From Oriental to the Cool City: Changing Imaginations of Istanbul, Cultural Production and the Production of Urban Space

• Applicant: Dr. Derya Özkan
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2011 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 192686892

This project undertakes a historical investigation of the changing imaginations of Istanbul from the 19th to the 21st century, by conducting an in-depth analysis of three major discursive regimes characterizing the production of urban popular culture in three historical periods: (1) Orientalism as the discourse of colonialism / imperialism in the 19th century, imagining Istanbul as an Oriental city (2) National developmentalism imagining Istanbul as a Third World city of “crude urbanization” (3) Neoliberal globalization and the emerging image of Istanbul as a “cool” city. The main argument is that the image of “cool Istanbul” embraces and contain the earlier images of Istanbul as an Oriental city and Istanbul as a Third World city, marking a paradigm change in the cultural manifestations of Istanbul’s image in this era of neoliberal globalization. This analysis is then juxtaposed with an analysis of the political economy of urbanism in effect in the city in these three periods. Understanding the changing ideologies of urbanism guiding the production of urban space provides a material grounding for my analysis of urban cultural forms. The second phase of the project compares “cool Istanbul” with “cool Belgrade” as a “cool” city of the periphery of “the new Europe” after the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc, and with the “cool Berlin” as a “cool” city of “the new Europe‘s political center. There will also be three sub-projects: Doctoral Project 1 will focus on the role played by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Program in the consolidation of the image of “cool” Istanbul. The Postdoctoral Project will analyze what the cultural and spatial manifestations of “cool” Istanbul exclude; and it will also investigate to what extent the image of “the Istanbul of the excluded” is contained in the image of the “cool” city, leading to its eventual commodification and normalization. Doctoral Project 2 will focus on the circulation of “cool Istanbul” images in Germany. What forms does the image of “cool” Istanbul take once it is in circulation in the discursive field in the German social and cultural context? In what ways does “cool Istanbul” become integral to people's discourses in Germany? How is it appropriated and performed in Germany?

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups