Citizenship, minorities and the struggle for a right to the city in Istanbul
Résumé
Globalization is generating new forms of citizenship that often go beyond the
institutional perception of social identity. These new forms of citizenship are
developed in a scalable way to a greater extent than rights and obligations, and are
entirely managed by the citizens themselves. To demonstrate empirical support for this
issue, the case of minority communities in Turkey constitutes one of the most relevant
examples, since citizenship in this country has long been associated with an idea of
political loyalty and total allegiance to the nation-state. The main purpose of this article
is to show how urban space and urban protest allow minorities to find alternative forms
of expression for their collective identity, and to create a new understanding of
citizenship beyond the classical definition, being based instead on institutional representation.
The aim of this research is to examine the process of urban transformation
in Istanbul, how this phenomenon shapes the structure of cities and how it gives rise
to social resistance and protest, especially in neighborhoods housing minority
communities. In this context, the article focuses on planning movements in Turkey
through a comparative study of two urban planning projects and the citizens’ protests
against them.