On the Street to Find Out “Where is religion?”: Urban Struggle over Religiousness on Uncular Street

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8. Navigating Modern Religion

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the transformation of Uncular Street and its impact on the perceptions and experiences of the street residents, visitors, and shopkeepers in terms of religious space through an ethnographic approach. Uncular Street is a historical commercial street in Üsküdar, a district considered to be one of the most religious regions in Istanbul, hosting many mosques, religious orders, and sufi lodges that have been active since the Ottoman period (Konyalı, 2021). Recently, the street was transformed into a “Gastronomy Street” by the local municipality, creating a modern consumption-centered structure with stylish cafes and restaurants with various names and concepts have opened, while most of the old tradesmen's shops have closed. This rapid emergence of a neoliberal urban project within a historical and religious landscape creates a multilayered complexity in spacemaking processes, challenging the tensions regarding religion. Consequently, the street has become a debatable zone whether the urban transformation disrupts the “religiousness” of Üsküdar district in the cost of popular consumption cultures; while some visitors describe it as a clear, non-alcoholic “halal” space for youth, others criticize it as an “inappropriate” place where young Muslims fall into. The main research question in the paper is how visitors, shopkeepers, and residents perceive and experience the space in relation to religion. Moving beyond traditional dichotomic secular-religious grand debates, this research utilizes spatial analysis to explore how religion “finds its place” within the multivocality of everyday life, conceptualizing the street as a dynamic site of contestation. Through a four-month ethnographic fieldwork study involving participant observation and in-depth interviews, this research aims to reveal how capitalist spatial transformations actively uncover and multiply religious visibilities. The street demonstrates that the boundary between secular and religious is fluidly reconstructed by actors utilizing “conservative” practices to spatially contrast with the neighboring “secular” spaces.
Keywords: Space, Religion, Secular-Religious Dichotomy, Uncular Street, Üsküdar

Author

• Rümeysa Merve Koç, Marmara University