The epidemic, the prison house and the global city belonging and identity in Bayrampaşa

Abstract

This thesis is based on an ethnographic research conducted in Bayrampaşa, İstanbul. The thesis focuses on a group of Yugoslavian immigrants in the district and aims to display the simultaneous movement that this immigrant community constructs its national and local identity at the same time. To achieve this end, the thesis employs a historical perspective. It is aimed to show the reflections of historically significant events in the narratives of the people in Bayrampaşa, i.e. the title deeds, the cholera epidemic of 1970, and Bayrampaşa prison. This thesis basically asserts that the main issues in Bayrampaşa can be interpreted through two distinct positions. These are the sovereign position and subordinate position. Between these two positions, there is a constant oscillation through which the narratives of the people in Bayrampaşa construct local and national identities. This thesis focuses on this oscillatory movement within the contexts of migration, the cholera epidemic, the prison house and the global city.