Making use of nightlife as a tool for resilience: Transfiguring entertainment venues in İstanbul, Mis Sokak

Abstract

This thesis discusses the transfigurative characteristics of queer nightlife venues which enables queer identities and communities to maintain resilience with constant changes in daily life practices and their struggle to exist in public space. The dichotomy and interaction between the queer community and public space dynamics were preeminent in building a theoretical ground for the deliberation process. This discussion is comprised of four pillars: (i) the conceptualization of the production and characteristics of public space; (ii) changes in the spatial temporalities of everyday activities with the inclusion of sexuality as a dimension; (iii) visibility and power dynamics in public spaces and their correlation with queer everyday practices on nightlife and entertainment venues; and (iv) meta-narratives and discourses and their controlling repercussions on public space for marginalized identities.The field research process of this discussion was conducted in three steps. Macro, spatial and micro realms were analyzed in turns through representation, legislative bodies, and public spaces. First, the discourse analysis between the years 2006 to 2018 on the macro realm insight on the congestion of public space in Beyoglu. The MAXQDA software was employed for this analysis in order to obtain objective findings from the coding-based qualitative analysis. The space-based analysis then paid close attention to how the hardships and triumphs of the queer movement in Beyoglu have changed through time. Along with changes in the community's everyday routines and spatiality, which concentrate attention on entertainment establishments and Mis Sokak. It was required to narrow the scope exclusively to Mis Sokak in order to construct a clear case study considering four out of the six queer-identified entertainment venues were operated there. The case study's last phase entails conducting narrative interviews with seven different persons in order to acquire their perspectives on the past and ongoing circumstances as well as their interpersonal narratives and collective encounters. Again, using thematic analysis and a coding system, these narrative interviews were analyzed to obtain specific knowledge around (i) the underlying motivations behind nightlife practices and queer entertainment venues, (ii) social, physical, and operational aspects of these venues, (iii) social and built environment-based struggles and finally (iv) main contexts the discourses centered.