Urban Political Ecology on the Road:
Investigating City’s Nature and Nature’s City Through Istanbul
KOC UNIVERSITY – ISTANBUL
JUNE 22, 2015 – JULY 11, 2015
(Tentative Syllabus)
Sinan Erensü (University of Minnesota) & Yaşar Adnan Adanalı (TU Berlin)
Course Overview
It is in practice hard to see where society begins and nature ends… In a fundamental sense, there is, in the final analysis, nothing unnatural about New York City.
David Harvey, The Nature of Environment... (1993: 31)
Recognizing nature in the city, where our language itself has taught us to believe nature no longer exists, challenges our ability to see the world clearly – but to miss the city’s relation to nature and the country is in fact to miss much of what the city is.
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis (1991: 19).
It is increasingly more asserted that contemporary capitalism realizes itself as much as (re)production of space as production on the factory floor. Among many spatial interventions two particular fields are the most salient: the urban and the nature. The city in the 21st century is, in and of itself, a source for capitalist accumulation. Renovating and restructuring the city persists to be the bread and butter of economic recipes in times of economic crisis despite the oft-argued role of urban speculation underneath the financial meltdown of 2008. The countryside, on the other hand, has been witnessing yet another extraction and enclosure wave across the world. Various forms of land grabbing, whether undertaken by national or international capital or nation states themselves, shape natural and rural livelihoods in order to further the urban sprawl, produce energy, food, and critical infrastructure to fuel cities.
Despite being fueled by comparable economic assumptions, enabled by similar legal tools and political incentives and causing parallel consequences - such as spatial degradation and dispossession - urban and rural transformation are rarely studied, conceptualized and discussed in conjunction with each other. This lack is, to a large extent; due to a long standing ontological divide in social sciences that treats the urban and nature (thus countryside) as separate and mutually exclusive entities. Such treatment, compartmentalization of built and natural environments as distinct forms of inquiry, plagues our understanding of both urbanization as well as environmental degradation.
Building upon the emerging literature on urban political ecology this course aims at understanding contemporary urbanization as a process of socio-ecological change with a particular conviction that environmental and social changes co-constitute each other. For three condensed weeks, the class will be focusing on (a) how the contemporary city depends upon its natural surrounding for agricultural output and land conversion, (b) how natural resources shape the city’s landscape, establish and reinforce socio-spatial inequalities, as well as (c) how urban commons have recently become a battleground over which dominant urban strategies are being contested.
This class, on the other hand, will not be a purely theoretical in this approach. To the contrary, it will be heavily dependent on the actual urban policies, projects as well as social struggles that shapes contemporary Istanbul, a city that experience urban as well as environmental transformation at an unprecedented pace for the last decade. We will be visiting the city’s transformation geographies, explore its urban fringe, and have a chance to meet the urban/environmental activists who actively oppose the controversial urban policies and projects.
Why are we “on the Road”?
Unlike its counterparts this class is dedicated to balance readings and in-class discussions with hands-on fieldwork. “On the road” concept takes guided / commented / reflective city touring, on foot and by using public transport, as an important methodological tool and as an integral part of learning experience. This concept aims to bring the classroom directly into the city’s ecological hotspots and spaces of urban contestation. By providing first-hand spatial experience, it offers an enriched and condensed learning process within a limited time frame. The touring experience will allow students to observe, participate, reflect and co-produce textual and visual materials for a possible publication as an outcome of the summer school.
Pre-requisite(s)
To leave room for field studies, field reflections and seminar assignments, some of the core readings (TBA) indicated in the bibliography section of this syllabus must be read before the start of the summer school. Participants will be expected and encouraged to bring in their own work and/or experience from their home locales and disciplines in conversation with the cases drawn from Istanbul.
Course Aim
Taking Istanbul and its contemporary transformation as the case study, this course aims at introducing participants to the concept of and discourses on political ecology in urban context.
On completion participants will:
· Develop a solid understanding of key concepts and debates in urban political ecology;
· Familiarize with contemporary urban transformation discourse on and policies in Istanbul;
· Experience ‘curated touring’ as a learning methodology;
· Produce an investigative piece for a publication.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The summer school is structured around three main methodological axis:
· Learning via lectures, guest lectures and student presentations,
· Participatory observations via field trips,
· Reflection via co-production of a publication on Istanbul.
