Working-class Groups Research Articles

The Problems and Countermeasures in the Implementation of "Flipped Classroom" in Colleges and Universities: From the Perspective of Education Master's Students

With emergence of Covid - 19 flipped classroom became essential not only in reducing the number of students in the face to face sessions but also provided more learning time. Kenyatta University is one of the first Universities in Kenya to have a fully - fledged digital school (DSVOL), which offers a wide range of courses from diploma to post graduate courses. Majority of the potential students targeted by the school are the working class group who attend classes either as part - time or full - time. Although Kenyatta University has made many strides in implementing the flipped classroom approach, little has been done on research to ascertain learners’ attitude and perceptions on flipped classroom approach on academic performance of postgraduate diploma in education students in Kenyatta University. The study deployed a mixed - research approach, where both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to collect and analyze data. The target population was heads of departments and post - graduate diploma students at Kenyatta University. The study used a purposive, convenience sampling technique to get 30 post - graduate diploma students and five heads of department, totaling to 35. Primary data was collected using questionnaire. Open and close - ended questions were used to maximize results. Data collected from the participants were analysed using two methods; statistical and thematic content analysis. Based on the findings, the study concluded that learners have positive attitudes and perceptions towards the flipped approach. The study further concluded that flipped approach is fun, engaging, motivating, and encourages active learning. From the conclusion the study recommended that the departments that implement the flipped learning approach should ensure that there is room for peer interaction and collaborative working.

Using latent class analysis to investigate enduring effects of intersectional social disadvantage on long-term vocational and financial outcomes in the 20-year prospective Chicago Longitudinal Study.

Class and social disadvantage have long been identified as significant factors in the etiology and epidemiology of psychosis. Few studies have explicitly examined the impact of intersecting social disadvantage on long-term employment and financial independence. We applied latent class analysis (LCA) to 20-year longitudinal data from participants with affective and non-affective psychosis (n = 256) within the Chicago Longitudinal Research. LCA groups were modeled using multiple indicators of pre-morbid disadvantage (parental social class, educational attainment, race, gender, and work and social functioning prior to psychosis onset). The comparative longitudinal work and financial functioning of LCA groups were then examined. We identified three distinct latent classes: one comprised entirely of White participants, with the highest parental class and highest levels of educational attainment; a second predominantly working-class group, with equal numbers of Black and White participants; and a third with the lowest parental social class, lowest levels of education and a mix of Black and White participants. The latter, our highest social disadvantage group experienced significantly poorer employment and financial outcomes at all time-points, controlling for diagnosis, symptoms, and hospitalizations prior to baseline. Contrary to our hypotheses, on most measures, the two less disadvantaged groups did not significantly differ from each other. Our analyses add to a growing literature on the impact of multiple forms of social disadvantage on long-term functional trajectories, underscoring the importance of proactive attention to sociostructural disadvantage early in treatment, and the development and evaluation of interventions designed to mitigate ongoing social stratification.

“Nationalism and Internationalism”: The Construction of Anarchism between the Local and the International in Brazil (1890–1930)

Anarchism has been routinely studied as a political element in the defence of the working class and subaltern groups. One of the goals of its ideology was the removal of the rulers and the holders of the means of production on a global scale, uniting the exploited groups in an internationalist movement. Nevertheless, anarchist activists, even theoretically anti-nationalists, did not fail to perceive and absorb nationalisms as environments of dispute and spaces for their political dissemination. This article aims to study anarchism in the midst of its debates to mediate the construction of a movement that corresponds to local, national, and international interests, as well as its influence on the labour and revolutionary movement in the period known as the “First Republic” in Brazil.

Population Ageing, Asset Prices and Paying Ability: A Study Based on Urban Private Housing Prices in China

Population ageing and asset price issues, especially with regard to housing, exert a major impact on sustainable development. Since China entered the remit of an ageing society in 2001, the proportion of its elderly population has been rising. In the same period, the country’s real estate market experienced a rapid rise in house prices following the monetisation reform. Many large cities have experienced waiting lists for the purchase of private housing, and working-class groups not being able to afford it. This has become a social phenomenon in China. This study takes the social reality of China as the main research object, investigates the influencing mechanism of the ageing population structure on the residential commercial housing market, and locates paying ability, ageing, and private housing prices within the same framework. The study found that paying ability can be regarded as a regulating variable between ageing and private housing prices; consequently, a panel threshold effect model was constructed empirically to analyse the non-linear effects of ageing on private housing prices. The results show that when residents’ payment levels differ, the effect of ageing on the price of private housing also varies. Finally, by combining the 17-year panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China, it was found that all of the eastern regions of China crossed the threshold in 2010, and that all of the central and western regions crossed the threshold in 2011. At present, therefore, ageing can be said to be exerting an active impact on housing prices in China. To effectively curb the excessive rise in housing prices, the corresponding housing supply policy should be formulated from the perspective of improving the supply of housing to meet demand and the intergenerational transfer of the elderly population.

