Diaspora of the City: Stories of Cosmopolitanism from Istanbul and Athens

by Ilay Romain Örs

As the former capital of two great empires—Eastern Roman and Ottoman—Istanbul has been home to many diverse populations, a condition often glossed as cosmopolitanism. The Greek-speaking Christian Orthodox community (Rum Polites) is among the oldest in the urban society, yet their leading status during the centuries of imperial cosmopolitanism has faded. They have even been brought to the brink of disappearance in their home city. Scattered around the world as a result of the homogenizing tendencies of nationalism, the Rum Polites in the diaspora of Istanbul (“the City” or Poli) continue to identify with its cosmopolitan legacy, as vividly shown through their everyday practices of distinction and cultural memory. By exploring the shifting meaning of cosmopolitanism in spatial and temporal contexts, Diaspora of the City examines how experiences of forced displacement can highlight changing conceptualizations of what constitutes a local, diasporic, minority, or migrant community in different multicultural urban settings, past and present.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

İlay Romain Örs is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology and a faculty member at Istanbul Bilgi University. She completed her PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, following her master’s studies at University College London and her two BA degrees in Sociology and Political Science at Boğaziçi University Istanbul. A Turkish citizen born in Istanbul, Ors is competent in English, German and Modern Greek. She recently revised her dissertation fieldwork on the Rum Polites into a book to be published by Palgrave Macmillan under the title Diaspora of the City: Stories of Cosmopolitanism from Istanbul and Athens. Her further research and publications are concentrated on topics including migration, mobility, minorities, political movements, and urban studies in Greece, Turkey and the Mediterranean.