COURSE FLOW (tentative)
Week 1: Urban Political Economy: The Theory and Practice
Day 1
Introduction & conceptual framework
Day 2
Guest lecturer 1
Day 3
Field Trip 1 - Mad Projects and their mega impacts
Day 4
Individual / group work
Day 5
Field Trip 2
Week 2: Infrastructure, Projects, and Dispossession
Day 1
In class lectures and individual presentations
Day 2
Guest lecturer 2: - Documentary Screening and Q&A with the director
Day 3
Field Trip 3
Day 4
Individual / group work
Day 5
Field Trip 4
Week 3: Resistance, Movements, and Alternatives
Day 1
In class lectures and individual presentations
Day 2
Guest lecturer 3 & Field Trip 5
Day 3
Guest lecturer 4 & Field Trip 6
Day 4
Individual / group work
Day 5
Final presentations of individual / group works
GUEST LECTURERS (To Be Confirmed)
Murat Cemal Yalçıntan - Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (Urban Transformation)
Yalçıntan is a professor of urban planning at the Faculty of Architecture. He is a public intellectual, actively involved in the urbanism discourse in Turkey. With Prof. Yalçintan, we will discuss their research project on ‘Mapping urban transformation geographies of Istanbul’
Aleksandar Sopov - Harvard University (Urban Agriculture Urban Food Security)
Sopov is a PhD candidate in Middle Eastern Studies working on historic bostans (gardens) of Istanbul from an urban historical environment point of view. Sopov will be our guide in our tour of the city’s gardens and explain the changing path of urban agriculture in the city as well as what role bostans could play for sustainable urbanism.
Ozan Zeybek - İstanbul Bilgi University (Post-Human Urban Geographies)
Zeybek is a faculty member at Bilgi Sociology working on animal geographies of the city. On his most recent work he traces how street animals are managed in Istanbul\ secretly deported to neighbouring cities and ignites untold rivalries between municipalities. With Zeybek we hope to discuss the unequal relationships between the metropole and the peripheral cities and what difference the emergent literature on post-humanism makes.
Ethemcan Turhan - Istanbul Policy Center (Climate Change Adaptation and the City)
Turhan is Marcator fellow at IPC working on climate change, climate policy, political ecology, migration, and human security. In Turhan’s presence we will discuss what city have to do with climate change and explore the contours of urban climate change adaptation.
Imre Azem - Director
Azem is an award winning documentary director. His documentary, "Ecumenopolis: City Without Limits" tells the story of Istanbul and other Mega-Cities on a neo-liberal course to destruction. It follows the story of a migrant family from the demolition of their neighborhood to their on-going struggle for housing rights. We will have a Q&A session with İmre Azem, following the secreening of the documentary.
CEHAV Lawyers (Legal Struggles in the City and the Countryside)
Lawyers of the Environmental and Ecology Movements (CEHAV) is a platform of lawyers who take urban and rural transformation related cases to court. A CEHAV lawyer will help us to discuss novel legal tools that enable and accelerate urban and rural projects, forms of dispossessions these projects trigger and how urban and ecology related complaints are voiced.
ISTANBUL ON THE ROAD - FIELD TRIPS
1. "Mad" Projects and Their Mega Impacts
Mega projects (known as mad projects in Turkish context) are key to understand the contemporary transformation of Istanbul. Ranging from transport related mega projects such as Canal Istanbul, Third Bridge, World's Largest Airport to building a new city for over 2 million residents; these spatial interventions have colossal ecological, economical, social and political impacts.
This trip will trace those mega projects under construction on the Northern axis of the city, containing ecological reserve areas of water basins, forest and fertile agricultural land.
2. Urban Transformation and Urban Resistance
Istanbul's informally developed settlements are under the threat of forced evictions, demolitions and relocations. For-profit real-estate projects are targeting old, established neighborhoods with the excuse of the earthquake risk.
This trip will focus on those neighborhoods designated as "high risk areas", explore the hidden agendas behind the renewal projects and introduce participants to people resisting to this process.
