The Evolution of Popular Culture and Transformation of the
Urban Landscape of Ankara
Zeynep
Uludag (Ankara)
Summary: The writing of the city as a text needs
to re-map imaginatively the conceptual system of signs and symbols
with reference to the existing social and spatial processes within
the urban context. Since the changing urban culture of modernity
steadily generates new meanings of leisure and popular culture,
the urban landscape becomes the representational space of different
social and spatial practices. Any conceptual study on the writing
and reading of the city as a text should refer to those inputs
as informal knowledge of everyday life as well as the formal
analytical references. This paper aims to explore the ongoing
urban transformation of the capital city Ankara with respect
to the evolving popular culture and the new concept of leisure
in the city.
Introduction
The writing of the city as a text needs to imaginatively
re-map the conceptual system of signs and symbols with reference
to the existing social and spatial processes within the urban
context. This paper aims at exploring the ongoing urban transformation
of the Turkish capital city Ankara with respect to an evolving
popular culture and new concept of leisure in the city. Since
the changing urban culture of modernity generates new meanings
of leisure and popular culture each time, the urban landscape
becomes a representational space of different social and spatial
practices. The city, in other words, can never be fully grasped,
because repeated attempts to organize its representational structure
already "carry in them an understanding, at the level of
grammar, syntax, rhetoric, and enunciation - in short at all levels
of form - of the excess beyond comprehension" which is characteristic
of modern urban spaces (Wolfreys 1998: 6 quoted in Vasudevan 2003:
170). A multidisciplinary approach is needed to understand the
relationship between popular culture and everyday life, the public
sphere and urban space, a space of recognizable indices and icons.
It is obvious that any conceptual study on this field cannot be
reduced to a single set of reasons and consequences, or to any
kind of generalizations about the city. Here, we need to analyze
the performative identification of these concepts from social
and historical perspectives. In this way, writing the city does
not depend on or inadvertently re-inscribe the predictable separation
between text and city, nor the invariant one-to-one correspondence
between representation and reality (cf. Vasudevan 2003: 170).
Popular culture, through its social exercise of forms, tastes
and activities that are flexibly tuned to the present, rejects
any narrow access to the cerebral world of official culture. It
offers instead a more democratic prospect for appropriating and
transforming everyday life (cf. Chambers 1988: 13). As a result,
multiple meanings in popular culture are embedded in the informal
knowledge of everyday life, based on the sensory, the immediate,
the pleasurable, and the concrete. Popular culture is not appropriated
through the apparatus of contemplation, but, as Walter Benjamin
once put it, through "distracted reception" (Chambers
1988: 12). Benjamin's flanerie approach - as a critical
analyst - is a significant method used to understand and to structure
the social and spatial realities of everyday life in the city.
This is due to the fact that he joined material and cultural analysis
in his critical observations. Yet, he also touched an emotional
core of discontent within urbanism and public culture (Zukin 1997:
254). Direct access to the visual phenomena of the city and to
the daily routines of the citizens is necessary in order to grasp
existing social processes and their representational spaces within
the urban context. Generation and circulation of those meanings
in the daily routines of the citizens inevitably create superficial,
ephemeral and visceral changes in the public sphere. Any conceptual
study on writing and reading of the city as a text should refer
to those inputs as informal knowledge of everyday life, as well
as the formal analytical references.
There is a collage of sights and sounds in the urban scene.
Advertising, music, cinema, television, fashion magazines, and
video clips all exist in the rapid circuits of electronic production/reproduction/distribution
(cf. Chambers 1988: 185). The production of this popular culture
offers new images, styles, consumerism and also a disposable culture.
Across its multiple surfaces, a popular semiotics mixes together
real conditions and imaginary material day by day. In this collage
of sights and sounds, we discover the immediate co-ordinates of
the present: where existing meanings and views, together with
ideas and opinions, are reproduced; where social practices are
formed and experienced; where both consensus and rebellion is
voiced; where dogma and innovation, prejudice and change find
expression (cf. Chambers 1988: 185).
In this essay, Ankara, Turkey, is taken as the case study.
