WHAT URBAN POTENTIALS DOES ISTANBUL HAVE?: THE ACTANTS’ EFFECTS ON İSTANBUL’S URBAN PROCESSES

The purposes of the research are to explore the actants constructing the urban processes of İstanbul, to trace/reveal their actual effects on the urban processes of İstanbul, and to confront the urban potential of İstanbul. The research establishes an inquiry way based on ‘Actor-Network Theory’, which is a qualitative research method, in exploring the actants’ effects on complicated urban processes of İstanbul. The research decomposes İstanbul’s current actants in the urban processes, defines each of them separately and evaluates their actual effects on urban processes. The research separates/decomposes İstanbul’s urban processes into four actants named as ‘actors’, ‘practices’, ‘spaces’, and ‘vectors’, and presents an ‘urban potentials map/network of İstanbul’, which simplifies to evaluate entirety of İstanbul. Based on the map, the suggestions about different periods and cities are developed. Throughout the history, cities have been transformed by actors taking part in their urban processes. The actors can be human actors as well as non-human actors which act the part in the urban processes; and they accordingly can be described as the ‘actants’ of the cities. In this context, analysing the effects of the actants on the urban processes of a city can be crucial in terms of defining a way for understanding this city. Moving from this significant point, the research attempts to understand and evaluate İstanbul, which has highly complicated urban processes, by analysing its actants’ acts.