Long-standing wastelands: Latency, transactions, and the role of green settings on two urban wastelands in Tirana (Albania) and Istanbul (Turkey)

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This chapter explores a paradox. How to explain the long-term existenceof inner-city wastelands in cities characterized by densification, sharp land pressure,and large-scale urban projects? In Tirana (Albania), two large areas of meadowlandhave been abandoned to informal uses since the end of the communist regime andthe extension of the city center in the 1990s. In Istanbul (Turkey), a strip of landadjacent to the old city walls has also been left partly as a green wasteland, despitebeing registered as a heritage site since 1985. Drawing on data and field surveyscovering several years, we propose explanatory factors that contextualize the issueof vegetation, which will be the focus of our analysis. Finally, we propose potentialavenues for broader application based on the different meanings and uses of theseforms of vegetation in the city, as understood by the different actors involved, andexplores some contradictions of action and intervention, in operational terms.