DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECT
Vildan Seçkiner's dissertation, tentatively titled “The Imagination of the Street. Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Project and the Right to the City” will focus on the role played by the Istanbul 2010 ECoC project in the consolidation of the imagination of “Cool Istanbul“. This event had a substantial meaning for Turkey as a candidate for the European Union membership, fitting also in with the ‘global city’ image, which the local and central governments desired to attain for Istanbul since the 1990s. Hence, celebrating diversity in urban culture to achieve a “European identity“ – the primary goal of the ECoC program--was a priority in Istanbul 2010 ECoC event. To this end, organizers of the event attempted to include in the program various cultural activities in order to construct an image of a European city. While the historical richness and ethnic diversity of the city was highlighted on the one hand; on the other, contemporary arts and the image of an allegedly inclusive street culture became prominent. For instance, the Istanbul 2010 ECoC program attempted to co-opt the local festivals of the city and to formalize the culture of street arts, which was at any rate only a recent matter on the streets of Istanbul. Moreover, the changing policies of the local government before, during and after the ECoC project also revealed the conflicts between everyday life in the city and the imagination of the streets by the local and central governments. This dissertation will investigate the tensions between the imaginations of the street in this international city event and the political contents of everyday life on the streets of the city with reference to a critical approach to the concept of the right to the city. This will involve also a critical approach to neoliberal discourses of democracy that attempts to stabilize the interruptions created by autonomous acts of everyday resistance by way of state-market cooperation and by proposing a discourse of inclusiveness.