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This note is based on hitherto untapped visual resources (photographs, presentation albums, and scrapbook) on post-World War I Russian refugees in Istanbul that belong to the Anna Mitchell Papers, which were gifted to the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University in 1967. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron gall inks have a destructive effect on paper supports due to their acidic and transition metal-containing nature. For the chemical stabilization of paper-based objects, conservation studies include both antioxidant and deacidification treatments. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments, accelerated ageing experiments are performed and changes during ageing are measured. Historical manuscripts may contain colored papers and since only natural dyes and pigments were available until the development of modern chemistry in the nineteenth century, the palette was limited. Organic dyes mainly consisted of colourants obtained from plants and insects. In this study, colored papers of manuscripts from the fifteenth century which belong to the collections of Millet Library, İstanbul were analyzed via high-performance liquid chromatography. According to the results, model papers were dyed with Rheum ribes L. (rhubarb), and then an iron gall ink, prepared according to a historical recipe, was applied to them. Due to acid and transition metal content, a stabilization treatment including alkali and an antioxidant was applied on a set of samples and after 12 days of accelerated ageing, changes in pH, degree of polymerization, and optical properties of the samples were monitored. A viscometer, a useful tool to monitor the efficiency of a treatment, was employed for the determination of degree of polymerization values. Data obtained from viscometric measurements were used to evaluate the degradation rate constants of the samples. Comparison of rate constants showed that treatment had a beneficial effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles in this special issue extend research on urban space and politics in Istanbul with approaches that explorate the relationships between urban form, urban change, and political processes as assemblages of things, beliefs, institutions, and landscapes. They share a commitment to extended ethnography and thick description in urban studies, and contribute to research that destabilizes universalizing urban theory produced in Europe and America. The dramatic state-led project of neoliberal urban transformation in Istanbul has generated an important body of work that focuses on the consequences of creative destruction, urban displacement, and urban social and political exclusion. These papers contribute to that research with additional questions that incorporate understudied material and cultural elements of the urban political economy. What role do material elements (concrete, plexiglass, signs, maps) play in the practices that propel urban dynamics: that justify, for example, the rebuilding of some properties and the destruction of others? How do the subjective dimensions of human life (memory, belief, emotion, art, suspicion, and imagination) propel particular forms of urban development? Istanbulites' theories of why, where, and to whom destruction or fortune happens – and of what particular material things mean, or what they're meant to be used for – are crucial elements of the total urban situation. Istanbulites' theories cohere disparate elements into assemblages which, in turn, work to transform the city's material realities and social worlds. These papers invite us, as scholars, to resituate our urban theories and to bring urban residents' theories into assemblage with our own. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Global economic restructuring since the 1970s, and the rollback of the welfare state in the Global North has been a major contributor to a reduction in the affordable housing stock. Similarly in the so-called Global South recent economic development has been accompanied by a lack of sustainable affordable housing and housing policies. In this short paper, I aim to analyse important policy papers from the central government of Turkey and local government of Istanbul focusing on the housing policies. I will use content and policy analysis to examine the legal and policy framework in the city of Istanbul and compare this with what is happening on the ground. These policy papers include Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Strategical Plan (2020–2024), Turkey 11th 5 year Development Plan Housing Politics (2019–2023), Urban Development Strategy (2010–2023) and Istanbul Regional Plan (2014–2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Fifth International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca: "Pedagogical Implications of ELF in the Expanding Circle" held at Istanbul, Turkey from May 24, 2012 to May 26, 2012. The conference organized by the Bogazici University, Bogazici, Turkey, included presentation of 19 individual research papers, 30 posters and various issues related to English language, and highlighted the issue raised by professor Tim McNamara related to the topic on ELF.

Literature on mobility justice suggest that socially disadvantaged people experience uneven access to movement. The theme of diversity in terms of gender and its interplay with mobility and leisure have attracted some scholarly attention. However, research into transgender and gender diverse mobilities and its impact to leisure access remains limited, particularly from non-Western perspectives. This paper endeavors to fill this gap by investigating transgender and gender diverse mobilities in Istanbul, Turkey. Drawing upon 49 qualitative interviews with gender diverse and transgender public transport users in Istanbul, this study contributes to a scholarly discussion exploring the relationship between gender diversity, mobility, and their access to leisure. As such, it furthers the field of gender-oriented leisure. Transgender and gender diverse individuals continue to face significant issues, such as violence, discrimination, and harassment, when using public transport. Based on the experiences of the respondents, this paper concludes that driver training and education, and proactive educational messaging around gender minorities in public spaces could significantly improve the comfort and safety of transgender and gender diverse public transport users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the reasoning behind the decision of some Muslims to become foreign jihadist fighters and the manner in which they carried out their jihad. Through participant observation and interviews with a religious group in Istanbul made up of active fighters and supporters of the Syrian jihad, this paper's findings suggest that the radicalization process is driven by Islamic ideology, perceived discrimination and injustice against Muslims, as well as by the perceived obligation to defend Muslim communities under threat. However, contrary to popular belief, the objective of jihad is not solely to attain martyrdom or defeat the enemy. Fulfilling daily tasks, such as digging trenches or cooking meals for fellow fighters, can also be seen as ways to attain divine approval. The Syrian Civil