The national government of Turkey has recently confirmed plans to build a new shipping canal within the borders of the country’s most populated city. The Istanbul Canal Project is planned to run parallel to the narrow water strait of the Bosporus (the Strait of Istanbul), by connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea. The initial idea of an alternative shipping canal for Istanbul can be traced back to the 16th century. Even so, the contemporary plan immediately set off a large number of political and environmental debates leaving Turkey at a crossroads. In this blog, Didem Yerli, Gül Aktürk, and Esma Dolgun first discuss the various elements that are commonly recognized in the country’s narrative regarding national economic prosperity, then critically discuss the Canal Project's environmental implications. @en

The purpose of this paper is to problematize traditional views on Eastern Mediterranean port cities, and their so-called cosmopolitan nature during the long nineteenth century. To do so, this paper focuses on the production and effects of the East-West dichotomy, in three port cities of the region: Constantinople, Smyrna and Salonica. The main aim of this contribution is to elicit debate for further research about port city systems and emphasize the obstacles this dichotomy brings in the field. In doing so, this paper also contributes to the growing need for new perspectives on cosmopolitanism studies of the present and the future by examining the nature of co-existence in the past.

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Why do old postcards matter for the understanding of port cities such as Rotterdam? Old postcards, such as the ones presented here from the late 19th and early 20th century are important visual representations of urban space of the past. Publishers and photographers viewed and featured a world in flux. People bought and shared these views and disseminated them through the post. The postcards are not simple visuals produced from a neutral stance. Each visual narration tells a different story of spatial change. They capture romantic maritime myths and ideas about industrial progress. These fin-de-siècle postcards from Rotterdam, with their contingent and conflicted character, offer a window from which to view the dynamics of modernization of the port city and its representation over time.@en