'Little Manhattan' in the shadow of global prescriptions: The spatial and social restructuring of the banking sector in Istanbul in the era of financial liberalization

"Little Manhattan," the new international business and finance center of Istanbul, is the place where the dominant urbanization agenda, making Istanbul a world city, and the economic development agenda, financial liberalization, were strikingly articulated as two predominant development projects in the 1990s. My dissertation is an attempt to examine the process of globalization by focusing on the restructuring of the banking sector in Istanbul since the late 1980s. To yield a better understanding of how the two leading development agendas in Turkey have manifested themselves materially, institutionally, spatially, and ideologically, I focus on the transformation of the banking sector. The banking sector was not only the leading advocate of these development agendas but also the motor of the transformations taking place in this direction. I examine the transformation of the banking sector in the last decade by scrutinizing three sub-phases within this era: (1) the phase of financial deregulation (1989--1994); (2) the phase of state guaranteed retail banking (1994--1999); and (3) the phase of tightened international and domestic regulation (1999--present) in which the configuration between human resources, technology, financial services, and the spatial-institutional organization of the sector, reflect different patterns. Rather than claiming that a constant "globalization" agenda has been implemented in Istanbul, I show how the primary agendas and social and spatial patterns of the banking sector have frequently changed and followed different, even contradictory, trajectories over the time. These ongoing transformations and contrary trajectories are always legitimized and rationalized by referring to the "ideal" model of globalization and identifying them as a requirement of the market economy. They are explored without referring to their social context, thereby being de-politicized and turned into technical issues for experts, especially for economists. To accomplish my research project, I embrace an emerging literature in social science that draws attention to the transnationality of social practices. From this dissertation, I hope to contribute to the development of this emerging field and show how this perspective can add a new analytical dimension to the study of globalization, world cities, the global economy, and financial liberalization.