The aim of this study was to assess the cultural heritage implications of converting Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey from a museum into a mosque in July 2020. Through analysing cultural heritage management as a tool that could support the building of nationalism, this thesis explores the links between nationalism and cultural heritage. Discourse Analysis was used to answer the research question, facilitating research on the selected texts and the respective political discourses. To study the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, information was collected through the Internet, with an emphasis on interviews, articles, and tweets from Turkish government officials during the period from the reconversion of the monument to the present day. Discourse analysis shows that in our case, cultural heritage management was used within the context of emotional politics and the pursuit of political objectives of the ruling party with the side effect of disempowering subgroups of the Turkish society whose sense of history and place is not compatible with the prevailing discourse.

The global unsustainable production and consumption patterns in the fashion and textile industry are a prevailing problem. With the rising trend of European brands reshoring their textile manufacturing and upcoming circular economy frameworks from the EU, the Turkish textile industry may face pressures to transform towards circularity in order to remain competitive. To address the research gap concerning prevalent challenges to implement circularity principles in the critical stage of product design, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the barriers to adopting circular product design in the Turkish textile sector from a manufacturers perspective. This study was conducted in Istanbul with eleven textile and apparel manufacturers of different kinds. To reach a nuanced understanding of each perspective, a qualitative research methodology, through semi-structured interviews with factory managers, was used. The empirical findings of barriers are categorised as internal (financial, responsibility, knowledge) and external (country- and industry-specific). Major internal barriers include prioritising profits over circularity, prioritising customer demand over circular design, and unfamiliarity with key concepts. Country-specific external barriers include lack of competent personnel in Turkey and harsh taxation policies. Industry-level barriers include insufficient resources, limited control over fast-fashion demands, and lack of innovative technologies. This thesis contributes to an increased understanding of the scarcely researched topic and enables practitioners to develop efficient policies and business strategies to ease sustainable business development. Future research is suggested to explore drivers and strategies to apply circular product design within the Turkish textile industry. Additionally, further research can be conducted where this study is replicated but from the perspective of brand retailers with procurement operations in Turkey.

Marmara Sea and Black Sea connected with renowned Bosporus surround Istanbul, the city, which owns the privilege of bridging Europe and Asia. Besides such inland seas; forests and wetlands fragmented around and in the city maintain the natural cycle in the region. However, Istanbul as a fast developing urban area witnesses environmental issues like many other urban areas in global scale. Rapid economic and population growth of the city increase the pressure on above mentioned natural resources. Sustainable development of built environment is one of the best solutions in order to mitigate environmental damages of urban areas. The solution comes with green construction projects and systems yet the city and the market itself have barriers to block or slow the process of sustainable development. Identification of such barriers and reviewing international sustainable development practices paves the way for generating recommendations for environmentally friendly urban expansion in Istanbul. Survey targeting market professionals was conducted to identify sustainable development barriers in Istanbul and in order to address such barriers the thesis refers to conducted interviews and international practices presented in the literature review. The thesis draws economic, market and governmental recommendations which are particularly focused on financial incentives, raising awareness and enacting green laws involving all stakeholders of construction and real estate market.

Adopting an inside out perspective to city branding, this doctoral thesis examines the significance of residents and their relationship towards cities in terms of association, identity and ownership of the physical environment, in the context of city branding. This is important because the growing interest towards city branding not only challenged the traditional understanding of branding concepts but also forced academics and practitioners to seek ways to mould and shape existing concepts to the context of city branding. This qualitative study was undertaken within a constructivist grounded theory methodology and uses Leeds, UK and Istanbul, Turkey as deliberately contrasting case studies. In accordance with grounded theory, the literature was only used to inform rather than direct the research design. The sampling design involved initial and theoretical sampling and in total of 22 residents interviewed from both cities. The emergent place brand identity mosaic comprises of four main categories of social process (SP), place attachment (PA), sense of place (SoP) and built environment (BE), and the most significant feature of the place identity mosaic is that it is processual, dynamic, and time and context specific. In terms of contribution to knowledge, the present study bridges the gap in between the subject fields of branding (brand management) and urban studies by proposing an inside out approach to branding cities. The findings indicate that the place brand identity mosaic elements provide a platform to explain how residents make sense of where they live and to begin to understand the concept of the city brand identity. Moreover, in regards to practice, it brings a new perspective to the existing city managements by highlighting a focal point of “keeping the existing customers happy” through investigating and understanding the role and significance of residents, their attachment to where they live and how this insight can be cooperated into creating and developing a sustainable city brand.

