Time & Location
Dec 16, 2023, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
sultanbeyli, Hasanpaşa, Fatih Blv. No: 33, 34920 Sultanbeyli/Istanbul, Türkiye
About The Event
The metropolitan city plane, which is not only a form of settlement on the axis of social changes and economic developments, but also an area of interaction of neoliberal culture, is growing qualitatively as well as quantitatively with separation and differentiation, and hosts different manifestations of individualization in urban spaces. While sociologically, urbanization finds a place in the literature in a positive sense, on a philosophical critical level, the analysis of urban spaces is the place of contradictions in human-nature, human-human relations. When we place philosophical criticism on sociological determinations, we see the distinction between what is and what should be more clearly in the concepts of "deprivation", economic "inequality", structural "domination", cultural "loss of freedom" and "risk" and "contemporary crises", which correspond to deep poverty. .
Urban transformation is more than just a spatial/physical transformation; It signifies a radical cultural change and finds its place in anthropocene criticism, as well as appearing as giant organisms in which separation deepens, differentiation turns into contradictions, borders become blurred, and urban peripheries swallow urban memory and natural areas. The concepts of "segregation" and "differentiation", which will form the theme of this speech, will discuss the visible and invisible "borders" of the city in terms of their spatial manifestations, especially after the 1990s. Reading the change caused by the produced urban spaces in the new generation global-advanced capitalist society also means reading the social change.
RESUME
Gündem Önkal is the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Maltepe University and the Director of the Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Application Center (MÜTAM). He is a full-time professor at Maltepe University, and continues to teach part-time at Işık University Art Theory and Rumeli University Psychology graduate programs.
He completed his master's degree at Istanbul University with his thesis titled "Thoreau's Philosophy of Natural Life and Rebellion". He received his doctorate from Middle East Technical University with his thesis on the Darwinian critique of natural theology. He continued his studies at the Department of Environmental Philosophy at the Bratislava Institute of Philosophy within the scope of the research project titled "Rethinking Environmental Ethics for Joint Action in the Anthropocene Age" supported by the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Önkal focuses on 21st century philosophy, environmental ethics and sociology of art, aesthetics and cultural philosophy, and urban culture.Ecoparadigm: Critical Environmentalism, Green Politics and Post-Equilibrium Theory from Past to PresentHe is also the author of the book titled.
Detailed CV:https://www.maltepe.edu.tr/Content/Media/AcademicStaff/25092023095433259-guncelonkalCV2023.pdf
Reading/Source Suggestions
*Selections from the speaker's publications in the field:
- Önkal G., Author E. (2021) “Spatial Segregation and Differentiation in Terms of the Concept of Urban Experience”.Thinking about Space, Philosophy, Politics, Architecture, Cinema.(eds.D. Yıldırım, E. Haspolat, et al). Ankara:Nika Publishing House. ISBN:9786257653022.ss.123-145.
- Önkal G. (2020)Urban Life and Pandemic at the Focus of Neoliberal Policies. Euronews Türkiye.
- Author, E. & Önkal, G. (2019) "Sociology of Differentiation and Segregation: "Urban Experience" in Terms of Its Historicity.Ufuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal , 8 (16) , 61-77 .https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ufuksbedergi/issue/58933/849533
- Önkal, G. (2019) “City as a Contemporary Philosophical Problem”,Philosophical Problems in the Contemporary World(edts: D. A. Çil, N. P. Boyacı), Peter Lang: Berlin, 169-186. ISBN:9783631781296.
- Önkal G. (2017) “Urban Layers: Separations, Contradictions”, İzmir Philosophy Days, Dokuz Eylül University Publications. ISBN: 9789754414851. pp.257-264.
- (To download the book:https://felsefe.deu.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/I__ZMI__R-FELSEFE-GU__NLERI__-2012-16-BI__LDI__RI__-KI__TABI.pdf)
- (Youtube conversation recording:https://youtu.be/C8NFxZ-WSKU?si=qyiQ7IeswDs4EvAM)
- Önkal, G. (2017) “Transforming Urbanism, Boutique Identities and Cultural Amnesia”Once Upon a Time: Research on Social Memory, Space and Identity, Der. T. Erman, S. Özaloğlu, Koç University Publications, ISBN:9786056708206
- Önkal, G. (2016) “Urbanism and Urbanism”,City Fragments: On the Axis of Social Analysis,(edts Ö. Sarı, A. Esgin) Ankara: Phoenix Yay. ISBN:9786059801348.
- Önkal G, Sümer O. (2014). ““Urban Transformation, Transforming Citizenship and the Right to the City”.Political Science Research Theory and Theory Applications,Editor: H.A. Demirci, I. Parlak, N. Değirmenci, Seçkin, Number of editions: 1, Number of pages 394, ISBN: 978-975-02-2706-6
- Onkal G. (2012). ““Changing Identities, Social Memory and Loss of Freedom in Transforming Cities”. Architect-İst, 101-107. ISSN: 1302821943.
Key sources of inspiration from the debate literature:
- Harvey, D. (2017).Urban Experience. (E. Soğancılar, Trans.) Istanbul: Sel Publishing.
- Lefebvre, H. (2014).Production of Space. Istanbul: Sel Publishing.
- Mumford, L. (2007).City Origins Throughout History, Its Transformations and Its Future.(G. Koca, T. Tosun, Trans.) Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publications.
- Simmel, G. (2009).Individuality and Culture. (T. Birkan, Trans.) Istanbul: Metis Publications.
- Stavrides, S. (2021).Urban Heterotopia: Towards the City of Thresholds as a Space of Liberation. (Trans. A. Karatay). Istanbul: Flood.
- Urry, J. (1999).Consuming Places. (R. Öğdül, Trans.) Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publications.