Award Topics
NEW CENTERS IN TURKEY: ECONOMY, EDUCATION, ARTS AND PEACE IN CITIES
Cities have always been associated with human emancipation. In Europe in the Middle Ages, it was believed that city air brings freedom. Modern cities, too, are defined as areas of high freedom potential for people leaving behind extended family ties and hierarchical agricultural relationships. However, attractive as the potential for human freedom may be, cities are also spheres where economic inequalities, income disparities, cultural differences and ghettoization trends become most visible.
Turkey is a country that is going through rapid urbanization. The percentage of the urban population rose from 25% in the 1950s to 75% today. We are now living in an urbanized Turkey with all its risks and potential. Anatolian provinces prove to be the most dynamic ones in terms of rapid urbanization. Processes of change and transformation since the 1980s gave rise to the emergence of new city centers in Anatolia. Cities like Kayseri, Konya, Gaziantep, Eskişehir, Denizli, Çorum and others have become new centers of economic and political power over the last three decades.
It is possible to argue that these new city centers pose alternatives to those cities that have been prominent since the early years of the Republic such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. These cities draw attention not only by their recent entrepreneurial ventures, but also their wealth of initiatives in education and artistic activities. What is novel about the emergence and rise of these cities? What are the drivers of entrepreneurship observed in these cities? How compatible are these new urban areas with the fundamental freedoms of citizens? Is the atmosphere (social and political environment) in these cities conducive to liberation – the function that has historically been attributed to cities? How can new urban spaces contribute to development, democratization and peace in Turkey?
This topic was chosen for this year's Sakıp Sabancı International Awards in line with the interdisciplinary nature of Sabancı University. Submissions that make general and specic contributions to this subject from a wide and interdisciplinary academic perspective are welcome.
Winners
Winners of Research Awards:
Azat Zana Gündoğan, Cornell Üniversity and Emrah Şahin, Florida Üniversity
Special Jury Award, İlhan Tekeli
Jury
Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşe Parla: President of the Jury
Ardahan University President Ramazan Korkmaz
Harvard University Faculty Member Neil Brenner
Open University Faculty Member Engin Işın
Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean Ayşe Kadıoğlu
Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center Director Fuat Keyman
Winning Articles
Azat Zana Gündoğan from Cornell University with “Rethinking the Notion of New Centers"
Emrah Şahin from the University of Florida with "Dogs and Caravan"
Please do not cite or reproduce without permission of the author.
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