War is viewed by many foreign jihadist fighters as a chance to participate in jihad, after which they plan to return to their normal lives, with this process potentially repeating itself multiple times throughout their lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquakes have caused catastrophic results in cities since the beginning of settled life, and the cumulative experience of these events has indicated that the lack of seismic resilience brings enormous economic losses and threatens human life. Consequently, the importance of seismic risk mitigation of earthquake-prone structures has arisen to reduce the primary and secondary losses resulting from seismic events in the last decades as developments in the earthquake engineering field occur. The first step for ensuring seismic resilience is the identification of risky buildings, which is a difficult challenge for metropolises like Istanbul since the building stock consists of over a million buildings. Applying code-based detailed assessments to so many buildings is not practical in terms of time and cost. Moreover, the current code-based detailed assessment methodologies such as Provisions for the Seismic Risk Evaluation of Existing Buildings under Urban Renewal Law (2019) and Turkish Building Earthquake Code (2018) provide discrete predictions for existing buildings as either risky or non-risky or satisfying life safety/controlled damage or not. However, a ranking system based on a reliable and realistic risk classification to prioritize the buildings is needed. Therefore, as a pilot project, nearly 23,000 reinforced concrete buildings in 37 different districts of Istanbul have been investigated by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) through PERA2019 performance-based rapid assessment methodology by considering the Design Level and Scenario-Based Earthquake cases. This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive site survey and analysis conducted in Istanbul up to now. In this paper, the characteristics of the building stock in Istanbul based on the conducted site work and the outcomes of the rapid seismic safety assessment efforts are summarized. Then, a discussion on the seismic risk evaluation of the existing residential buildings based on the prioritization of the examined buildings is presented through the results obtained for the Design Level and Scenario-Based Earthquake cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a vast literature that seeks to define and identify spatial submarkets in metropolitan housing systems. These tend to use one of three methods to delineate submarkets: a priori geographies, ad hoc subdivision and data-driven approaches to grouping units. Recently, analysts have increasingly used multilevel modelling strategies to analyse spatial segmentation in the housing market. Despite the increasing prevalence of multilevel approaches, there is no existing systematic analysis of which of these three main approaches to submarket definition has the greatest effectiveness when employed in a multilevel modelling framework. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by comparing the utility of these main approaches to submarket definition. It develops and evaluates three separate, distinct multilevel models of submarkets to a data set comprising 2175 transactions in the Istanbul housing market of Turkey, an emergent market context. The results show that multilevel models with a priori submarket dummy variable can predict price more accurately than the models with ad hoc subdivision or data-driven stratified submarkets. Similarly, test results indicate that multilevel models with neighbourhood submarket dummy variables (a priori) perform better than other models. These test results show that granular definition of submarkets tend to perform better in terms of predictive accuracy than less spatially granular models. The paper also suggests that real estate agents' views of submarket structures might be particularly useful as inputs into micro-modelling processes in contexts where datasets are thin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biennials are one of the most important stagers of contemporary art practices serving as spaces of reflexivity for artistic production, compressing a glocal sphere, offering a culturally inclusive debate. They play a key role in the global transformation of cultural production in a neoliberal age. Based on empirical data collected from the 15th Istanbul and 10th Liverpool biennials, this paper seeks to interrogate the role they play in the relationship between the cultural production and consumption of the arts. The paper presents an alternative perspective from which we can begin to better understand the cultural impact of neoliberalism. It is suggested, on this basis, that as glocal spaces of culture, biennials can generate culturally inclusive debates and participatory constellations offering a more democratic access to cultural participation. They are in this sense a discursive space and facilitate the opening-up of a critical space in which cultural policy can offer a more sophisticated means of critiquing the impact of neoliberalism on the arts world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduced in the 2000s as a component of social welfare reforms, the means test determines the eligibility of aid applicants based on previously set income categories. Replacing local committees that decided eligibility, this centralized and digitalized screening process rests on information infrastructures that are mostly invisible. This paper argues that the ways in which applicants contest the outcome of the means test, subvert the eligibility requirements, and go around the screening processes, make visible these otherwise-mostly invisible information infrastructures. Through a discussion of the contestations, subversions, and go-arounds applicants use (not always successfully) to receive emergency food relief from municipal food banks in Istanbul, the paper shows that these information infrastructures not only appear as if they are value-neutral and apolitical, but in so doing, they also serve as useful tools for obscuring who the actual decision makers are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the estimation of a multicomponent stress–strength reliability when stress and strength variables follow unit Bur XII distribution. In estimation procedure, the maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods are used. The maximum likelihood estimator is obtained via iterative methods. The asymptotic confidence interval is constructed using asymptotic properties of the corresponding estimator. In addition, two bootstrap confidence intervals are constructed. Bayesian estimator is obtained using three different approximation methods: Lindley's approximation, Tierney–Kadane approximation and Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. The interval estimation based on Bayesian method is studied. The simulation study is conducted to investigate and compare the performance of the considered methods. Finally, an original data set, general dam occupancy rate of Istanbul, Turkey obtained from Istanbul Statistic Office, is analysed in the concept of multicomponent stress–strength reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the AKP government has made