Although it is difficult to make concrete conceptualizations about
the city, postmodern urbanism provides significant references
to the direct access of social and spatial phenomena on urban
land. In addition to direct access to the architectonic impulses
in that era, a journalistic reportage of the tools and products
of media, and also of literature, is needed in order to
provide the necessary knowledge about daily routines in the city.
In Ankara, the 1980s in particular marked a turning point in a
new urbanism and a new way of public life. However, in that era,
the attitude towards postmodern urbanism was so naïve that
it remained only with some additional buildings to the existing
urban fabric. After the 1990s, the diversity of media played a
significant role in breaking down traditional values and promoting
new messages and meanings in daily life. The tools of powerful
media - films, television programs, magazines and photos - created
a trendy world and invoked mobile orders of sense, taste and desire,
especially for the youth culture. This trendy lifestyle also dominated
the images of leisure in the city. Thus, the emergence of a new
architecture and a new environment began to be discussed.
As Zukin says, "[s]ince 1980 culture has become a fiercely
explicit battleground for struggles that used to be considered
political or economic" (Zukin 1997: 263). As a product of
postmodern society, culture has become a commodity to be
sold and bought on the urban market. It is often reduced to a
set of marketable images. The cultures of cities certainly include
ethnicities, lifestyles, and images - if we take into account
the concentration of all kinds of minority groups in urban populations,
the availability and variety of consumer goods, the diffusion
through mass media of style. As a result, cities are sites of
"culture industries" and also a visual repertoire of
a culture in the sense of a public language (cf. Zukin 1997: 264).
From a global point of view, cities - as local concentrations
of population - share certain features of urban change as a part
of the global economy. With the development of new communication
technologies, the global network of world economy and industry,
big companies and markets introduce their spatial organizations
into the urban centers. Confrontation with the rise of new urban
politics that enhanced the idea of de-centralization and community
control changed the urban space (cf. Zukin 1997: 122). Ankara
as the capital city of Turkey has become the showcase of these
global changes in the country.
Ankara after the 1980s: a new urban consciousness
After the military coup at the beginning of the 1980s, Turkey
entered an era of economic liberalism. The social effect of this
liberal economic system was changing life-style patterns of the
society and, following this development, the emergence of new
images and new architectural programs to meet the needs of the
changing society. In other words, as a result of this social,
cultural, political and economic change, new cultural and social
patterns emerged. Cultural identities and the changing activity
structure of society influenced many architectural designs in
Turkey in the 1980s. This new ideal was evident in a series of
government-sponsored architectural and urban design competitions
during this time period.
These changes brought new social relations into the consumer
society. Large trade centers and shopping malls were designed
with new architectural programs. New prestigious headquarters
of private enterprises were built at business centers in various
cities. To cater to the changing needs of the consumer society,
new shopping centers were built and large shopping malls were
designed in the urban quarters close to the city center: the Atakule
Shopping Complex and the Karum Shopping and Business Center
were designed in the southern part of the city, close to the residential
quarters of high and medium income families. These efforts to
create such quality public spaces have produced some welcome results.
Although they have received "the critique of postmodern urbanism
as enhancing settings for consumption" (Ellin 1996: 164),
such projects have introduced new social relations to the consumer
society within the changing means of shopping.
Atakule, consisting of a shopping mall and a tower,
was completed at the end of the 1980s (Fig.
1). The building, which was one of the first great shopping
malls of the capital city, immediately became the showcase of
the new life-style and the emerging consumer society. In that
sense, it became the symbolic image of the new consumer ideology.
With its physical qualities, geographic orientation and organization
as a macro form of the city, it became a significant landmark
and a reference point for the citizens of Ankara. With the use
of advanced technology, new construction materials and new architectural
forms, it not only became the symbol of the city, but also the
symbol of the liberalizing era.
The new economic and political system accelerated the availability
of new technologies, construction materials and infrastructures.
Urban space constantly being restructured under capitalism was
a joint result of government policies. The dense and concentrated
commercial activities developed at the city center began to move
towards the south, towards the new urban quarters. The development
of "high-street" or "main-street" patterns
like Tunal1hilmi in the Kavakl1dere district and Çankaya
Streets to the south are important examples of the changing commercial
activities and living patterns in the urban context.
