Situated modernities: Geographies of identity, urban space and globalization (Turkey, Indonesia)

This dissertation examines the matrix of relationships between modernity, identity and space in Muslim urban settings from a comparative perspective. The sites of this research are Istanbul and Jakarta---two cities that demonstrate important similarities in terms of the relationships between globalization, neoliberalism and Islam. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in these cities between January 2000 and June 2001. Focusing on the social space of shopping malls, this dissertation uncovers the construction of 'gendered', 'classed' and 'Islamic' modernities and the formation of identity and agency in the face of state and Islamist meta-projects. Comparing Istanbul and Jakarta, I emphasize the hegemony of neoliberalism and the discourse of globalization in both cities, while underlining place-specificity in regional orientation, history, and social structure. The study begins with an analysis of urban political economy and local government policies in Istanbul and Jakarta in the post-1980s. This examination presented in Chapter 2 demonstrates that the 'global city' concept continues to dominate projects of modernity of city governments and public discourses despite shifts in regional imagination and political orientation. In Chapter 3, the focus is the tension between modernity, morality and changing gender roles and performances in the space of shopping malls. An analysis of my in-depth interviews reveals practices and visions of modernity that in some respects reinforce, but in others challenge gender ideology of the state and patriarchal morality. Chapter 4 analyzes the cultural production of the 'modern' middle class with a focus on its 'other': women who dress in Islamic attire. I approach the politically charged topic of 'veiling' as a socio-spatial practice that challenges the meanings imposed by both the secular state and the Islamist project. Chapter 5 investigates the experiences of the rural migrant and working class 'others' of the 'modern' middle class and the state and shows the challenges they present to the exclusive definition of modernity. By situating modernities, this dissertation moves away from the dualistic views of the West vs. Islam, the state vs. Islam, and the West vs. the East and demonstrates how subjects reproduce and question Western, state and Islamist meta-narratives of modernity and identity.