‘In the end you adapt to anything’: Responses to narratives of resilience and entrepreneurship in post-recession Spain

Resilience – the ability to bounce back from hardship – is a concept that has become popular during the years of economic crisis and post-recession. Contemporary citizens are expected to be flexible, have a positive attitude and take care of themselves in a context of heightened inequality and precarity. The objective of this article is to analyze how citizens in post-recession Spain respond to media representations that prescribe these values. Eight focus groups were held with middle- and working-class men and women (a total of 62 participants) who discussed four short stories written by the researchers, which condensed the main concepts found in media narratives studied previously (including TV series, reality TV, advertisements, video games and celebrity culture). The results of our analysis show that participants tended to praise change and adaptability. The ‘complacent citizen’, who seeks security and refuses to adapt to the current precarious and unstable environments, emerges as a ‘bad citizen’, and security and stability are pathologized. There were differences between the middle- and working-class groups: while the former clearly adhered to the neoliberal discourse that sees flexibility and self-improvement as a moral obligation, the latter showed a more ambivalent response to these discourses.

Intergenerational transmission of out-of-home care and the role of mental health problems: Findings from Stockholm birth cohort multigenerational study

Out-of-home care (OHC) experiences are associated with poor long-term outcomes throughout life. However, the continuity of OHC over generations is not fully explored, and the influence of mental health problems (MHP) and socioeconomic conditions on such transmission is still unclear. We therefore assessed the extent to which MHP affect the intergenerational transmissions of OHC as well as whether there are differential patterns depending on the socioeconomic conditions of the family of origin. We used a prospective data from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study (SBC Multigen) on 11,333 cohort members (Generation 1; G1), their parents (Generation 0; G0), and 24,905 children (Generation 2; G2). Multivariate regressions and path models were used to examine the associations between OHC and MHP across generations; stratified analysis by occupational class in G0 was performed to explore potentially differential patterns. Our findings support the existence of an intergenerational transmission of OHC, particularly in the working class group (OR 4.70); MHP was only transmitted across generations in this group (OR 1.51). While the results indicated a stronger role of MHP among the middle/upper class (OR 5.59) compared to working class (OR 3.52) in part of the pathway (MHP G1→OHC G2), this patter was not consistent throughout the whole pathway (e.g. OHC G1→MHP G1). We conclude that there is a tendency for OHC and MHP experiences to continue across generations, particularly among families with more disadvantageous socioeconomic conditions. MHP seem to play an important role in the transmission of OHC irrespective of socioeconomic conditions.

The Professional Body in Boxing and Strength Sports: The Connection between Manual Labour and Sports in the Early and Mid Twentieth-Century Sweden

The main focus in this article is to analyse representations of body and class in strength sport and boxing in a Swedish context during the period 1910–1960, as well as their deeper societal meanings. The concepts of profession, body and class are understood in close connection to the theoretical concepts of value and capital. This study’s understanding of class and group affiliation differs from more traditional class analyses. It is argued for an in-depth understanding of how such processes take place and work through a broader concept of class. Representations are examined through magazines closely connected to the sports, as well as identification through autobiographies, written by prominent athletes during the early and mid twentieth century. The study shows a close link between these sports and manual labour. Physically strenuous work functioned both as a training regime in itself but was also presented as a way to be ‘discovered’. However, the close connection to the working class and manual labour groups meant that physical strength came to be seen as something natural. Sporting success was also locked into body capital, which also had a relatively low exchange value in relation to other forms of capital.

The Long Recovery from the Great Recession: An Introduction

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have been marked by the Great Recession (GR), which was followed by the longest recovery in U.S. history, here termed the Long Recovery (LR). The LR lasted more than 10 years and ended with a pandemic bang in March 2020. This article introduces the eighteen articles that make up our review of the effects of the LR on the working class. What did more than a decade of economic expansion following the GR do for the working class and various groups of disadvantaged workers? We study this question through the lenses of economics, demography, sociology, and policy. The working class—lower-middle-income units, especially those whose adults have low education levels or other credentials—was hit hard by the GR. Did groups who are usually at a labor market disadvantage in fact make absolute and relative gains in incomes and living standards during the LR? Lessons from the LR will help to inform policy efforts to sustain the postpandemic economic expansion, which is still under way as of this writing.

