Imperial Past, Neoliberal Present, Dependent Future: A Political-Economic Approach to Urban Development of Bursa

Abstract

Urban spaces, as the material representatives of past capital accumulation strategies, survive or get replaced on the basis of actors' strategies and partnerships. Periodization allows conceptualising these decisions and subsequent spatial change with respect to evolving local and national settings. The study focuses on expanding such approaches to Türkiye's experience beyond the two primate cities Istanbul and Ankara by the example of a secondary city, Bursa. The study uses maps, plans, official documents and newspapers corresponding to the periods and literature to form the connections between the actors' decisions and the spatial changes. The results highlight that while the previous periods' urban fabric and heritage is being replaced during the neoliberal era in parallel with the national experience, the problems faced as a secondary centre in close proximity to a primate city reduces local agency much more severely, leaving the urban space more vulnerable to exogenous influences.