Fortress Istanbul. Gated Communities and the Socio-Urban Transformation

Esen, Orhan; Rieniets, Tim

doi:10.14361/9783839408650-004

Cited by 6 publications

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“…The getting-rich of the city has now conspired to produce a contemporary mood of disenchantment and alienation. Urban development strategies are increasingly perceived to have engineered into existence a "self service city" (Esen and Lanz 2005), a concomitant "fortress Istanbul" mentality (Esen and Rieniets 2008), and so on -that is to say, to have aggressively contrived a city vision in which public culture is systematically deleted from urban social experience.…”

Section: Big Ideas Images and Distorted Factsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Tell What Remains: Sulukule Nevermore

Robins¹

2011

Cultural Politics

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In this present discussion, I am concerned with the recent demolition and devastation of Sulukule, a predominantly Roma district located in the historical peninsula (Sultanahmet) of Istanbul. In order to address key issues, I think that it is necessary to explore the wider cultural setting and resonances of this aggressive action of urban-global "upgrading" in the city. The contemporary, general logic of metropolitan globalization should be situated in the specifi c and distinctive context of Istanbul's evolving urban identity. There are three principal objectives. The fi rst is to describe the process by which Istanbul's Fatih local municipality initiated a program of radical "urban renewal" in the cause of gentrifi cation in the historic, central zone of the city. The second objective is to situate the developments in Sulukule in the KEVIN ROBINS IS A VISITING FELLOW AT Published by Duke University Press CULTURAL POLITICS KEVIN ROBINS> context of the longer-term cultural imaginaire through which the city's historical trajectory has come to be conceived (as elaborated preeminently in the literary texts of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and, subsequently, Orhan Pamuk). Third, I explore the new conceptual and ideological frame that is now coming to be mobilized to serve as a rationale for the reinvention, in the name of urban modernization, of Istanbul's cultural heritage, sense of identity, and logic of purpose. Much can be learned about the contemporary transformation of Istanbul through the prism of the recent, hard Roma experience.

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Section: Big Ideas Images and Distorted Factsmentioning

confidence: 99%