Eleştirel toponimi bağlamında toplumsal hafızanın mekandaki kodları: Bomonti'de yer isimleri
Spatial codes of collecti̇ve memory within the critical toponymies context: Place names in bomonti
Yazar: SEZEN TÜRKOĞLU
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. ZEYNEP GÜNAY
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Kentsel Tasarım Ana Bilim Dalı / Kentsel Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2018
Konu: Şehircilik ve Bölge Planlama = Urban and Regional Planning

Özet:
Araştırma, eleştirel kentsel toponimi bağlamında toplumsal hafızanın mekandaki
kodlarının izini sürerken, yer isimleri -toponimler- ile toplumsal hafızanın ilişkisine
odaklanmaktadır. Kentsel mekan, toplumun bir ihtiyacı ve toplumsal ilişkilerin bir
ürünü olarak ortaya çıkmış; toplumsal ilişkilerin, normların ve hafızanın yeniden
üretilmesinde etkili olmuştur. Nesneler, değerler ve deneyimlerin oluşturduğu soyut
ve somut kavramların bir toplamı olan kentler, hakim ideolojilere bağlı olarak
evrilirken, toplumsal hafıza da kolektif olarak üretilmekte ve kentsel mekanda yer
isimleri aracılığıyla kodlanmaktadır. Anlamı ve dolayısıyla toplumsal hafızayı
mekanda görünür kılan isimler, kentsel mekanı anlamlı/hafızası olan yerlere (topos)
dönüştürdüğü gibi; hafızayı manipüle ederek ya da kesintiye uğratarak anlamı
olmayan ya da diğer bir deyişle hafızası olmayan yerlere (atopos) dönüştürmektedir.
Bu süreçte hakim ideolojinin meşrulaştırılması, ulus kimliği inşası ve toplumsal
gerçekliğin inşasında ideolojik bir araç olarak kullanılarak hatırlama ve unutma
arasındaki seçimleri etkileyerek toplumsal hafızayı manipüle eden yer isimlendirme
politikalarının ideolojik bir araca dönüşme sürecinin tartışılması gereği ortaya
çıkmaktadır.
Bu kapsamda, araştırmanın amacı, eleştirel toponimi bağlamında toplumsal hafızanın
kentsel mekandaki kodlarını ve izlerini yer isimleri üzerinden okumak ve yer
isimlendirme politikalarının toplumsal hafıza üzerindeki gücünü Bomonti semti örneği
üzerinden sorgulamaktır. Araştırmanın hedefleri ise, toplumsal hafızanın
mekansallığını ve mekandaki kodlarını yer, yer olmayan ve yer isimleri üzerinden
tartışmak, eleştirel toponimi bağlamında yer isimlendirme politikalarının toplumsal
hafıza üzerindeki etkisini irdelemek ve Bomonti'nin toplumsal hafızasının kentsel
mekandaki kodlarını yer isimleri ve isimlendirme politikaları üzerinden okumaktır.
"Eleştirel toponimi bağlamında, yer isimlerinin toplumsal hafıza üzerindeki gücü
nedir?" sorusuna yanıt arayan araştırmanın çıkış noktasını oluşturan problemler
doğrultusunda tanımlanan amaç ve hedefleri gerçekleştirmek, araştırma sorularına
yanıt vermek amacıyla kavramsal çerçevenin oluşturulması, alan çalışmasının
tasarımı, alan çalışması ile sonuç ve öneriler olacak şekilde araştırma dört bölümden
oluşmaktadır.
Araştırma problemi, amaç ve yöntemin sunulduğu giriş bölümünü takip eden
araştırmanın ikinci bölümünde, uluslararası ve ulusal literatür üzerinden
gerçekleştirilen okumalar ile odaklanılan temel kavramlar sorgulanarak bunlara
yönelik kuramsal altyapı oluşturulmaktadır. Kavramsal çerçeveyi yer isimleri,
toplumsal hafıza, kentsel mekan ve eleştirel toponimi kavramları oluşturmaktadır.
Birinci ve ikinci araştırma sorusuna yanıt vermeyi hedefleyen bu bölümde toplumsal
hafıza, yer ve yer isimlerinin ilişkisi eleştirel toponimi bağlamında ortaya
konulmaktadır.

Abstract:
This research focuses on the relationship between place names -toponyms- and
collective memory to examine the spatial codes of collective memory within the
context of critical urban toponymy. Urban places emerge as a product of community
needs and social relations, and they affect the reproduction of social relations, norms
and memory. The urban policies that commemorate the meaning of place or reproduce
it for the legitimization of ideological discourses put the visibility and spatiality of
collective memory at forefront of urban discourse. While collective memory as a
socially constructed memory is coded in urban areas through place names, urban areas
as an amalgam of abstract and physical notion are subject to continuous evolution and
change by dominant ideologies. Place names do not only assert meaning to urban
spatiality through collective memories, they also manipulate memory to transform
places into 'non-places' or in other words, 'atopos'. In this regard, it is necessary to
discuss diverse factors behind place-naming policies and explore how place-naming is
transformed into an ideological tool to manipulate collective memory.