much legal and political progress on women's rights, such as becoming the first government to ratify the Istanbul Convention, crimes against women in Turkey have dramatically risen in the last two decades. This is a notable step forward on women's rights, in particular on violence against women. However, this step backwards for women's rights with Turkey's withdrawal from the Convention on 1 July 2021. This paper argues to what extent the shift from Europeanization to de-Europeanization and liberalism to conservatism in Turkey after 2011 directly affects its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. The first part of this paper analyses how the AKP government has taken many steps legally and politically on gender equality as part of Turkey's Europeanization and EU accession process. The second part of this paper shows that, while many women's rights organizations and society recognize that progress has been made, the AKP government's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention reveals Turkey's transformation from liberalism to conservatism regarding women's rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention (in March 2021) and the high prevalence of gender-based violence reflect the current patriarchal political atmosphere in Turkey. Such backlash occurred despite the strong feminist resistance and transnational support to combat anti-gender developments. In this political climate, online disclosures of gender-based violence have become critical in shaping public debates about violence against women in Turkey. In the last decade, we have witnessed a movement similar to #MeToo, whereby women shared their experiences of gender-based violence on Twitter. This paper is about six of these disclosures and how they formed networked feminist counterpublics. Through a qualitative study of our participants´ lived experiences of online disclosures, we aim to illustrate what responses and reactions they encountered in online spaces, how these reactions and responses affected their well-being, what online spaces offered to them to counteract their victimisation, and, finally, how these online disclosures contributed to feminist collective consciousness and agency in Turkey. Our findings reveal dual consequences of disclosing gender-based violence online, where these networked feminist counterpublics bring together the excluded stories and challenge the mainstream public knowledge, and yet, at the same time, result in backlashes and digital vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary city is (re)produced in fragments through numerous typological variations. However, the current practice of spatial planning has yet to suggest effective control mechanisms to steer the piecemeal (trans)formation of cities. This paper argues for parametric modelling as a method of guiding fragmentary developments towards the pluralist production of coherent urban fabrics. Following the parametric definition of the basic morphological codes, the paper discusses the computational capacity of parametric modelling to simulate multiple variations in local fabrics and their consecutive integration within a larger context. The proposed model is tested in the context of Istanbul, Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the high streets of Istanbul within the context of high street management through four dimensions of location and movement, physical fabric, real estate & land use and exchange, and suggests a comprehensive approach to manage these commercial axes. While analysing the chosen study areas of Istiklal Street, Bagdat Street and Nisantasi District under the given topics, this paper makes use of analyses regarding transportation network, footfall, commercial and non-commercial use, prime rental values, besides a literature review to have an understanding towards the nature of each case study area. The results imply that despite their differences, all three study areas face certain issues that point out the lack of comprehensive strategic approaches to their management. Towards the high streets of Istanbul, this paper proposes a management approach embracing three main goals: (1) to constitute a brand image, (2) to decrease the vulnerability against macroeconomic factors and (3) to maintain vitality and viability of these axes. To overcome the complexities regarding management issues, this paper suggests an organizational and institutional approach, dedicated to considering the interests of all users on high streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the distinct conditions and implications of a multi-level stakeholder analysis for the governance of urban-rural intersections through a case study in Istanbul, adopting an advanced stakeholder analysis from UN-Habitat. Based on a case study of the landscape identity of Istanbul's rural settlements, the study offers multi-level definitions of the 331 stakeholders detected, power-influence matrices, and strategies that may foster balanced multi-level urban-rural governance practices in a major metropolitan area. The findings highlight the multiplicity of levels, sectors, resources, and the actors' differing capacities and interests to influence rural-urban governance decisions as well as their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMeetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) is a lucrative tourism segment, offering higher per capita spending and larger returns on investment than other tourism types. However, what makes a successful MICE destination from a multi-stakeholder perspective is overlooked in the literature. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to explore the features of ideal MICE destinations based on the perspectives of different stakeholders in the MICE market, including supply (e.g., C.V.B.s, lodging) and demand (e.g., Travel agencies, incentive houses). In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 experts. The results of the thematic analysis revealed seven overarching themes, which are classified under the characteristics of a MICE destination were grouped under internal (infrastructure, superstructure, service quality) and external (cultural, natural, economic, and political) factors. To confirm the validity and reliability of the findings, the results of semi-structured interviews were further evaluated by conducting focus groups with seven MICE experts. This study extends current literature by identifying destination selection factors with a more holistic approach, which reflects the perspectives of different stakeholders. The findings also provide a foundation for developing marketing strategies and allocating resources to better position the destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The YK 1 shipwreck, found at Yenikapı, Istanbul, is one of 37 shipwrecks dating to the medieval era. This paper describes the studies and the processes which were conducted to conserve the YK 1. Firstly, the level of physical and chemical degradation of the wood from the YK 1 was examined, which revealed that the wood was highly degraded. Therefore, PEG 2000 was chosen for the impregnation process before vacuum freeze-drying. In addition, the ASE values confirmed that the PEG 2000 impregnation and vacuum freeze-drying method together were successful in conserving the YK 1, with values higher than PEG 