The concept of city and civilization in Turkey after 1980

Being the space of modernity, the city is one of the crucial debate axis of modernity and modern practices. In consequence of that, modernity process was written upon such notions as the city, urbanization, civilization and modern culture. In this study, the conceptualization of these practices of modernity in the historical literature of Turkish urbanization is researched. As the city is being conceptualized upon its distinctions in the countries which had understood the realities of modernity, in Tukey it is used to be described as an uncontrollred deveploment. Accepting modernity as westernization and a worldwide project that is supposed to be achieved, the historical literature of Turkish urbanization improved a reversed consciousness of modernity and its practices and decsribed the usual developments of this process as a distortion. While making critical explorations of the historical literature of Turkish urbanization, this study is intended on the necessity of constituting an urbanization literature that depends on uderstandig the realities of the period, instead of accusing it. Key Words: modernity, westernization, city, urbanization, civilization, modern culture