BROAD-ER Seminar “Migration and Urban Studies: An Overview” by Murat Güvenç 08.11.2023

BROAD-ER Seminar "Migration and Urban Studies: An Overview" by Murat Güvenç 08.11.2023

The MiReKoc-BROAD-ER Wednesday Seminar Series, organized as part of the Bridging the Migration and Urban Studies Nexus (BROAD-ER) Project (https://broad-er.eu/), warmly welcomes Murat Güvenç and his presentation titled “Migration and Urban Studies: An Overview”, which took place on November 8th, 2023.

The MiReKoc-BROAD-ER Wednesday Seminar Series, organized as part of the Bridging the Migration and Urban Studies Nexus (BROAD-ER) Project (https://broad-er.eu/), warmly welcomes Murat Güvenç and his presentation titled “Migration and Urban Studies: An Overview”, which took place on November 8th, 2023.

Title: Migration and Urban Studies: An Overview
Presenter: Prof. Murat Güvenç

Abstract: The 20th century witnessed a global urban age as a result of twin processes: urban and demographic transition. During this unprecedented, multifaceted socio-spatial transformation, both mortality and fertility rates significantly decreased. Migratory flows, the third component of demographic processes, depicted local variations concerning place, gender, age, and primary reasons for migration. Despite these contingencies, it emerges as a major factor accounting for the bulk of urban population growth rates. Following a brief overview and critique of conventional models of urban growth and demographic transformation, this presentation will focus on the potential contributions of labor market segmentation theory and post-structuralist approaches in explaining contemporary urban transformations and the integration of migrants into local labor markets. The presentation will conclude with examples from a pilot study, a brief discussion of ‘relevant methodological tools,’ and ‘data requirements’ of post-structural approaches to urban and migration studies.

Short-bio: Murat Güvenç graduated from St. Joseph French High School and the Urban and Regional Planning Department of Middle East Technical University (Ankara). He co-authored books on institutional history, social industrial and electoral geography of Istanbul and co-curated the Istanbul 1910-2010 exposition sponsored by the Istanbul 1910-2010 Cultural Capital of Europe 2010 program. Dr. Güvenc was the president of History Foundation of Turkey (2017-2010) and the Vice President of the Social and Economic Research Foundation of Turkey (TESEV) 2014-2019. Since 2014, Dr. Güvenç has been the director of Istanbul Studies Center of Kadir Has University and realized projects on urban-regional history, construction of metropolitan social data dashboards and pattern recognition and visualization of high resolution archival data sets.

About BROAD-ER: BROAD-ER is an EU-funded Twinning Project. BROAD-ER aims to build a Research Excellence Network that fosters interdisciplinary research and training at the nexus of migration and urban studies. BROAD-ER is a collaboration between Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Koç University in Turkey. Its main goal is to close the research gap within the European Research Area (ERA) by establishing innovative and interdisciplinary approaches, while also increasing research and innovation capacities in Turkey in emergent fields of migration and urban studies.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation under agreement No. 101079254. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.