2000 impregnation and vacuum freeze-drying methods alone. The concentration of the PEG solution in the tank was monitored throughout the impregnation process. Following this, samples taken from the wood cores were analysed using FTIR to evaluate the effectiveness of the impregnation process. Finally, SEM was used to examine the effectiveness of the PEG 2000 impregnation and vacuum freeze-drying method. The SEM images showed that the PEG 2000 was uniformly distributed, and the wood had no deformation after freeze-drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this opinion paper, I trace children's access to play in the urban context against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the news, civil society organizations' reports and conversations with experts working in Istanbul, Turkey during the last year, I show how children's access to public places in the city gets constrained by urban governance that neglects young people's needs. Examples from the neighborhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, indicate the importance of having in mind the whole community while thinking about bringing play opportunities in public spaces and at the same time raise questions about children's participation in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply has been a chronic challenge in Istanbul since its foundation. Authorities have sought alternative methods since the Roman and Byzantine periods. Cisterns, channels and wells surveyed in urban heritage sites in Istanbul provide evidence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as a working solution in the past. However, RWH systems have only been utilized in contemporary plans and policies very recently, particularly since the climate change crisis entered the political agenda in Turkey. Taking this as a point of departure, this paper investigates the challenges of widespread implementation of RWH systems in Istanbul through a participatory inquiry with water management actors. Challenges and needs are explored through a set of in-depth interviews and participatory workshops with representatives from water management institutions. The findings reveal that current challenges are related to planning and development, legislation and governance, financing, society, infrastructure, installation and operation of systems. The potential solution is the establishment of a governance mechanism that enables collective action among relevant actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproduction theories reveal schools' critical role in inequalities and instil a sense of pessimism regarding schools' potential to create a fair society. School effectiveness research (SER) has responded to this pessimism by studying associations between school factors and educational performance to show that schools can make a difference. Despite its optimistic approach, SER fails to analyse the effects of broader social structures on educational processes. This article uses the institutional habitus concept to understand how the Turkish state's assimilative educational agenda and Kurdish communities' past experiences inform educational interactions in a public middle school in Istanbul's inner-city area. The paper argues that institutional habitus provides a more robust framework than SER in explaining schools' role in academic achievement within the broader sociopolitical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I tackle the center-periphery dynamics under planetary urbanization by focusing on Gebze, the gigantic industrial city just outside of Istanbul's administrative borders. Through an empirical study of peripheral urbanization processes in the Gebze-Istanbul axis, the paper engages with the planetary sub/urbanization debates and serves the triple purpose: (I) to emphasize the significance of peripheralization and the center-periphery dialectics to critique the predominant emphasis on centrality in urban and regional research which relegates the socio-spatial and political transformations of the peripheries to the background, (II) to offer an alternative approach to depictions of cities as sentient, anthropomorphic actors in a hierarchical and competitive Darwinian ecology, and (III) to contribute to planetary sub/urbanization debates by zooming in on some of the micro-spaces of peripheral Gebze during the extended urbanization process in greater Istanbul. Through a transdisciplinary methodology, the paper provides a local ontology by displaying how peripherality is constructed not merely from above and the center by the state or economic actors, but also by the people from below and the periphery, as it were, during their everyday rhythms, activities, negotiations, and coping. By resisting the merely expanded application of the term suburban, and instead taking seriously the complex web of governance, agency, defeat, organization, and exploitation within the lives of Gebze's inhabitants, the article concludes that such phenomena make any universalizing claim about the urban or the suburban incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the formation of authoritarian populism in Turkey by analysing mass mobilization and its repercussions in the symbolic and imaginary realms as authoritarian right-wing populisms have gained global popularity. It scrutinises the AKP government's mobilization of the masses in the so-called 'democracy watches' after the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. During the demonstrations that took place in various locations in Istanbul, authors carried out participant observation fieldwork and field interviews. The paper concludes that democracy watches constitute a significant means of constructing and consolidating a new authoritarian regime, thereby endowing this consolidation process with a popular legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to move beyond the limited research emphasis on traditional South-North scholarship accessibility. We discuss and analyze how through South-South connections and scholarship opportunities African students rationalize accessibility to scholarships in Turkey. Building on qualitative data collected through interviews, focus groups and discussions with African students in Istanbul, Turkey, this paper finds that the activities as well as the meaning making of African students towards existing Turkish educational and scholarship opportunities, remain essential in understanding the dynamics of African students and accessibility to Turkish scholarships. In their quest for scarce scholarship opportunities, students employ the internet for exchanging information with fellow students; compare opportunities within and beyond Africa while, simultaneously, interacting with formal and informal networks that facilitate scholarship opportunities. Accessibility to Turkish scholarships therefore depends not only on Turkish state funds and its availability, but also on what the students and their networks and community relations are doing separately or together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the destinations they visit, tourists wish to see historical structures with that they can establish a connection with. The effects of nostalgic bonds established through experiences can be evaluated only by the determination of individuals' developing intentions and judgments. The main purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between nostalgic emotions, memorable tourism experience, satisfaction, revisit intention, and recommendation intention. In this regard, views of the tourists who visited İstanbul were collected through surveys. A total of 483 surveys were obtained and the data were analyzed using AMOS software. The obtained results showed that strong nostalgic bonds had a positive impact on behavioral intentions such as revisit intention by increasing satisfaction and memorability. The findings of this paper indicated that nostalgic emotions significantly affect memorable tourism experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Istanbul Zone (NW Turkey) forms the eastward extension of Avalonia and was subjected to deformation, uplift and erosion for a time period of 40–50 Ma following the collision with the Sakarya Zone during Early to Late Carboniferous. This paper deals with the petrology and age of the volumetrically minor basic and acidic volcanism at the lowermost horizons of Middle Permian continental red beds, which are overlain by Lower Triassic marine sedimentary rocks in the Kocaeli Peninsula. The volcanic activity is represented mainly by amygdaloidal basalt, rhyolite and minor trachydacite. The amygdaloidal basalt was derived from near-primary middle-K calc-alkaline mantle melts with negligible crystal fractionation. On the other hand, the rhyolite and trachydacite compositionally resemble A2-type rhyolites and underwent low-pressure crystal fractionation as indicated by the presence of a significant Eu anomaly. Initial ɛNd values of amygdaloidal basalt range from 0.0 to 1.5 and those of rhyolite-trachydacite are between −0.4 and −3.4. Amygdaloidal basalt and rhyolite-trachydacite are not directly related to each other by crystal fractionation. Amygdaloidal basalt probably represents the product of the near-primary mantle melts from low-degree melting of a spinel peridotitic source, and the rhyolite-trachydacite originated from highly-fractionated products of basic magmas that are slightly more alkaline than amygdaloidal basalt. However, basic and intermediate products of alkaline basic magmas are unknown in this region to date. U-Pb dating of zircons from a rhyolite sample yielded an igneous crystallization age of 261 ± 3 Ma (2σ), suggesting that the date of deposition of the continental red beds goes back to the latest Middle Permian. Based on the transgressive nature of the Permian-Triassic sequence that starts from the Middle Permian continental red beds and grades into Lower Triassic marine deposits, we suggest that the volcanism likely occurred in an extensional setting. This extension was concurrent with the northward subduction of the Palaeo-Tethys beneath the Sakarya and Istanbul zones after the Variscan orogeny. Therefore, the latest Middle to Late Permian volcanism might have occurred during the initial stage of a back-arc extensional setting [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ending of a protest is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of the dramaturgy of politics. Retrospectively, a movement's ending is what allows for an evaluation of what it has achieved. In this way, how a movement ends correlates, sometimes obliquely, with its ends. In this paper, we ask how a performance analysis of endings might help us re-evaluate protest and its afterlife. We examine three protest movements that ended in different ways: the sharp decline of the summit-hopping global justice protests of 1999 to 2001, the repression of the Istanbul protests against sexual violence of 2019 and the late afterlives of the Wages for Housework movement of the 1970s. Each offers a different way of reading the relationship between the ends of a movement and its ending. From the heighted affective terrain of what Alain Badiou describes as "the intense time of the riot" to the subtler time of subterranean movements, our analysis of the ends of these movements aims to discover ways to build social movements that might sustain themselves overtime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the 'social conflict' theory to analyse the challenges to combatting violence against women in Turkey. It argues that these obstacles that are grounded in unequal social power relations are structured in the political landscape where decisions over who gets what are made. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s 'male biased' political decisions such as withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe's Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) reflect the current conditions of the balance of societal interests in the political order. Turkish women's struggle for equality requires a shift in existing conditions of power in favour of pro-gender equality forces that would enable the representation of their preferences and interests in the political landscape, which is always tilted towards certain groups and their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to measure the effect of spatial characteristics on housing prices and to integrate an interpolation and regression model in terms of spatially predicting housing price values. In this paper, housing price is investigated by taking into consideration distance to city centre, transportation arteries and coasts, in addition to housing and neighbourhood characteristics as control variables. This investigation is conducted in two stages: firstly by the utilization of multiple regression analysis, and then by an interpolation technique which is generated to predict the spatial pattern of housing price on a continuous surface in order to test the reliability and consistency of the regression model. The results reveal that housing prices are significantly affected by spatial determinants referred to as the distance variables. By conducting a residual analysis from the regression model, housing price values are analysed and visualized in a continuous map which is globally consistent with the housing markets in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Enlil on the development of Istanbul, Turkey in a wide historical perspective, one by Oktem on policy discourse used in urban development and planning, and one by Turkun on the institutional dynamics following the creation of urban coalitions.

