Citizenship, minorities and the struggle for a right to the city in Istanbul

International audienceGlobalization is generating new forms of citizenship that often go beyond theinstitutional perception of social identity. These new forms of citizenship aredeveloped in a scalable way to a greater extent than rights and obligations, and areentirely managed by the citizens themselves. To demonstrate empirical support for thisissue, the case of minority communities in Turkey constitutes one of the most relevantexamples, since citizenship in this country has long been associated with an idea ofpolitical loyalty and total allegiance to the nation-state. The main purpose of this articleis to show how urban space and urban protest allow minorities to find alternative formsof expression for their collective identity, and to create a new understanding ofcitizenship beyond the classical definition, being based instead on institutional representation.The aim of this research is to examine the process of urban transformationin Istanbul, how this phenomenon shapes the structure of cities and how it gives riseto social resistance and protest, especially in neighborhoods housing minoritycommunities. In this context, the article focuses on planning movements in Turkeythrough a comparative study of two urban planning projects and the citizens’ protestsagainst them