Socio-spatial restructuring in istanbul and the changing segregation and exclusion patterns

This paper aims to show the effects of dominant neo-liberal economic policies and subsequent urban policies in leading to a major socio-spatial restructuring in Istanbul and changing segregation and exclusion patterns especially after 1990s. Although economic globalization have had different implications for different countries due to place-specific factors, it is also possible to find surprisingly common economic and political measures especially within developing countries. In Turkey, the radical transformation from import substitution under state direction towards export-oriented policies after 1980s has had dramatic socio-spatial repercussions in major cities of Turkey, especially Istanbul, which has always been the most important city in Turkey owing to its location advantages and historical role in the national economy as well as its influential place in the region.

Istanbul appears to be a laboratory that reflects the current trends in economic and political spheres and a clear picture of the changing socio-spatial structures of segregation and exclusion. Since the mid 1990s, the vision of Istanbul as a center of international finance, service and tourism guides the new urban policies, which are mainly based on encouraging the development of real-estate and construction sectors by increasing the urban rents. Development of big urban projects in the form of office blocks, hotels and shopping malls as well as luxurious housing estates has become the priority for municipalities, big construction firms, and development agencies. Consequently, the importance of urban areas with high rent-gaining potential has increased, leading to intensifying pressure on the housing areas of low-income working population that constitute the labor force of industrial establishments and the growing service sector. It is observed that the new urban policies ignore social policies and the constant reality in urban restructuring is the displacement of disadvantaged segments of population and the creation of gated urban spaces distanced from the urban poor.