What Kind of ‘Cosmopolitics’? Studying the Eastern Mediterranean Port Cities between East and West

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to problematize traditional views on Eastern Mediterranean port cities and their so-called liberal cosmopolitan nature during the long nineteenth century by focusing on the production and effects of an East-West dichotomy in the three port cities of Constantinople, Smyrna and Salonica under the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The main aim of this contribution is to elicit debate for further research about the systems within which port cities operated by emphasizing the obstacles this dichotomy brings in the field of the port city research, especially in the Mediterranean region. In doing so, this paper will try to respond to the growing need for new perspectives on the cosmopolitanism of the present and the future by examining the nature of co-existence in the past.