The Politics of Public Space

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Analyzing the social history of Kizilay Square inAnkara, the capital city of Turkey, this bookinvestigates the relation between public space andpolitics. Drawing on the work of Henri Lefebvre, Batuman argues that the political participation ofthe social groups in public sphere becomes possibleonly through spatial appropriation. Yet, the socialproduction of public space is always mediated by therules and regulations dictated to the space by thepower of the state and the economic influence ofcapital. The clash between the forces of domination(of the state and capital) and appropriation (ofmarginal groups seeking participation) produce thepublic space through a constant struggle forhegemony. The book investigates this process throughthe particular case of the making of Ankara into thecapital of the newly born Turkish Republic. Thesocial history of Kizilay Square throughout the 20thcentury presents a spatial history of the publicsphere as a terrain of hegemonic strugglecomplementing a top-down modernization process.