Socio-spatial perspective

Socio-spatial perspective means that the city is produced by political, social, economic domains or symbolic meanings of inhabitants. City design is arranged through class, race, gender, life style dimension and so on. City design and its symbols give us some meanings. When we look at the Early Athens city, there is religious code. City is designed through cosmological codes, and city is built for Athena or Goddess. City center is Agora and Omphalos. Agora is both market place and community center. Omphalos is artifact which is religious symbol mediating citizens to Gods. City streets are spread from center radially, which indicates that citizens of city are equal distant to community center or citizens assembly hall. This means that citizens are equal. In addition to this, according to Abu-Lughod’s article, we also see gender segregated streets and ethnic segregated streets. It forms city design. Also, when we look at the Ankara, we will find out some symbols. One of them which represents power of M. K. Atatürk is Anıtkabir. It can be political codes. Another symbol is palace in Ankara. It is the new symbol of city, and it represents power of state and party. This palace converts sphere of palace into much more attractive places. Houses or shops there are much more expensive than its earlier price, also this area change in terms of design, transportation, new houses and shops. Also, we see that when we enter Ankara, we pass under the bridge of Ankara. It represents capital of Turkey and capital’s power in proportion to other cities. As we have seen. design of city is determined by social, political, cultural domain of its inhabitants. I think socio-spatial perspective is very useful to understand the city design. When we look at the design of city, we can see some clues about inhabitants or society. Hence, I think cities represent specificity of own inhabitants although they are bound to particular society especially in recent times. We see global forces in cities. These forces change city and its habitants, and habitants may react these forces differently because there is also a history of cities and habitants.