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Istanbul Rising

Returning the Repressed to Urban Culture

University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Asu Aksoy

Independent Researcher, Istanbul, Turkey

This article takes as its starting point the debates on urban globalization and the formation of world cities. Its substantive focus is on the developments that are potentially transforming Istanbul into a global metrop olis. We consider the attempts being made by the urban elites to modernize the urban structure and form, in line with economic strategies taking place in other world cities. The article then moves on to consider the urban culture of Istanbul, looking at de velopments which problematize and inhibit economic globalization. These developments reflect the resur gence of elements that have been repressed in Tur kish culture during the Republican period (when Istanbul was displaced by Ankara as the national capi tal). What we now see is the coexistence of two Istanbuls: that being engineered from above by the urban elites; and that which is rising from below as a result of the new cultural dynamics. We argue that Istanbul provides an excellent focus for exploring the relation between economic and cultural, and also political, aspects of globalization, showing how the processes of urban change are rooted in the broader socio-economic agendas of the particular global region.

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