İstanbul?da alışveriş merkezleri ve sosyo-uzamsal ayrışma: Kanyon Alışveriş Merkezi vakası

The cities and urban life is experiencing a different form of socio-spatial order in the last decades of 20th century. This process is existent in the case of Istanbul starting from the 80s, when the time neo-liberal policies are adopted by the state and Turkey became more open to the global influences. This new socio-spatial order is towards increasing segregation between social classes and higher walls between them, both physical and non-physical. Istanbul, because of the huge migration it receives through decades and being the economic capital of the country, contains the richest and the poorest classes of Turkey and experiences the influences of globalization and capitalist economic system at most level. Kanyon Levent, a high end shopping mall, is a good example of segregated living spaces that diminish contact between classes which results in social segregation and erosion of social bonds in large globalizing cities. This thesis aims to discover the segregative trend in the social structure and its reflections to the urban spaces, analyze the situation in the light of consumerism and evaluate the possible repercussions of this trend in the case of shopping malls.