The other significant shopping mall of the era was Karum,
which was built as a part of the Sheraton Hotel complex in 1991
(Fig. 2). The location of the complex
is very significant in terms of its unique urban qualities. Particularly,
the relation of the site to the two significant public parks in
Ankara (Kugulu Park and Seymenler Park), and also
to the newly developed shopping street of Tunal1hilmi,
were the unique and popular characteristics of the shopping complex
(Fig. 3). While sharing the emphasis
on enhancing the public realm in a growing sensitivity to the
urban environment, Atakule and Karum also introduced
the new concept of acclimatized and furnished "urban interior",
which offers attractive places where people can relax and have
fun in the company of family and friends.
Towards the end of the 1990s, because of the attractive force
of Tunal1hilmi Street and Karum, new commercial
activities emerged in the neighborhood. Arjantin Street,
in particular, faced a significant transformation in that sense.
The residential characteristics of the street were completely
transformed to commercial activities, particularly the showcase
of international brands, expensive shops, cafes, and bars and
elite restaurants.
In a single decade, both of these shopping malls, Karum
and Atakule, changed their surrounding areas' residential
characteristics with commercial features. Their neighborhoods
began to become decorated not only with shops and gastronomic
activities, but also with cultural activities, such as cinemas,
theaters and art galleries.
New urban patterns
This spatial restructuring of the city with the changing economic,
political and social policies after the 1980s, also accelerated
the emergence of a new popular public life in the dense and concentrated
center. A significant popular decision of the municipality towards
the end of the 1980s was the introduction of pedestrian streets
in the inner city. Popular pedestrian paths of that era were Karanfil
Street and Konur Street, both of which introduced popular
gathering places, especially for the young population of Ankara.
At the edges of those streets bars, cafes, bookstores, art galleries,
and other cultural institutions were opened to feed the youth
culture and intellectuals in this city of education (Ankara has
8 universities, 4 government-run and 4 private). This new culture
industry started to shape the inner city, developing its own sense
of place and public culture. The continuous production of symbols
and spaces initiated new social practices that framed and gave
meaning to environmental renewal and decay. In that era, cultural
consumption played a key role in framing modern identities.
Decentralized commercial activities
A new public world of entertainment opened its doors at the
end of the 1990s, as large shopping malls with impressive food
courts, cinema centers, sports clubs, and music halls were built.
Also, the shopping streets of Ankara introduced a new leisure
life on their sidewalks. Small pubs and cafes, restaurants and
fast food chains like Mc Donald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried
Chicken developed popular images and new lifestyles.
Demographic increase in car ownership and the development of
a rapid public transport system also increased the mobility on
(and under) the urban land. Thus, the mega-structures of new shopping
malls were increasingly located outside the city center, close
to the new residential suburban quarters of the city. After the
1990s, the decentralization of commercial activities from the
center to the south, initiated a shift in spatial patterns of
the urban context. While the traditional spatial patterns at the
old city center, with its conventional commercial culture and
the public life, was still preserving its identity and existence,
the new urban quarters were offering different identities, emphasizing
a popular public life with new spatial patterns.
Although the development patterns of these activities center
around the macro-form of the city, which is mainly distributed
on its western axis, they carry significant differences due to
the spatial patterns of different social and economic status groups.
As we can see from Güvenç's "Ankara Local Population
Status-Income Map", the residential quarters of low and mid
to low income groups are mainly located in the north side of the
city (cf. 2001: 24) (Fig. 4). Close
to these residential quarters, huge shopping malls and outlet
centers have been distributed along the highway towards the west.
(Like Carrefour, Payless etc.) The architectural forms and interior
designs of these buildings carry simple, minimalist, box-like
architectonic qualities without any reference to their environmental
urban settings (Fig. 5). In these malls,
as opposed to the diversity of the goods the quantity
is more important and more impressive. In that sense, they look
like cheap outlet centers of factories.