There is an increasing global anti-rights movement—the child of marriage of the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements—that affects the rights of not only women and LGBTQIs but also refugees, asylum seekers, and various minorities. Although this research only focuses on the event of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, it provides valuable perspective to understand and prevent the further spread of anti-gender and right-wing populist tactics and rhetoric. Despite the limitations, by offering and adapting various concepts such as political diffusion, absence in the media, and exiting treaties, the research revealed meaningful connections and insight while attempting to identify the possible effects of the event. While the influence and role of the Polish and Hungarian governments and other opposition actors on the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements between 2021 and March 2023 are exposed, the possible impacts of encouragement and an increase in anti-rights tendencies are presented. In this way, this research contributes to the literature by offering a current assessment and developments regarding the anti-rights movement in Eastern Europe while filling the gap within by considering the approach of political diffusion and the withdrawal's resonance in the movement.

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The memory of expulsions among the expelling groups has been fairly studied, and has potential to create new conflicts. This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews to describe the memory of the 6-7 September events and the Greek minority in Istanbul among a group of Turkish descent people living in Beyoglu, Istanbul. Further the study compares the memory with the written history and explains why the memories of the past are shaped according to the present. The Greek minority of Istanbul are remembered in words of friendship and neighbourliness, but these memories are rather a nostalgia of the past for present needs than an image of the past itself. The memories of the events among the studied group are dominated by the general destruction occasioned by the riots but tend to contradict the violence towards the Greek minority. There exists a discrepancy between the memory and the written history concerning the acts of violence during the riots, the underlying causes of the riots and the period after the events. This article explains the reconstructed memory as a product of strategies for avoiding the experience of collective guilt.

In this thesis, socio-spatial processes regarding the distribution of transport infrastructures are investigated and the ways in which inequalities occur as a result of these processes are discussed. The transport system of Istanbul and particularly, the Istanbul Metro, the first modern subway of the city, has been the focus of this research. In order to understand inequalities in transport, social and spatial justice theories have been employed. Discussions have been extended in order to include different approaches to the issues of transport inequality from various disciplines such as geography, sociology and urban planning. In this sense, this study is multi-disciplinary. Debates on land rent theory, space and power, gendered mobilities, social exclusion and the right to the city are among the many concerns that formed the main arguments of this research. In this thesis, transport is taken as a fixed, an immobile commodity that produces mobile and dynamic commodities such as mobilities and flows. Through such interaction socio-spatial processes are produced which may or may not consist of inequalities. Issues related to inequalities are deconstructed in the literature review in order to help reconstruct a theory of uneven socio-spatial development as a result of the distribution of transport infrastructure investments. Discussions on theory are further examined through four empirical chapters each of which investigates different issues related to transport inequalities. A mixed-method approach has been used in order to fully explore the complexity of the subject and integrate different epistemological positions. Through four empirical chapters, socio-spatial inequalities are discussed with regard to daily mobility levels of different socio-economic groups in Istanbul and the Istanbul Metro as well as in-direct economic impacts of the Metro and the socio-political processes it generates. The findings support some of the previous research on social inequalities based on transport, especially on how gender, education and employment become important determinants of travel time, trip frequency, trip purposes and the use of different transport modes. Yet, the thesis presents unexpected results on the impacts of the Istanbul Metro. On the one hand, the Istanbul Metro can be regarded as a just infrastructure as it accommodates users from every socio-economic background. On the other hand, it can be inequitable as it is likely to facilitate the accumulation of capital in certain areas, and circulation of producers and consumers of this capital within the same spatial unit, the Metro itself. This thesis proposes that horizontal and vertical socio-spatial inequalities exist both individually and together in various contexts in Istanbul. These inequalities are based on the spatial distribution of transport infrastructure investments, power relationships between different socio-economic groups, the dominance of politically powerful groups and the historical development of the urban space. Together this thesis is in an attempt to establish a comprehensive narrative of the discourses of inequalities in transport planning and policy and makes suggestions on the ways to reduce such inequalities. Moreover, this thesis is an original contribution to the literature as it links hitherto unconnected strands of theory in transport geography and social and spatial justice literatures.

<p>This paper is the result of a minor field study conducted in Istanbul, Turkey, during the period of November and December 2007. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the current business environment for apparel manufacturing in Istanbul. Research was carried out through an industry analysis in terms of competition and potential future development for apparel manufacturers.</p><p>The research has been carried out through interviews with actors related to the apparel manufacturing segment. Interviewees include five manufacturers, two sourcing agents, one trade organization and one professor with research in the area.</p><p>Our findings concerning the business environment are based on Michael E. Porters theoretical framework on “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”. In the case of Turkish apparel manufacturers this paper concludes how the barriers of entry for new actors are high, unless integrating forward. Additionally in general terms the suppliers have a weak bargaining position while customers are relatively strong in the bargaining process. The rivalry among apparel manufacturers is low, but it can be stated how less differentiated manufacturer experience significant higher level of rivalry. Further on this paper also concludes how these factors not are affected by any substitute products, much due to the broad scope of the study.</p><p>In respect to these factors a general strategy used by apparel manufactures has been identified as they try to affect the balance of these competitive forces through e.g. differentiation and vertical integration.</p>