Within this context, the purpose of this research is to read the spatial traces of
collective memory in the city through place names, and to examine the power of placenaming as a policy within the scope of critical toponymy by a hermeneutic case study
on Bomonti, Istanbul. The objectives of the research are threefold: (i) to discuss the
spatiality and spatial codes of collective memory through 'topos', 'atopos' and
'toponym'; (ii) to examine the effects of place-naming policies on collective memory,
(iii) to create an urban text on Bomonti through a reading on the urban space codes of
Bomonti's collective memory based on place names and place-naming policies.
As part of aims and objectives mentioned above, the research attempts to respond to
the key research question: "What is the power of place names on collective memory
within the context of critical toponymy?". To respond to this question, the research is
structured in five parts.
Following the introduction that presents the statement of purpose, the goal and
objectives of the research, the research questions, context and methodology, the second
part of the research outlines the theoretical and conceptual framework through an indebth literature review on international and national scholar work. In this context, main
domains constituting the theoretical and conceptual framework of the research are
place names, collective, memory, urban space and critical toponymy. Place names are
codes that integrate space and meaning with reference to history and culture. In the
traditional sense, the place names reflecting historical, cultural or environmental
characteristics provide the users of the city with spatial orientation, and regulate
administrative control over the city. However, place names are more than spatial
designations. 'Toponyms', which give meaning to urban place are also considered as
the names/the topics of meanings. Beyond the traditional classifications of place 
xviii
names, this research pays considerable attention to the naming of urban places
following cultural or political change, and the ideological use of place-naming
policies.
The third part presents research design within the context of Bomonti, where the
visibility and fragility of different layers of collective memory can be discussed.
Bomonti is considered as 'urban text' to read the traces of collective memory within
urbanity through place names and to examine the power of place-naming policies on
the collective memory. The 'hermeneutics' approach, which is a semantics that leads
to a holistic reading of an urban text, is adopted. .
The fourth part introduces the hermeneutical reading of Bomonti urban text in the
context of critical topology, designed to test the theoretical and conceptual framework.
Content analysis method is used to organize and categorize the data gathered from
literature, historical and current street maps, archival studies, personal experiences
obtained from autobiographical writings and interviews by using mixed data collection
technique. The research shows that the collective and social reproduction of memory
brings temporality and spatiality notions at the forefront. The connection between
history and memory presents at the same time the temporality of collective memory.
Accordingly, societies need a common history to identify their identities and
continuities. The connection between the time and the collective memory, which is
regarded as the primary tool for the rewriting of the historical narrative, is not onedimensional. The collective memory provides a median that not only builds the future
of communities but also re-builds or sheds light on their past. In this context, the
continuity of communities necessiate an urge to embody collective memory in urban
spatiality. Therefore, the space and spatial evolution of collective memory can be
evaluated within three pillars: (i) places where culture and history are coded in by
societies that remember through the place and in the place, (ii) places that are embraced
by the locality against attempts to detribalization and, (iii) places that introduce
meanings independently from local culture and history. Based on this
contextualization, the case study on Bomonti questions the ideological uses of place
names as they are considered in the context of critical toponymy. The content analysis
is carried out accompanied with synchronic city cross-section readings based on
hermeneutic approach. Through the synchronic reading of the theoretical framework
and Bomonti urban text, the changes of place names in the historical breakpoints,
place-naming policies, the references of place names, the virtues of re-naming, the
symbolic role and social significance of the place names are explored as part of the
manipulation of collective memory. The hermeneutic approach and the selected case
study area provide the opportunity to evaluate the visibility of the symbolic role of
place names in the manipulation of collective memory and the continuity, fragility and
re-semantic of the collective memory resulting from manipulations.
The last part provides major remarks by addressing the relationship between place
names and collective memory within the discipline of urban design. The research
shows that every intervention on place names manipulates the collective memory,
which is coded in space, in varying degrees depending on the scale and its content.
Place-naming is a powerful political, economic and cultural tool in the production and
reproduction of urban space. It has an ideological influence in the legitimization of
dominant ideology, the building of national identity and the reconstruction of social
reality. Place names introduces continuity, fragility and re-semantic of collective
memories resulting from varied manipulations of how we remember and forget.
Although the sustainability and continuity of collective memory does not always seem 
xix
to be compatible with the economic and political reality of today's cities, the continuity
of collective memory is crucial for local belonging, identities and sense of place in
urban design practices.
It is therefore of major importance to bridge between place-naming policies and
collective memory to ensure the success over new urban design practice that regards
city and urban space as a historical text without diversing it from its meaning and
processes that asserts meaning