Gated communities have received significant attention in academic debates. Despite this, there is a lack of studies on differentiation and tensions between them. This paper analyses differentiation between gated communities by adopting the theory of “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press]. It uses the data collected from fieldwork in two gated communities in Istanbul, Turkey, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with residents. First, the paper contributes to Lamont's “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] by showing that morality is not independent from socio-economic context, but indicates the legitimate values of a given social context. This is shown in residents’ use of moral boundaries such as a law-abiding lifestyle, legitimate sources of capital accumulation and the existence of warmer relations with each other. Second, the paper contributes to the study of gated communities by demonstrating that they can be regarded as spatial manifestations of the division within the upper classes which results from competition for deserved status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alevi-Sunni relations in Turkey are the result of a relational process constructed from contributions of each side rather than each groups' perceptions of the other. Boundaries between Alevis and Sunnis in Turkey have been constructed relationally with the contributions of many complicated socio-political factors. This article aims to answer the question of what the symbolic boundaries between the two groups are, seeking to understand how Sunnis perceive Alevis. This aim will cast light on the nature of the two groups' relations, help us recognize forms of Alevism and Sunnism specific to Turkey, and advance existing literature on the issue. This paper's findings are based on ninety semi-structured and two focus group interviews with Sunnis living in Istanbul. Results show that the concept of 'two-dimensional symbolic boundary,' which runs along dimensions of not-knowing and not-accepting, is the answer to the question of how Sunnis perceive Alevis. The main components of these dimensions are perceptions, which seem to relate to the interpretations of group norms and values. This study, as a group-based analysis, reveals that perceived group norms – whether religious, cultural, social, or political – determine the perceptions of Sunnis towards Alevis and create dimensions of the boundary between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financialization of housing and the massive suburbanization in many parts of the world pose a plethora of significant problems that contribute to distortions of ecological balances (also known as the Anthropocene) which might reach an irreversible point. This work argues that the financialization of the suburban real estate market operates as a predatory formation. The theories of Urban Political Ecology (UPE) pave the way to understand how the suburbanization process in the twenty-first century has become one of the leading reasons of the Anthropocene. The task of UPE is to understand the political processes that shape, produce and reproduce the configuration of urban, nature and time. The latest suburbanization process has a special role in comprehending how processes and relations over the spatial configuration result in the collapse of ecological balances. This paper explores, through the case of Istanbul, how the financialization of housing market brings about a new ecological reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long acknowledged to be a center for religious pilgrimage, the importance of the Istanbul district of Eyüp is widely understood as being founded upon the figure of Halid bin Zeyd Ebâ Eyyûb el-Ensârî, a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Others point to the district's extensive cultural, political and social significance to explain its particular importance. In contrast, this paper avoids such reductive perspectives and argues that assemblage provides one particularly suggestive conceptual framework within which to reconsider Eyüp's significance, glossed in this paper as the ‘matters of the mosque'. Linking that discussion of assemblage to recent scholarship on Islam calling for a greater interrogation of the multiple (and sometimes ambivalent) modalities of religious practice, this paper draws on a series of fieldwork encounters to present one such grounded perspective. Paying particular attention to questions of agency, materiality and belief, this paper argues that assemblage provides an especially rich set of conceptual resources to continue developing new understandings of the practice of Islam; at the same time, this paper's careful attention to questions of belief addresses what has been heretofore underdeveloped in assemblage urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to debates on urban citizenship and public culture. Drawing on detailed empirical research in Istanbul, Turkey, we analyse two key contemporary arts organisations that experiment with new organisational and curatorial practices in order to realise cultural infrastructures of common life in a city strongly shaped by urban development along neoliberal and neoconservative lines. Empirically, this directs attention to the near-complete absence of Turkish government actors and in turn the major role played by Turkish private businesses as well as public organisations, mostly from Europe, in supporting the contemporary arts in Istanbul. This particular institutional geography of funding and support sustains a local space of openness and autonomy from state intervention and enables these organisations to develop situated strategies of urban engagement. Theoretically, this paper develops the notion of spaces of openness and argues that these spaces are usefully conceptualised as experimental, networked and solidary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to emphasize the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic at the healthcare logistics and supply chain networks and to transport polymerase chain reaction testing samples between hospitals and laboratories by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To achieve the mission, range and payload capacitated UAV routing problem is defined and a mixed-integer linear programming model (MILP) is developed. The MILP model aims to decide the requisite quantity of the UAVs and to minimize the total transportation distance while satisfying the predetermined constraints. As a real-life instance, the healthcare network of Istanbul is selected and the network includes 219 hospitals and 23-unit basic testing laboratories for the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicated that the proposed optimization model can find the needed number of UAVs with the minimum tour distances in reasonable run times and achieves to transport 25,000 testing specimens between hospitals and laboratories via UAVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City walls have played a significant role in the history of many cities in both Europe and Anatolia in the Middle Ages. Following the development of war technology, the city walls lost their importance as defensive structures, which led to changes in the urban patterns of walled cities. In the case of Istanbul, the city walls began to lose their defensive role after the Ottoman takeover of the city in the fifteenth century. However, the walls have continued to play new roles beyond defense, such as forming the city's physical, legal, and fiscal boundaries. The Ottoman authorities repaired and conserved the city walls in line with their changing roles, values and meaning for the city. Nevertheless, the city walls in Istanbul were damaged by earthquakes, city fires and particularly urban planning practices in the nineteenth century, as was the case in many walled cities. This paper discusses the intertwined history of preservation and demolition of the city walls by analyzing a cost estimate, dated 1894 and located in the Ottoman State Archives, which was prepared by the modernizing administration of the Ottoman State for the repairs of the Istanbul Land Walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses issues concerning the Istanbul Land Walls Component Area, part of the World Heritage Site of the Historic Areas of