of market values, this second example over-identifies the actual conditions supporting the economic feasibility of the underlying production climate—the conditions of labour. The “west” (and the Dutch in particular) have conducted a rather culturally arrogant position towards ecological friendliness, labour conditions and labour wages. While leftist political ideologues make their plea for morals and ethics, the real consumer and producer could not care less. As globalisation equalises the economic terms of production and consumption, the ideologies put forth must adapt to another reality, one with painful implications for the ideological consciousness of production in the “west”. Here, Maassen’s over-Identification strikes again, this time through the establishment of Lucas Maassen & Sons—a company wherein design authorship becomes both democratic and ostensibly exploitative via the employment of his children, who work up to three hours a week in his design factory (the maximum allowed by child labour laws).
In the end, the over-identifying projects of Maassen are rather performative gestures questioning the means, manners and modes of design production as an economic sum in a changing world, deriving from the local yet simultaneously aware of the global.

[1] “Instead of succumbing to society’s pathetic demand for small creative acts, artists should over-identify with the ruling, post-historical order and take the latter’s immanent laws to their most extreme, dystopian consequences”, according to the back cover of BAVO’s Cultural Activism Today: The Art of Over-Identification.
[2] Even more so as the public support via governmental subsidies, infecting new thinking and production, are very much downgraded.

*Freek Lomme is a curator and writer, director of Onomatopee projects and occasional ghostwriter as a critical follower of Lucas Maassen (and Sons).