Research Article

“For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography

Volume: 3 December 30, 2021
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“For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography

Abstract

The planetary scale of urbanization and shifting scales of ecological devastation have recently brought new forms of attention to the conditions of the urban edge. Preconceived temporal frameworks, scales, and agents fail to decipher histories. This paper introduces a conceptual and a cartographic methodology to study the material history of Istanbul’s urban edge by the water through the “critical delineation” of its coastline. In a city whose process of urbanization has been predominantly defined by the colonization of land, this methodology aims to shift attention to the waterward space, to the production of port geography. It follows material dispositions between land and sea, focusing on the organization of port logistics, dislocation, and discharge of coastal sediments. By landing and production of urban debris, the coastal geography of the city was made and remade as a place of human engagement with nature. A longue durée take on this material disposition provides over a hundred years of historic processes to delineate a cartography of fluctuations of the changing coastlines on this shifting landscape. The coastline of Istanbul becomes the body of research, and therefore, the production of port geography initiates a production of meaning. As an urban edge, it unfolds nonhuman agency and human engagement with the planetary, as much as it unfolds the everyday production of political discourse and its discrepancies.

Keywords

Thanks

This paper is partially based on my doctoral thesis, “‘This is not a line’: Critical Delineation of the Coastline in Istanbul” (PhD diss., Istanbul Technical University, 2019). I would like to thank all the reviewers and editors of YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies for their thoughtful insights and comments during the finalization of this text.

References

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  2. Ahmet Rasim. Türkiye Coğrafyası Sahilisi: Karadeniz Sevahili, 1930. Istanbul Research Institute Library.
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  6. Sayar, Malik., Sayar, Cazibe. İstanbul’un Surlar İçindeki Kısmının Jeolojik Haritası / The geology of the intramural city of Istanbul, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Maden Fakültesi, Kağıt ve Basım İşleri A.Ş., 1962. Istanbul Research Institute Library.
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Environment and Culture, Human Geography

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

December 30, 2021

Submission Date

July 20, 2020

Acceptance Date

July 6, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Volume: 3

APA
Erkılıç, G. (2021). “For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies, 3, 93-121. https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2021.5
AMA
1.Erkılıç G. “For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography. YILLIK. 2021;3:93-121. doi:10.53979/yillik.2021.5
Chicago
Erkılıç, Gökçen. 2021. “‘For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People’: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography”. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 3 (December): 93-121. https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2021.5.
EndNote
Erkılıç G (December 1, 2021) “For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 3 93–121.
IEEE
[1]G. Erkılıç, “‘For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People’: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography”, YILLIK, vol. 3, pp. 93–121, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.53979/yillik.2021.5.
ISNAD
Erkılıç, Gökçen. “‘For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People’: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography”. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 3 (December 1, 2021): 93-121. https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2021.5.
JAMA
1.Erkılıç G. “For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography. YILLIK. 2021;3:93–121.
MLA
Erkılıç, Gökçen. “‘For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People’: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography”. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies, vol. 3, Dec. 2021, pp. 93-121, doi:10.53979/yillik.2021.5.
Vancouver
1.Gökçen Erkılıç. “For Thousands of Years, Waters Delineated the Destiny of This City and Its People”: A Material Cartography of the Coastlines and the Shaping of Istanbul’s Port Geography. YILLIK. 2021 Dec. 1;3:93-121. doi:10.53979/yillik.2021.5

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