THE URBAN & THE POLITICAL / Seminar Series of IFEA and IFPO

Language: English

Online

These seminar series, organized in collaboration by the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA) and the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), emerged from the will of developing scientific reflexion and cooperation on various issues and dynamics in urban space, as well as enhancing scientific dialogue from a Southern perspective. Both research institutes have a long tradition of research on urban studies and the creation of research poles as Urban Observatory of Istanbul is one of the examples. Several researchers working in and with these institutes express regularly their interest on scientific questioning of the city. The seminar aims therefore to answer to this need and to propose a common space for the researchers of different UMIFREs on urban questions. The seminar will be held 2 times per year and will host researchers around a specific topic for each session. The following sessions are already scheduled for the year 2023:  

Session 1 : Political dimensions of public space  

The city and the debates on it are rapidly transforming with the wind of planetary urbanization (Brenner 2014). The comprehension of public spaces is one of them. It is a well-known fact that the public space today does not meet Habermas's (1962) definition of spaces of freedom where ideas are freely expressed. Today, in the urban system dominated by neoliberalism, the public space has become, in Certeau's (2015) words, a place where the power exhibits its various strategies. While cities are constantly being restructured in the grip of the neoliberal system, the most rapid evolutions are taking place in the geographical area of the Middle East (Bourssière & Morvann, 2022). So, is it possible, then, that the transformation of public spaces does not ignore urban historical sites, green areas or everyday life in the Middle East?  

Participant 1: Sibel Akyıldız, PhD candidate at Université de Tours ; Yeditepe University   

Environment as a political and social transformation tool in Turkey: the case of Validebağ Grove in İstanbul   

Participant 2: Petra Samaha, PhD candidate in urban studies and sociology at Sciences Po Paris  

The multiple public(s) of Lebanon: space, tensions and representations