A Proletarian Turf War: The Rise and Fall of Barcelona's Sindicatos Libres, 1919–1923

AbstractFrom 1919 to 1923, Barcelona experienced unprecedented levels of social conflict. The growth of the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labour (CNT) had awakened the spectre of social revolution among the city's conservative classes, and a broad constellation of reactionary forces lined up against it, the Sindicatos Libres (free trade unions) being the most formidable among them. Created in 1919 by Catholic workers, the Sindicatos Libres were able to capitalize on the exhaustion that had set in among certain working-class groups who had grown wary of reckless strike action. Using violence to fight back against the CNT, the Libres could claim 175,000 members by mid-1922. They mobilized the religious, corporatist, and regionalist sentiments harboured by sectors of the city's workforce and, by adopting a modern repertoire of action, they bypassed the traditional aversion to mass mobilization that had characterized the Catholic labour movement and Spanish conservative parties until then. In many ways, the ideology and tactics of the Libres adumbrated fascism, but their success was short-lived. In late 1922, an upswing in strike action and an abatement of state repression allowed the CNT to recover at the expense of the Libres. This article explores the rise and fall of an organization the study of which has been neglected, situating it in a European context of political polarization whereby the traditional right attempted to modernize its tactics and adapt them to a rising challenge from the revolutionary left. It will also serve as a window through which to examine the complex relationship between workers’ trade union affiliations and their political and cultural identity.

Just for Kicks: Football as a Potential Harmoniser in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor

When the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor began in 2015, many Pakistanis remain concerned about a possible Chinese overreach in the country’s economic and political spheres. In this paper, I suggest that China can placate these critics by utilizing soft power through football. Under Xi Jinping, China has encouraged and supported significant investments in the sport at home and abroad, especially in Europe. While Pakistan is a minnow in world football, the sport is extremely popular among many working-class groups in different regions of the country like Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These regions, despite their contentious socio-political environments, are crucial for the success of CPEC’s myriad development projects. Using publicly available information, I explore recent Chinese movements in world football, building a theoretical case for why involvement in Pakistani football can bring benefits of goodwill towards harmonizing CPEC’s acceptance, diversifying Sino-Pak ties, building soft image for China through sports in Pakistani society, and facilitating service-oriented local empowerment through the Beautiful Game.

Work–life: balance?

Based on theories of the relations of labor and care, as well as previous research on the past 30 years of gender inequalities in Hungary, the paper aims to interpret these results and further develop the existing knowledge on the situation of women and gender relations in Hungarian society in the context of the social, economic, and political transformations of the past 30 years while considering the intersecting mechanisms ofemployment, family and care policies from a gender perspective. In 2017 we conducted six focus group interviews with lower-class women across the country and a representative survey on a sample of 1,000 respondents (both men and women), that will provide the empirical data for the paper. One of the core findings of the research is the striking tension that women experience on the labor market in relation to their care responsibilities incl. elderly care, especially in low-income and working-class groups. The counter-interest of the employers concerning care for dependent family members was a recurrent topic brought up by the participants of our interviews as well as the lack of expectations towards state support and towards men in the share of care work.

Prejudice against members of a ridiculed working-class group.

In five experiments, we examined the stereotypes, emotions, and behavioural intentions associated with a Spanish working-class group, known as chonis. We described a student (Experiments 1-3) or job candidate (Experiments 4-5) and presented participants with a picture showing a woman characterized either as choni or posh (an upper-class group, Experiments 2-4) or with no picture (Experiments 1, 3-5). Depending on the condition, explicit information about her high social class (Experiment 1), performance (Experiment 3), or category (Experiment 5) was provided. Participants evaluated the candidate more negatively, felt less admiration, and were less willing to interact with her or to recommend her for a job when she was categorized as choni as compared to the other categories. These effects disappeared if the student/candidate had high socioeconomic status or performed excellently in the academic domain, but they were magnified for highly (vs. weakly) materialistic individuals. Class prejudice apparently has harmful effects on disadvantaged individuals, but can be mitigated by explicit information.

