The vantage point of my bachelor thesis, both for the forthcoming theoretical as well as analytic... more The vantage point of my bachelor thesis, both for the forthcoming theoretical as well as analytical part, are the events surrounding last summer's protest against a demolition of one of Istanbul's last remaining green spaces, sparking a nationwide uprising lasting for almost a month, along with a two week occupation of Gezi Park situated in the city center, also commonly termed as the Gezi Park Protests. In the light of the current large scale urban transformation projects accompanied by an intense neoliberal economic agenda, I am going to delve into the spatial history of Taksim Square to explore how modernity has been absorbed in the urban history of the square for the purpose of being able to decipher its contemporary complexities and entanglements.
The birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923 is inevitably linked to the rise of modernity in postcolonial and post-imperial states. Modernity as well as space offer a long history of theorization, lasting for hundreds of years in the realm of social science and the humanities. While much of mainstream social theory acknowledged it as the epitome of western civilization, initiated by the ideas of enlightenment, throughout the last century a number of scholars begun to take a different stance towards the Western narrative of modernity by increasingly criticizing its oppressive as well as dominant role caused by historical experiences of colonialism and imperialism. During the last decades, especially because of the impact of critical, feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, the epistemological foundation of social theory has been put into question, leading to what has become referred to as the crisis of knowledge formation.
Within the context of the ongoing epistemological crisis of social sciences, I would like to explore the theoretical as well as analytical frameworks of two approaches deriving from the critique of the modern project, that is, postcolonial theory and spatial theory. In the course of my bachelor thesis, I am going to illuminate and compare their general approaches, pioneering works and critique of modernity. I am further going to explore how both postcolonialism and spatial theory are interdisciplinarily intertwined and to what extent they are complementing each other.
These reflections are aiming at extending the spatial as well as postcolonial framework of the subsequent analysis of Taksim Square's history of spatializations in order to be able to elaborate on the politics of the production of space vis-à-vis Taksim Square's current redevelopment plans.
The vantage point of my bachelor thesis, both for the forthcoming theoretical as well as analytic... more The vantage point of my bachelor thesis, both for the forthcoming theoretical as well as analytical part, are the events surrounding last summer's protest against a demolition of one of Istanbul's last remaining green spaces, sparking a nationwide uprising lasting for almost a month, along with a two week occupation of Gezi Park situated in the city center, also commonly termed as the Gezi Park Protests. In the light of the current large scale urban transformation projects accompanied by an intense neoliberal economic agenda, I am going to delve into the spatial history of Taksim Square to explore how modernity has been absorbed in the urban history of the square for the purpose of being able to decipher its contemporary complexities and entanglements.
The birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923 is inevitably linked to the rise of modernity in postcolonial and post-imperial states. Modernity as well as space offer a long history of theorization, lasting for hundreds of years in the realm of social science and the humanities. While much of mainstream social theory acknowledged it as the epitome of western civilization, initiated by the ideas of enlightenment, throughout the last century a number of scholars begun to take a different stance towards the Western narrative of modernity by increasingly criticizing its oppressive as well as dominant role caused by historical experiences of colonialism and imperialism. During the last decades, especially because of the impact of critical, feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, the epistemological foundation of social theory has been put into question, leading to what has become referred to as the crisis of knowledge formation.
Within the context of the ongoing epistemological crisis of social sciences, I would like to explore the theoretical as well as analytical frameworks of two approaches deriving from the critique of the modern project, that is, postcolonial theory and spatial theory. In the course of my bachelor thesis, I am going to illuminate and compare their general approaches, pioneering works and critique of modernity. I am further going to explore how both postcolonialism and spatial theory are interdisciplinarily intertwined and to what extent they are complementing each other.
These reflections are aiming at extending the spatial as well as postcolonial framework of the subsequent analysis of Taksim Square's history of spatializations in order to be able to elaborate on the politics of the production of space vis-à-vis Taksim Square's current redevelopment plans.
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part, are the events surrounding last summer's protest against a demolition of one of Istanbul's last
remaining green spaces, sparking a nationwide uprising lasting for almost a month, along with a
two week occupation of Gezi Park situated in the city center, also commonly termed as the Gezi
Park Protests. In the light of the current large scale urban transformation projects accompanied by
an intense neoliberal economic agenda, I am going to delve into the spatial history of Taksim
Square to explore how modernity has been absorbed in the urban history of the square for the
purpose of being able to decipher its contemporary complexities and entanglements.
The birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923 is inevitably linked to the rise of modernity in postcolonial
and post-imperial states. Modernity as well as space offer a long history of theorization,
lasting for hundreds of years in the realm of social science and the humanities. While much of
mainstream social theory acknowledged it as the epitome of western civilization, initiated by the
ideas of enlightenment, throughout the last century a number of scholars begun to take a different
stance towards the Western narrative of modernity by increasingly criticizing its oppressive as well
as dominant role caused by historical experiences of colonialism and imperialism. During the last
decades, especially because of the impact of critical, feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial
theory, the epistemological foundation of social theory has been put into question, leading to what
has become referred to as the crisis of knowledge formation.
Within the context of the ongoing epistemological crisis of social sciences, I would like to explore
the theoretical as well as analytical frameworks of two approaches deriving from the critique of the
modern project, that is, postcolonial theory and spatial theory.
In the course of my bachelor thesis, I
am going to illuminate and compare their general approaches, pioneering works and critique of
modernity. I am further going to explore how both postcolonialism and spatial theory are
interdisciplinarily intertwined and to what extent they are complementing each other.
These reflections are aiming at extending the spatial as well as postcolonial framework of the
subsequent analysis of Taksim Square's history of spatializations in order to be able to elaborate on
the politics of the production of space vis-à-vis Taksim Square's current redevelopment plans.
part, are the events surrounding last summer's protest against a demolition of one of Istanbul's last
remaining green spaces, sparking a nationwide uprising lasting for almost a month, along with a
two week occupation of Gezi Park situated in the city center, also commonly termed as the Gezi
Park Protests. In the light of the current large scale urban transformation projects accompanied by
an intense neoliberal economic agenda, I am going to delve into the spatial history of Taksim
Square to explore how modernity has been absorbed in the urban history of the square for the
purpose of being able to decipher its contemporary complexities and entanglements.
The birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923 is inevitably linked to the rise of modernity in postcolonial
and post-imperial states. Modernity as well as space offer a long history of theorization,
lasting for hundreds of years in the realm of social science and the humanities. While much of
mainstream social theory acknowledged it as the epitome of western civilization, initiated by the
ideas of enlightenment, throughout the last century a number of scholars begun to take a different
stance towards the Western narrative of modernity by increasingly criticizing its oppressive as well
as dominant role caused by historical experiences of colonialism and imperialism. During the last
decades, especially because of the impact of critical, feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial
theory, the epistemological foundation of social theory has been put into question, leading to what
has become referred to as the crisis of knowledge formation.
Within the context of the ongoing epistemological crisis of social sciences, I would like to explore
the theoretical as well as analytical frameworks of two approaches deriving from the critique of the
modern project, that is, postcolonial theory and spatial theory.
In the course of my bachelor thesis, I
am going to illuminate and compare their general approaches, pioneering works and critique of
modernity. I am further going to explore how both postcolonialism and spatial theory are
interdisciplinarily intertwined and to what extent they are complementing each other.
These reflections are aiming at extending the spatial as well as postcolonial framework of the
subsequent analysis of Taksim Square's history of spatializations in order to be able to elaborate on
the politics of the production of space vis-à-vis Taksim Square's current redevelopment plans.