Çağdaş Can

Çağdaş Can is a PhD candidate at the Institute of European Urban Studies Bauhaus University Weimar. He studied civil engineering at Istanbul Technical University and Sociology as academic further education at Bielefeld University and worked on social and ecological sustainability issues related to large scale construction and urban projects, and critical urban theory. Currently he is investigating the relationship between the authority, space and social actors through heterotopia experiences by taking Istanbul city as a case.

Heterotopia as an abstract concept suggested by Foucault and Lefebvre has recently found a ground in academic research, especially in the field of urban sociology. The main aim of this research is to understand how the interaction between the society and physical built space changes under conditions of changing social life and everyday life rhythms of social actors by focusing on heterotopia spaces and taking Istanbul city as a case. By doing so it is expected to achieve the following outcomes:

• Gaining a better understanding of the determinant role of the design of built space on forming everyday life for social actors and generating spatial aggregation and segregation.
  

• Exploring how the interaction of social actors with and within the built space changes based on their everyday life rhythms. Revealing the socio-spatial structure of everyday life activities for different neighbourhoods that are conceptualized based on Lefebvre`s heterotopia/isotopia concept.

• Providing a theoretical framework of heterotopia spaces where the contrast between the society and built space is explicitly observable.

Throughout the history Istanbul has been of great interest to political actors. This interest turns the city into a place of conflict and struggle for power. The first step of the study focuses on how different political authorities conceived Istanbul city and everyday life, in other terms tries to picturize the “utopia” image conceived by these authorities, how this image manifested through planning of the city and which heterotopia experiences of “others” emerged in the process of constructing this “utopia”. The second step of the study concentrates on the spatial organization of everyday life social activities. Spatial configuration of everyday life activities of different neighborhoods that are conceptualized as heterotopia/isotopia, will be assessed and compared empirically by the implementation of Space Syntax approach.

Critical Urban Theory

Heterotopia

Everyday life

Spatial Configuration Analysis

Istanbul