Producing vulnerability: the socio-politics of the earthquakes of February 6, 2023, in Turkey

This study examines how the devastating consequences of the 6 February 2023 earthquakes in Turkey were produced through social, political and institutional processes rather than by natural forces alone. Drawing on 29 semi-structured interviews conducted in Hatay, the research shows how governance failures, weakened regulatory capacity and the normalization of corruption created structural conditions that enabled risky construction practices. Contractors’ profit-driven and technically inadequate approaches further amplified vulnerability, while the public’s economic constraints, information asymmetries and fatalistic beliefs contributed to the everyday reproduction of risk. By analysing how these three actors interact and reinforce one another, the study demonstrates that vulnerability is a relational and multi-actor process embedded in broader political-economic dynamics. The findings reveal that the severity of the disaster resulted not from the physical magnitude of the earthquakes, but from the socially produced regime of vulnerability that shaped their outcomes.