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The book "Spatial Politics in Istanbul: Turning Points in Contemporary Turkey" by Courtney Dorroll and Philip Dorroll explores the debates surrounding urban aesthetics, historical legacies, and political identities in Istanbul and Turkey. The authors focus on four key moments in the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) tenure between 2010 and 2020 to trace the shift from a relatively pluralistic, inclusive political ideology to a monumental, neo-imperial Sunni-Turkish hegemony. The book examines the impact of events such as Istanbul's selection as European Capital of Culture in 2010, the Gezi demonstrations of 2013, the attempted coup of 2016, and the reconversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque in 2020. The authors argue that these events reflect the AKP's transformation and its embrace of "Erdoğan-ian Neo-Ottomanism." The book raises important questions about the definition of Istanbul's identity and the exclusionary nature of defining the city solely by its Ottoman past. [Extracted from the article]

This article investigates trajectories and sociopolitical drivers of youth radicalization in Turkey in the context of the Syrian war and the Kurdish national struggle. It proposes a conceptual framework (radical habitus) to better understand contemporary radicalization phenomena. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research, conducted between 2015 and 2018 in Turkish-Syrian border cities, in Istanbul, and in a refugee camp in Greece, I offer an anthropological intervention in the study of radicalization. Radicalization scholarship is often concerned with ideological factors and the immediate social circles of radicalized individuals while underplaying the macrolevel hegemonic forces that shape their lived reality and habitus. I argue that we must examine power relations, structural inequalities, perceived injustices, and young people's political subjectivities in order to better understand what propels radicalization. I propose that radicalization is a relational and gradual process triggered by a set of complex power relations between state and substate actors across religious, sectarian, ethnonational, and class lines, the interactions of which shape what I call a radical habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timur Hammond's book, "Placing Islam: Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul," explores the complex relationship between Islam and space in the district of Eyüp Sultan in Istanbul. Eyüp Sultan is a significant neighborhood in the city, known for its tomb complex of Ebu Eyüp el-Ansari, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Hammond examines the stories and buildings of Eyüp to understand how they shape and reflect the diverse perspectives and histories of Islam in the city. His nuanced approach challenges homogenized images of Istanbul and offers a deeper understanding of the multiple places of Islam within the city. [Extracted from the article]

Secular Cycles By Peter Turchin and A. Nevedov Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, 349 pp., ISBN 9780691136967. Peter Turchin and Sergey Nefedov's book focusing on recent theoretical analysis of economic [...]

In this introduction to our edited section, “Istanbul through the Looking Glass,” I draw on Orhan Pamuk’s works—in particular The Black Book—to develop a multi-perspectival approach to Istanbul’s heterogeneous past and the contemporary collective memories that frame this past. First, I forward a critique of homogenizing narratives of Istanbul, in particular neo-Ottoman images of the city. For shorthand, I call these images “silhouettes.” Next, by invoking The Black Book’s extended metaphor of the city’s sunken past in the Bosphorus, I draw attention to the “submersions” of Istanbul’s history that our collection explores. Finally, I summarize the contents of the volume, which are divided across three sections: “Sites,” “Districts,” and “Discourses.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on thematic section juxtaposing and interlacing Istanbul's multilayered history and memory by engaging in interdisciplinary methodologies. Topics include Ottoman poetry in Bosnia, cavalry rebellions, the ransoming of captives in Galata in the seventeenth century; and presenting the workshop papers of the first four webinars with the goal of promoting the work of junior colleagues.