The communities of the well-off and high-income groups are
located in the southern part of the city (cf. Güvenç
2001: 25). These gated communities are generally separated physically,
sometimes visually, from their hinterland by a wall. These suburban
dwellers located far from the inner-city zones also prefer their
residential quarters for new leisure activities. This consumer
society also has its impressive shopping malls with food courts,
cinemas, theaters, bowling halls, large parking places and children
playgrounds close to its residential quarters, on the western
axis of the city. In these activity centers, although we see a
mixture of users from different social status groups (a mixed
leisure society), mainly middle and high-income groups dominate
the shopping activities. Universal names and brands are sold in
the market and generally they define the characteristics of the
consumer groups. In these malls, as opposed to quantity,
the diversity of consumer goods is essential. Migros Shopping
Center, Armada Center, Bilkent Center, Galleria, Arkadium and
Mesa Plaza are significant examples built during this era. The
Migros and Armada Shopping Centers, with their new architectural
programs, design concepts, metropolitan scale, and location -
holding the main transportation network of the city - are significant
urban landmarks allowing radically contemporary aspects of today's
global culture (Figs. 6 & 7).
After the transfer of the shopping activity from urban space
into a building, besides meeting some personal needs, shopping
became a leisure time activity. Thus, shopping centers are visited
not only for shopping activities, but also for multi-purpose activities
that are designed to meet the cultural, social and spatial needs
of the citizens. Their atrium spaces especially create attractive
interiors for public gatherings (Figs. 8 &
9). Some temporary activities like exhibitions, musical
performances, fashion shows and antique bazaars are significant
performances that maintain the potential popularity of those spaces
(Fig. 10). The media has also reinforced
an increased public interest in these activity centers.
Conclusion
Like in literature interpretation, landscape interpretation
also moves away from cultural interpretation and historical analysis.
It does not seem to emanate only from the historical background
of the space itself, but also from the daily life that passes
on that space. As Barthes argues, the urban landscape is a text
in which signifiers become signifieds in an endless
chain of metaphors. Therefore, one can never achieve a satisfactory,
much less definitive, interpretation of a landscape. All participants
in the urban drama write landscape poetry as they wend their own
particular paths through the city streets (cf. Duncan/Duncan 1992:
26).
Before the 1970s, Ankara was a city of parks and open spaces.
Significant public places of the leisure society were shopping
streets, bazaars, parks, benches and trees. The 1980s, with its
liberal economic system, created an attractive consumer culture
and an emerging new consumer society, which increased the gap
between reality and representation in the urban sphere. Introducing
the concept of a shopping center was a new attempt in the urban
milieu but it also was a new attempt at experiencing a different
sociability for the development of a new public culture in Ankara.
In the city of the 2000s, the transformation of the urban landscape
with new urban and cultural challenges, the dense use of inner
city lands and public-private collaborations has generated new
spatial organizations and new public relations in the city. Today,
popular public activities have found their place in enclosed spaces
- mega-stores, large restaurants and food courts, retail outlets,
chain stores and fast food centers, amusement complexes and private
sports clubs. Rapid public transport systems and large parking
areas have also encouraged the citizens to prefer these centers
at the periphery, away from the heavy traffic load of the center.
This shift in the use of the urban land can be defined as centralization
of the periphery and peripherization of the center.
This expansion of the postmodern culture stresses the merging
of a new public life, and a search for design processes and solutions
with a new "sense of space". Today the urban land has
become the expression of new images and a new urban culture. As
Zukin says, "[c]reating a public culture involves both shaping
public space for social interaction and constructing a visual
representation of the city" (1997: 24).
© Zeynep
Uludag (Ankara)
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.2. Signs, Texts, Cultures.
Conviviality from a Semiotic Point of View /
Zeichen, Texte, Kulturen. Konvivialität aus semiotischer
Perspektive"
Sektionsgruppen
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Inhalt | Table of Contents | Contenu 15 Nr.
For quotation purposes:
Zeynep Uludag (Ankara): The Evolution of Popular Culture and Transformation
of the Urban Landscape of Ankara. In: TRANS. Internet-Zeitschrift
für Kulturwissenschaften. No. 15/2003. WWW: http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/01_2/uludag15.htm
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