Speaker
Description
This paper investigates everyday human mobility in Istanbul during the late Ottoman period, a time marked by profound demographic, social, economic and infrastructural transformations. It aims to move beyond simply charting physical movements to explore how daily movements intersected with and shaped by the city's evolving infrastructure, social fabric and power dynamics
The study uses a rich corpus of primary sources, including periodicals, diaries and memoirs to uncover narratives of everyday mobility practices. These narratives of journeys to work, school, leisure activities, social visits, and access to essential services, are then analyzed through the lens of "mobility studies." This approach recognizes that everyday movement is not merely functional but deeply intertwined with factors such as gender, class, age, and existing infrastructure and power dynamics.
By examining these interwoven layers, the research demonstrates how everyday mobility in late 19th and early 20th century Istanbul served as both a reflection of and a catalyst for broader urban transformations. Drawing on rich narratives of everyday mobility found in periodicals and ego documents of the time, this paper provides a nuanced historical understanding of Istanbul's transformation. It reveals how the daily act of navigating a city in flux became inextricably linked to the broader social and economic currents.
*This research is supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) 3501 Project, “Everyday Mobility in Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century Istanbul”, Start Date: 03/15/2023- End date:03/15/2023, Kadir Has University, Istanbul.
Biography
Müge Özbek is a historian of late Ottoman Empire. She works an assistant professor of history at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Her research mainly focuses on gender, labor, and urban mobility in the late Ottoman Empire. She is currently leading a research project funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey on everyday mobility in late 19th and early 20th century Istanbul. Özbek's research has been published in various academic journals and edited volumes.
