An Analysis of urban struggles in the process of practices of urban commoning: resistance on “uncommon ground”“in, for and beyond” İstanbul

Download
2014
Ergin, Nezihe Başak
The thesis aims to examine urban social oppositions, ways of resistance, their patterns and dynamics in Istanbul against urban transformation projects with the production of space having the central role and potentiality to generate these struggles. Through critical and radical urban and social opposition theories and related ideas of analysis, the study considers this as a process of “urban commoning –social- practices” for the “rights to the city”. The research covers the period which starts with the European Social Forum preparation process in 2010. Instead of focusing on an urban transformation project and related oppositions in a neighbourhood of the city, the study has focused on the patterns and dynamics of the urban oppositions in Istanbul which are highly fragmented. The research explores various appropriations of the city with an evaluation of distinct, common and even conflictual aspects as well as alliances, associations and tensions. In this respect, the thesis analyses tensions and attempts of togetherness between different groups, organisations and associations; particularly of active inhabitants, intellectuals and academic-activists both with their pioneering and obstructive roles in different contexts shaped by structural, political, and especially emotional factors.

Suggestions

A Reading urban transformation through the case of Mamak, Ankara
Somalı, Fatma Süphan; Ersoy, Melih; Department of Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments (2013)
The dissertation aims to understand and explain the different paces and patterns of spatial development in the Mamak district of Ankara, despite similar intervention backgrounds. It is suggested herein that understanding the characteristics of Mamak’s transformation requires more than the available theoretical tools, which are more suited to dynamic transformation processes, in that Mamak’s transformation has been rather slow. The conceptual framework developed in this study endeavors to incorporate the slo...
Analysis of urban morphology in squatter transformation areas
Şahin, Mustafa Raşit; Yetişkul Şenbil, Emine; Department of City and Regional Planning (2014)
The impacts and results of urban transformation has been discussed as an important issue in developing countries by different disciplines as political economy, urban design, city planning and urban sociology. Urban transformation projects in Turkey are mainly criticized since the main focus is about physical transformation. In this context, the aim of the study is to determine what quality of space is produced by urban transformation projects in Turkey. Urban transformation projects creates a different scal...
The Political construction of urban development projects: The Political construction of urban development projects : the case of İzmir
Penpecioğlu, Mehmet; Keskinok, Hüseyin Çağatay; Department of Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments (2012)
Urban Development Projects (UDPs) have become hegemonic projects of redefining urban political priorities. The political construction of UDPs could not only be investigated through analyzing capital accumulation processes. To reveal how UDPs are politically constructed, this thesis investigates how governmental and non-governmental agents form a hegemonic block to mobilize hegemonic discursive practices and coercive-legislative mechanisms in the formation of UDPs. A Lefebvrian-inspired neo-Gramscian theoret...
Cultural production and urban locality in the fields of jazz and fashion design
İlkuçan, Altan; Rittersberger Tılıç, Helga İda; Department of Sociology (2013)
This study aims to analyze the relationship between cultural producers in Istanbul and the wider processes of neoliberal urban restructuring that takes in their surroundings. The study uses a Bourdieusian framework to uncover such relationships between cultural producers and external influences on their respective fields. By focusing on the case of two fields (jazz and fashion design) as located in Kuledibi, Galata, the study aims to establish a localized perspective to the relationship between the cultural...
The changing morphology of urban greenways, Ankara, 1923-1960
Burat, Sinan; Aktüre, Sevgi; Department of City and Regional Planning (2008)
Despite the abundance of descriptive studies on the urban development plans of Ankara, analytical studies on specific features of these plans, especially on implementation and modification processes are scarce. This study examines the green space structure brought in Jansen’s 1932 development plan of Ankara, the way it was implemented and the modifications that a component of this structure was subject to. The 1932 Jansen plan is a holistic and comprehensive plan that contained a conceptual green space stru...
Citation Formats
N. B. Ergin, “An Analysis of urban struggles in the process of practices of urban commoning: resistance on “uncommon ground”“in, for and beyond” İstanbul,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2014.