Disabled Istanbulites' everyday life experiences as 'urban citizens': accessibility and participation in decision-making

Abstract

This article assesses whether the everyday experiences of disabled İstanbulites can be considered from an urban citizenship perspective. To this end, Lefebvre's notion of the right to the city' and its relationship with the literature on urban citizenship and Disability Studies is discussed, and two broad categories of analysis are presented to elaborate the issue in the case of İstanbul. These are, namely accessibility - to space, but also to education, health, and employment - and participation in decision-making. Interviews show that the limited rights-based discourses, which guided the institutional transformation of the greater and district municipalities in the early 2000s, have had almost no impact on the everyday experience of disabled İstanbulites. İstanbul remains a largely disabling city with major problems of accessibility and no room in decision-making processes for disabled people. Unfortunately, current developments do not point to the possibility of a more powerful practice of urban citizenship.