Spaces of counter-hegemony: Turkish architects and planners as political agents in the 1970s

The post war period in Turkey witnessed a phase of rapid urbanization that strongly shaped the social and political environment during the 1960s and the 1970s. In this period, marked by the extensive politicization of the urban masses, urban problems entered into the realm of daily politics and urban politics evolved into an autonomous realm of struggle. This dissertation project aims at studying the emergence and development of this struggle in the 1970s with a specific focus on the role of a certain social group: that of architects and urban planners. The main argument of the study is twofold: first, social movements that arose in the 1960s developed into exclusively urban forms, transforming not only themselves but also public conceptions and experiences regarding the urban realm in the 1970s. Second, Turkish architects and planners, homogeneously labeled as urban professionals, played a particular role in this transformation and contributed to the making of urban politics as an autonomous realm of struggle.; Revealing the socio-economic dynamics leading to the urbanization of social movements that emerged in the 1960s, the dissertation scrutinizes a number of themes that appear as both the constituents of urban politics and topics of pursuit for urban professionals. The development of the professional identities of Turkish architects and urban planners are analyzed alongside the transformation of physical planning activity in the country. Additionally, the concept of urban politics is expanded beyond the limits of local administrations to include both the housing question and representations of the city as political issues opened up to the direct involvement of urban professionals. Finally, after historical investigation of the role played by urban professionals in the making of urban politics, their agency in relation to this specific domain of struggle is defined through the concept of "organic intellectuals".