Istanbul. The discussion focuses on the conservation status of the historic vegetable gardens (bostanlar in Turkish) in the area adjacent to the monument. The central concern is with the problematical situation, where the agricultural space and culture of the gardens are being denied heritage status, and are presently in the process of being destroyed. The immediate threat to the gardens comes from the forces of urban renewal projects that have been unleashed in Istanbul over the last two decades. It has been extremely difficult for various heritage experts and organizations to effectively challenge the commercial and political imperatives of urban regeneration. First, there is the issue of confronting an institutional and legal edifice with a singular commitment to urban renewal, characterized by an insensitivity to the complexities of urban sites. Furthermore, the core issue resides at the conceptual level, pertaining to the tension between an architectural and monumentalist approach to conservation, on the one hand, and an approach sensitive to cultural landscape, on the other. The fate of the bostanlar will depend upon some form of negotiation and reasonable accommodation between these two contrary perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an aspiring global city, Istanbul is at the crossroads of capital, political struggle, and socioeconomic transformation. Unfortunately, Istanbul is also at the crossroads of major active fault lines. This paper analyzes earthquake risk mitigation planning for the megacity since the last big seismic catastrophe of the Marmara Earthquakes in 1999 that hit the region, including Istanbul. We use the concept of riskscape to explore the political and technocratic construction of seismic risk and how this implies different experiences of risk to investment portfolios, the state, and the ordinary people living in the city. Our empirical analyses focus on the 'Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project' (ISMEP), launched as a World Bank project in 2005 and still ongoing as of 2020. We argue that the ISMEP project epitomizes the 'strange case' of earthquake risk mitigation in Istanbul due to its organizational complexity, financial expansion over its lifetime, and progression as a megaproject sponsored by international development funding despite its contraction in institutional targets. Our findings suggest that this centralized and non-transparent earthquake risk mitigation approach in Istanbul creates a fragmented riskscape for the megacity. The earthquake risk continues to threaten millions of inhabitants' lives and livelihoods while making room for speculative real estate development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines heritage, and particularly intangible heritage, by concentrating on the experience of smell to explore a heritage site in Istanbul, Turkey: the Spice Market. Due to a restoration project, the site became the focus of the 2012 international workshop ‘Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice,’ which aimed at documenting the existing and threatened scents of the marketplace. In 2016 a gallery exhibition, ‘Scent and the City,’ was created as part of an effort to raise awareness about how scent constitutes an important component of the heritage of place. After providing a brief overview of the marketplace’s transformations since its construction in the seventeenth century, this paper covers various methods of scent research, including scent walks, mapping, oral history interviews, and artistic performances, and illustrates how the smellscapes of this historic, and now touristic, quarter of Istanbul are changing. By bringing a sensory approach to this important heritage site in Istanbul we demonstrate how an embodied approach, which forefronts scent as intangible heritage and a primary modality, can serve as a catalyst for individuals and communities to access their memories, emotions, and values and increase awareness of the role scent plays in defining locality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that gated communities are processual spaces which create new conflicts and blur the boundaries between inside and outside, open and private, and safe and unsafe realms. For this purpose, it uses the data collected during the fieldwork from two gated communities in Istanbul based on the examination of everyday life in two case studies. According to the data, gated communities create tensions in the use of facilities and common spaces, indicating a conflict between ownership of and access to space; the use of housing units, indicating a conflict between openness and privacy; and the use of walls and borders which blur the boundaries between inside and outside realms leading to safety gaps. Finally, the paper argues a processual space leading to conflicts and seeds of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the reflections of two of the conference organizers of the joint conference of the 11th International Conference of the Asia Chapter and the 2nd International Conference of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Chapter of the Academy of Human Resource Development that took place in Istanbul, Turkey, November 8–10, 2012. Using a National Human Resource Development framework, we reflected on the experience of the conference from its inception to its execution. We concluded with suggestions for future joint conferences in HRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some two millennia Istanbul has been one of the world's greatest cities, and is today classified as an "Alpha-" world city in the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) group's 2010 rankings. Istanbul is an emerging global city that is facilitating Turkey's transnational integration into the global economy, and as of June 2009 the city had the second largest office stock among all Southeast European countries. This paper investigates the determinants of office rent levels in the city's Central Business District (CBD) and the spatial variation of rents in a polycentric metropolis. The paper uses a stepwise regression and a Mamdani-type fuzzy rule-based model to estimate office space rents, and compares empirical results with those of a conventional OLS regression analysis. Rents are driven not only by physical characteristics and locational services, but also the terms of lease contracts. New CBD locations that command the highest rents on spacious, high-rise office spaces with comparatively few employees conform well with contemporary accounts of world-city financial districts, and confirm the significance of urban office infrastructures for globally oriented financial elites beyond the familiar roster of Global North world cities. The traditional center retains the core purpose identified nearly a century ago, in Marshall's analysis of centralization during the most vibrant period of the industrial age. Despite all the transformations of transnational urbanist polycentricity, the traditional CBD is still the place with the most diverse mix of activities, and the greatest variation in rents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outside of the Global North, where agri-food systems have not yet consolidated into a 'funnel shape,' what makes an urban provisioning actor 'alternative' is not always clear. In this