Hayatımızın her alanında kendi değerler sistemini uygulamak için geri dönüşü olmayan değişiklikler ve dönüşümler meydana getiren küreselleşme çelişkileri, parçalanmaları, katmanlaşmayı içinde barındıran bir süreçtir. Değişimlerin ve dönüşümlerin yaşandığı mekanlar olarak karşımıza çıkan kentler, ekonomilerindeki değişime paralel olarak, dünyanın karar verme birimleri ve ekonomik kalkınmanın motorları olarak nitelenmektedirler. Yeni rolleriyle küreselleşmenin ideal kent formuna kavuşan kentler küresel kent kavramsallaştırmasında kendini bulmakta ve küresel kentler küreselleşmenin etkilerinin gözlenebildiği, küreselleşmeyi içselleştirip/yansıtan alanlar olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadırlar. Makalede yaklaşık on üç milyonluk nüfusuyla dev bir yaşam alanı olan ve küresel kent olarak nitelenen İstanbul’un küreselleşme karşısındaki durumu analiz edilmeye çalışılacaktır.

It has passed approximately thirty years since the beginning of discussions concerning the increasing effects of globalization in which mass communication and technological developments have been influential. In the course of time the globalization discussion has been accelerating and the ones who are opponent and proponent have settled their positions. The definitions of it have differed in line with the ideological perspective, while for some academicians, globalization comes to mean imperialism, the suppression of the powerful over the weak, the others give it a positive meaning and accepted it as a process which contributes to the development of developing countries by means of transferring technology, structure and policies. Even though there are definitions different from each others, globalization is accepted as a process with wide area of influence. One of the areas of the influence of globalization is the cities. Cities have become the centers of competition which are articulated into the global world and supported by their countries to generate this kind of articulation under influences of the process of globalization. In this context, globalization and its effects of cities will be explained. In this framework, the concept of global city which is created by globalization to implement its system of values and the situation of İstanbul, which is regarded as the sole global city of the Turkey, in respect to globalization will be analyzed. While Istanbul began to develop as a center of industry after 1950s, it took the real progress towards being a global city in 1980s. Within the frames of the structural adjustment programme of the IMF, market economy has superseded the place of import substitution and statism; the price controls and trade constraints have been abolished, the Exchange transactions have been let to fluctuate, and IMKB has been opened. The balance of the economy of Istanbul has shifted from production to finance, so its endeavors to articulate into the global economy have been realized by numerous parties. Multinational companies have begın to take interest in İstanbul, foreign capital has shifted towards the sectors non-productive sectors as the sectors of tourism, consulting and banking. While the economy of the country has been articulated into the world, new and wealthy professionals have emerged who keep a close watch on global trends and inclinations and who completed advanced education, partly in abroad. Due to both its job opportunities, and life style, İstanbul has become the first option to dwell; multinational companies have begun to open branches in İstanbul and even moved their centers to Istanbul. Inclination from industrial production to the service sector, dissolution of old manufacturing practices, new field of operations have opened. Although these new ones are relatively narrow fields, they offer high salaries and necessitate expertness, thus the others are not required expertise with their relatively low salaries. This led to dual structure in labor force and inequality in income distribution. İstanbul has become the center of attraction for global economic and symbolic capital, it also transformed into the transnational place where the low of people has begun to be concentrated. While on the one hand, cultural and the number of people from high economic s and cultural status increase, on the other hand number of people from low cultural and economic status also increase proportionally, thus the gap between the life styles and consumption types have begun to emerge. While İstanbul as the unique culture city of Turkey, with its potential to offer common history, common agenda and common world to enrich the urban experience od its dwellers, it is also trying to find a place to itself in global arena, but it gives no possibility to experience the differences in its borders. Today, the historical parts of the city are mostly confined to the places which are out of the urban experiences. As the certain parts of the historical and cultural properties have been left to tourists, the other parts remained out of the dynamics of the city. The endeavors to renovation and restoration generally turn into kind of initiation for gentrification in the end. In other words, inhabitants with low level of income and the ones that are member of “others” in cultural sense who live and work there traditionally or as a result of desolation of those places are relocated as a consequence of direct and indirect pressures in the process of restorations and renovations. Afterwards, people from high level of income and the high culture sectors take these places. One of the most striking illustration of this gentrification practices take place in Beyoğlu neighborhood with leading roles of certain members capital groups and middle class. In situations when these groups find risky to invest and choose to abstain from any initiation, (as the case of Sulukule), state intervene those areas to make them reliable for capital investment. This process brings the issue of social justice into the agenda and through interventions that are made to preserve the unique identity of the city rather has led to formation of the culturally alike artificial centers for the city. In short, the changes in economy of Istanbul as a consequence of the effects of globalization also transform the mutual relationships in the cities and also the dual structure in labor force also has reflections into the social life. As the face value of İstanbul become the residences and plazas as the figures of the global city as a result of the desires of the people with high level income to live in more secure and luxury places. Such kind of settlements has become manifestation of the social and spatial fragmentations and those lead to deepening of the gaps in social structures with segmenting the places in such a way. The unbalanced distribution of income and inequalities lead to sharpening of the class polarizations and it also cause the increase in the violent activities and aggression which are representing the dark side of Istanbul. In this process, Istanbul is emerged as a place of negativities as a result of these social and spatial fragmentations. It is no longer regarded as the place that has “golden land and stones” in the eyes of dwellers of the city, but it is accepted as the place which has not bear an innocent character any more. Globalization is a process which involves the conflicts, fragmentations and stratifications which have capacity to make irreversible changes and transformations to implement its own value systems in all aspects of life. The cities which are the places where there changes and transformations occur become the engines of the economic development and the units of decision making in parallel to the changes in the economy. These cities which have gained a formation of the ideal city with the roles that are casted by means of globalization and found themselves with the conceptualization of the global city. Thus global cities turned into areas where the effects of the globalization are observable with their deepened reflections of globalization. This article aims to analyze the Istanbul which is widely accepted as the global city with its thirteen million population in its giant place of life.