Abstract

Cities are open and complex systems that constitutes of perpetually evolving, dynamic, non-linear processes adaptive to various circumstances and emergencies [1]. Contemporary planning literature, attracting attention towards the distance between theory and practice diverges from more statutory and formulised manners to less statutory methods comprehending communication, interaction and cultural inputs responding to the mentioned complex nature of urban development processes. It is also emphasized that the blurred section between the technical rationality and communicative rationality is the place where main planning problems occurs and where the reality of the complexity and the pattern of change reveals [2]. The changes within the urban space dependent to socio-spatial happenings and social inputs that are also self-organised. There, urban transformation projects provide a rich context through their formal processes and informal relationalities and pre-project development story.

Hence, this research chases the clues of emergencies and targets to unfold the butterfly effects emerging through urban transformation – regeneration projects and their participatory processes in Izmir, Turkey. Among the on-going urban transformation projects, the prominent two is selected: Ege Mahallesi (Ege Neighbourhood) and Ornekköy; where although both has similarities in their social and organic structure and have capacity to trigger urban development at the urban scale, provides rich differences in their historical formal and informal emergencies, social and spatial development traces and response to the municipality-driven transformation process.

*Şanlı, T. (2019). Experiencing Participatory Processes through Urban Transformation Projects: Local Impacts and Cultural Inputs from Izmir. Changing Cities IV, 24-29 Haziran 2019, Hanya, Girit, s. 1772-1783.