paper, I use members' own definitions, emphases, and arguments to differentiate 'alternative' networks from other provisioning actors. Using data from semi-structured interviews, I show that while community-building and an affiliation with the food movement (broadly defined) are the most critical features identified by people who participate in these networks, more informal, ad hoc, familial or village networks that are utilized as a response to urban food insecurity are excluded. While such exclusions may not be unique, in this case, they reflect more fundamental divisions regarding what 'alternative' implies and how to challenge the throttling hold of conventional provisioning agents on the contemporary agri-food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in motor vehicle use is one of the important factors that cause traffic congestion, especially in megacities. Thus, the reasons behind this increase require serious attention. This paper offers an analysis of this kind, for a megacity from the developing world, Istanbul. A stratified multinomial logit model accounting for the availability of a second vehicle in the household is estimated for a sample drawn from a questionnaire to gather information of actual car use in Istanbul. This estimation is only possible through a unique data generation process that converts actual preferences into a choice study setting. In addition, a simulation study, generally utilized in the analyses of discrimination between certain layers of society, and a scenario analysis related to changes in income are also included in the paper for a better understanding of the nature of the topic. The results show that the behavior of households with a second vehicle available and not available varies significantly due to household, individual and professional-related characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Istanbul, public university hospitals exemplify the importance of urban social networks in the structuring of economic activity. The involvement of patients' families in care-giving on hospital premises is essential to the efficient functioning of the health service. This paper illustrates the vital role of cultural and social factors, especially kinship relations and informal networks, in shaping the urban built environment at the local level. The paper shows how family solidarity is a precondition for the successful functioning of a major city hospital in Istanbul, and how this affects the economic character of the built environment around the hospital. The paper employs a relational approach to highlight to key processes at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dividend payment decision of publicly owned firms listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) from 1991 through 2006. There is a decline in the percentage of net dividend payers, accompanied by a decline in the aggregate level of net real dividends paid. Contrary to the situation in developed markets, earnings and dividends concentration have declined over the sample period. The first mandatory dividend payment regulation pushed some firms to collect the distributed dividends back through rights issues and this resulted in low net dividend payments. One of the striking findings of this paper reveals that a majority of ISE firms prefer dividend omissions rather than dividend reductions. Once a firm keeps paying dividends, it puts much effort into increasing dividend payments rather than reducing them. Further, dividend payment and reduction decisions are affected by the current earnings of the firm and financial crisis significantly explains both the dividend payment and dividend reduction decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In historical masonry buildings, the durability of materials used for the structural members can be impaired by climatic conditions and user interventions, and the building may lose its authenticity as a result of functional changes made over time. To restore structures to their original form, the historical changes that have been made over time are researched, and by identifying the original material characteristics it becomes possible to preserve the load-bearing members, thus prolonging their service life. This paper presents a detailed description of the restoration works, which were based on the original geometric and material properties, carried out on a historical masonry building that started out in life as a hospital building in the 1840s, but was later remodeled to become a military prison building and currently serves as the Faculty of Political Sciences of Istanbul University. The study is presented in three stages, namely: i. a research of the historical timeline of alterations of the examined building, ii. a field study, and iii. laboratory analyses. The historical research identifies the structural changes that the building has undergone since its construction, while the field study includes a three-dimensional laser scanning process and the taking of representative samples from different points of the building. In the laboratory stage, the gathered samples are subjected to chemical and mineralogical analyses. The mortar and plaster mixture ratios used in the construction were ascertained through physical and chemical tests to samples taken from the building, and subsequently, all non-original binder materials have been removed and the original mortar-plaster mixture ratios have applied. After a review of the data collected within the scope of this study, it was determined that the two reinforced concrete buildings to the north and south of the site, which were built later in the history of the investigated building, as well as the temporary partition walls to each story, should be removed. Furthermore, it is recommended that the modified facade and interior window forms, together with the blocked-off doorways, should be restored to their original state. The contribution this study makes to literature is based on its focus on a historical masonry building that has lost its original form over time, having been refunctioned for different purposes, that is to be restored back to its original form in terms of its geometric and material properties. The building itself is of particular interest, being the first on the historical peninsula of Istanbul to be constructed using industrial bricks during the Ottoman period. The proposed restoration project can be considered a novel, practical and appropriate approach to authentic restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we focus on the estimation of crowding in public transport – specifically urban rail systems – and its effect on perceived comfort. It is different from similar studies in the method it employs for estimating crowding levels in vehicles. Specifically, we formulate a function of time and location, which uses only passenger embarking data to estimate the number of passengers in vehicles. Then we convert the estimated crowding values into perceived discomfort levels by trip section. Our method depends on hourly seasonality assumptions but provides good estimates of crowding in urban rail systems even when passenger alighting data is not available. We illustrate the implementation of our model with the example of the Istanbul Metro system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]