FACULTY OF ARTS and SOCIAL
SCIENCES
CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAM
Speaker Series
Ayfer Bartu Candan &Biray
Kolluoğlu
Boğaziçi University
“Emerging Forms of
Urban Governance in Istanbul: Urban Fear and Segregation”
“In this presentation we would like explore the emerging forms of urban governance in
Istanbul in the context of neoliberal restructuring. Our emphasis will be on
the technologies of power that
naturalize and legitimize neoliberalism and the ways in which new forms of
urban governance enable and legitimize the radical transformation of the city.
Our discussion of urban governance will focus on the changes introduced through
laws and regulations, and the new language that the urban government
appropriates and adopts. We will argue that urban fear, embedded into a web of
anxieties about immigration, population increase and earthquake plays a central
role in this process of naturalization and legitimation. In the second part of
the presentation, we will discuss the localization and privatization of urban
governance through the example of Göktürk, a residential area that consists of
series of gated communities on the outskirts of the city. Göktürk will emerge
as an urban space where the intertwined processes of emerging forms of urban governance, escalating
urban fear, and the concomitant social segregation and exclusion are condensed.
Finally, we will discuss the implications of these processes for the future of
public life in Istanbul.”
&
Leyla Neyzi
Sabanci University
“A Showcase for the Global City: The
Neighborhood of Teşvikiye in Istanbul”
“In this presentation, I will
discuss the emergence of the neighborhood of Teşvikiye as a showcase for the
global city of Istanbul. I will begin by outlining the unusual origins of the
neighborhood as a planned residence for families close to the royal family
which was based on the Bosphorus from the late nineteenth century. I will show
how the neighborhood was created by royal decree, and its infrastructure
planned and developed. I will argue that the neighborhood came to be associated
with an emergent Muslim bourgeoisie. After the capital moved to Ankara, the
neighborhood remained a quiet residential area, with apartment buildings replacing
Ottoman mansions. It was in the post-1980 period that Teşvikiye experienced a
major resurgence, becoming associated with the developing service sector
including financial, media, consumer and tourism industries. Residential use
decreased, to be replaced by cafes, restaurants, hotels, boutiques, shopping
centers and the like. At the same time, real estate prices escalated and new
construction projects resulted in the transformation of the face of the
neighborhood. On the basis of ethnographic and oral history research, I will
focus on changes in everyday life and the meaning of the neighborhood for a
heterogeneous population, including old-time residents, those who work in the
neighborhood, visitors and new residents. I will argue that as Teşvikiye
becomes a showcase for the global city, social inequality increases as does the
multiplicity of narratives concerning the history, transformation and
contemporary identity of the neighborhood.”
May, 21, 2008, Wednesday
15:30
FASS 2034
