Acceso usuarios
Caglar Keyder
The article presents information on globalization and social exclusion in Istanbul, Turkey. Most accounts of globalization and urban re-configuration start with a picture of an urban fabric whose stability and balances are disturbed by newly intensified global networks. These networks penetrate urban life and restructure the economy, introducing new types of employment and levels of income commensurate with the wealthier areas of the world, resulting in new levels of differentiation between those who become part of the networks and those who are left out. Istanbul also experienced the shock of rapid integration into transnational networks and markets and has witnessed the emergence of new social groups since the 1980s. A thin social layer constituting a new bourgeois and professional class, able to operate in global markets and remunerated at world scale, adopted the lifestyle and consumption habits of their transnational counterparts. The impact of this development on urban geography was rapid: globalized spaces of commerce and leisure emerged along with secluded residential areas on the outskirts of the city.