3. From "Polluting" to "Creative" Industries: The Golden Horn Project
The Golden Horn –the primary inlet of the Bosphorus making Istanbul's historic city center a peninsula– was designated officially as an industrial zone by the first urban planners of the Republic. This bad decision had detrimental environmental consequences for the coming decades. Since the end of 1980s, following its de-industrialization, the area has been transforming into so-called "creative industries", with which the coastal areas are sliced into gated urban islands.
This trip will focus on the old industrial core of the city and its transformation into disintegrated cultural spaces.
4. De-politicization of the Downtown and Reclaiming Urban Commons
Istanbul's city center is under severe police control, a state of exception reigns over important public spaces such as Taksim Square and Istiklal Street. Urban social movements are in constant struggle to reclaim their urban commons. In parallel to the attempts to curtail publicness in the city, de-politicized / sanitized public spaces are constructed by the government.
This trip will focus on the politics of public spaces of Istanbul, starting from Taksim Square and Gezi Park and ending up in newly constructed Yenikapı Demonstration Center.
5. The Princess Islands: Slow Village Life in the Fast-Paced Megapolis
Just 30 minutes away from the mainland of Istanbul lays the beautiful Princess Islands. The contrast between the green landscape and slow city life of the islands and the over densification and construction on the mainland is striking.
This trip will focus on the contrast between the Princess Islands, the urban conservation site of Istanbul with unique eco-system and culture and the city's Asian coastal districts with extreme level of construction and densification. Participants will meet with the Municipal officers and learn about the ecological challenges that the islands have been experiencing due to the drive for further urban development.
6. Urban agriculture in Istanbul: Yedikule and Kuzguncuk Gardens
This trip will focus on the city’s gardens and investigate the changing path of urban agriculture in the city as well as what role bostans could play for sustainable urbanism.
Grading Criteria
During the course of three weeks, participants will be expected to work individually or in small groups to produce a unique investigative piece on the urban political ecology of Istanbul. Contributions can be presented in different formats such as interviews, photo essays, videos, maps, articles, etc. Participants will have an opportunity to publish their work collectively as the output of this summer school. Participants will be assisted by the course instructors in terms of deciding on the theme, format, case studies and making contacts.
COURSE READINGS (tentative)
Angelo, Hillary, and David Wachsmuth. 2014. “Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, n/a
Bezmez, Dikmen. 2008. “The Politics of Urban Waterfront Regeneration: The Case of Haliç (the Golden Horn), Istanbul.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32 (4): 815–40.
Cronon, William. 1992. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. Reprint edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. (selections TBA)
Eder, Mine, and Özlem Öz. 2014. “Neoliberalization of Istanbul’s Nightlife: Beer or Champagne?” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, n/a – n/a.
Erensu, Sinan and O. Karaman. 2015. “The Work of a Few Trees: Gezi, Politics and Space“
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, n/a – n/a.
Fainstein, Susan S. 2008. “Mega-Projects in New York, London and Amsterdam.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32 (4): 768–85.
Gabriel, Nate. 2014. “Urban Political Ecology: Environmental Imaginary, Governance, and the Non-Human.” Geography Compass 8 (1): 38–48.
Harvey, David. 1993. “The Nature of Environment: Dialectics of Social and Environmental Change”. In R. Miliband and L. Panitch (eds) Real Problems, False Solutions. Socialist Register. London: The Merlin Press.
Harvey, David. 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. 1 edition. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell. (selections TBA)
Heynen, N., M. Kaika, and E. Swyngedouw. 2006. In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism. New Ed edition. London ; New York: Routledge.
Kaika, Maria. 2005. City of Flows: Modernity, Nature, and the City. 1 edition. New York: Routledge. (selections TBA)
Karaman, Ozan. 2013. “Urban Neoliberalism with Islamic Characteristics.” Urban Studies, April.
———. 2014. “Resisting Urban Renewal in Istanbul.” Urban Geography 35 (2): 290–310.
Keil, Roger. 2003. “Urban Political Ecology1.” Urban Geography 24 (8): 723–38. doi:10.2747/0272-3638.24.8.723.
Keyder, Caglar 1999. (eds.) Istanbul: Between the Global and the Local. Edited by Caglar Keyder. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. (selections TBA)
———. 2005. “Globalization and Social Exclusion in Istanbul.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29 (1): 124–34.