Nostalgia Spaces of Consumption and Heterotopia: Ramadan Festivities in Istanbul

Abstract

Contemporary city cultures are often defined in relation to the processes of late-capitalism and commodification. Today, in various parts of the world, the previously dominant industrial cities have been replaced by cities of consumption (Urry 1995: 123). Cities are treated as sites for representation, masquerade and sociability (Featherstone and Lash 1999: 3). National and religious celebrations and culinary festivals are parts of the dynamism of city life where nostalgia becomes a marketing strategy. This article looks at the nostalgia industry in the contemporary city of Istanbul in connection to the Ramadan festivities and iftar tables as everyday spaces of spectacle and consumption. It examines the ways in which the Ramadan space is articulated in everyday practices not only as a site of spectacle formed by both global and local discourses, but also as a form of sociability that brings people together.