Ozan Karaman

Bio

I have taken an interest in debates on urban political economy and urban theory, particularly socio-spatial injustices and struggles over urban space. I have led three major research programmes:

1/ Urban neoliberalism and its challenges in Istanbul: since 2007, I have been working on the political economy of urban regeneration in Istanbul. In addition to urban policies, power relations and territorial transformations, I have studied popular mobilisations around various rights, including the right to property, the right to the city and the right to urban commons.

2/ Comparative urbanism: since 2011, I have been co-directing (with Christian Schmid of ETH Zurich) a transnational comparative study based on eight major urban regions across the world (Hong Kong/Shenzhen, Tokyo, Kolkata, Lagos, Istanbul, Paris, Mexico City and Los Angeles). The main objective of this collective effort is to develop new conceptual tools. By engaging with well-established concepts (such as gentrification, urban informality and suburbanisation) and frequently challenging them, we seek to contribute to the development of a renewed vocabulary for urban theory.

3/ The ‘urban revolution’ and politics. In 2016, I launched a new project (funded by an ERC Starting Grant) that addresses the political implications of widespread urbanisation. Debates on the social, territorial and ecological implications of global urbanisation have proliferated. My main objective is to highlight an urban political economy approach in order to conceptualise accumulation strategies based on urbanisation, and to examine the extent to which our ‘urban era’ corresponds to a new type of urban policy. The project revolves around three main themes: the uneven globalisation of property markets, the exploitation of urban land rent, and the ways in which these themes are contested at different scales. Adopting a multi-site ethnographic approach, this work draws primarily on case studies in Hong Kong, Istanbul, London and São Paulo. Film will be used both as a research method and as a means of storytelling.