Reconstructing the city and the citizen through the İstanbul courses

Abstract

This study investigates into the imagination of the city, specifically İstanbul and the projection of identity for the İstanbulite urban subject within the context of İstanbul courses. The courses, inspired by an educational project carried out as part of İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture, became part of the primary school curriculum for the state schools in İstanbul. A similar course, “City and Culture: İstanbul”, was also designed to be offered as an elective for universities in the city. It is argued that the courses constitute an example of the consumer-capitalist ideology in the urban space and constitute one of the strategies of urban entrepreneurialism. They create and disseminate a normative discourse about the urban space with the help of the reproductive function of education. The thesis analyzes the course books in terms of the three criteria of “the world construct”, “history” and “the urban citizen”. It is argued that within the world construct that the courses project, İstanbul emerges as a postcard-city emptied out of its social and historical context for purposes of place marketing. History functions as a reservoir to contribute to this construct by providing myths concerning the city’s past. In this context, the desirable urban citizen that the courses aim to bring about is imagined as spectator, a tourist and a tourist guide. The courses therefore enable the reproducing of the consumercapitalist ideology in the urban space and raise the individuals that are properly integrated into it.