From 'having' to 'being': self-worth and the current crisis of American society.

With growing inequality, the American dream is becoming less effective as a collective myth. With its focus on material success, competition and self-reliance, the intensified diffusion of neoliberal scripts of the self is leading the upper-middle class toward a mental health crisis while the working class and low-income groups do not have the resources needed to live the dream. African Americans, Latinos and undocumented immigrants, who are presumed to lack self-reliance, face more rigid boundaries. One possible way forward is broadening cultural membership by promoting new narratives of hope centered on a plurality of criteria of worth, 'ordinary universalism' and destigmatizing stigmatized groups.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe: the evolution of post-Marxism

In their groundbreaking Hegemony and socialist strategy (1985), Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe develop a new account of radical politics in which the subjective construction of hegemony establishes political conditions, not the objective historical stages and class contexts of traditional Hegelian Marxism. On this basis, they forcefully justify the ‘identity politics’ of contemporary women’s, African-American, gay, and working class groups and organisations and oppose both the hegemony of the new right and the ‘classism’ and revolutionary orientation of the radical left. In their later work, they elaborate their accounts of hegemony and move in new directions. In On populist reason (2005) and The rhetorical foundations of society (2014), Laclau draws on poststructuralist discourse or rhetoric as well as notions of populism or the masses to show that hegemony involves what he terms antagonism, frontiers or we/they oppositions, equivalential logics, and other elements. By contrast, in On the political (2005) and Agonistics: thinking the world politically (with Wagner, 2013), Mouffe elaborates the notion of the fissured subject which, as she and Laclau argued in Hegemony, was constituted by the antagonisms of diverse social movements or the dislocation of social structures; however, her new accounts of the antagonisms or, as she says, ‘agonisms’ dividing the political field forcefully oppose universal norms of rationality or democracy in order to establish a genuine pluralism on a national and a global scale.

Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812–1925 by Brian Roberts

Reviewed by: Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812–1925 by Brian Roberts Christopher J. Smith (bio) Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812–1925. By Brian Roberts. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. Pp. 384. $90.00 cloth; $30.00 paper; $30.00 ebook) Blackface Nation rests upon Brian Roberts's knowledge of nineteenth-century North American popular song idioms and the ways these repertoires reflect class, race, and geography. The book is an effective, topics-based investigation, solidly grounded in the primary [End Page 110] sources, of how social-justice tropes—most notably but by no means exclusively race-based—entered the soundscapes of the newly genteel urban middle class. Though the title lays claim to a wide investigative range, Roberts's topic is better reflected by the subtitle, "race, reform, and identity," and its primary focus upon the "middle-class moment" of ca. 1833–50 (p. 13). He concentrates on a comparative investigation of the reception of two parallel genres: the early peak of working-class theatrical black minstrelsy, versus the rise of middle-class genteel entertainments, particularly in the performances of the Hutchinson Family Singers. This juxtaposition provides a useful means for analyzing class tensions between different groups of white Americans: specifically, the frontier, immigrant, and working-class groups empowered by extension of the franchise to a wider range of white males, versus the newly-emergent middle-class, who sought to distinguish themselves through their choice of entertainments no less than their domestic politics. Hence, Blackface Nation is not really a study of blackface minstrelsy itself. Instead, like Eric Lott's seminal Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (1995), Roberts' topic is the semiotics of the idiom, its capacity to "focus the anger of an emerging working class," and its contrasting reception by middle-class audiences (p. 101). Roberts's explication of artisan republicanism is excellent and his command of nineteenth-century social history enriches his discussion of specific songs and performers (p. 80). The book is organized into roughly chronological chapters, which primarily focus upon the working-class origins of blackface minstrels and their audiences, and the emergent middle-class contexts and audiences of the Hutchinson Family Singers—he is especially acute in his analysis of the latter's family mythography. Chapter headings are effective and evocative, referencing as they do both historical moments and relevant social phenomena (e.g., chapter one "Carnival" addresses pre-nineteenth-century Anglo-European print culture as the source of broadsides and other street literature), political epochs (chapter two "The Vulgar Republic" post-1812), and demographics [End Page 111] (chapter three "Jim Crow's Genuine Audience" and chapter six "Love Crimes"). Roberts's strategy of shaping these chapters (particularly chapter four "Black Song" and chapter nine "Black America") through the listening experience of the ex-slave, abolitionist, and essayist Frederick Douglass is engaging and enlightening. Roberts is most insightful in the central chapters (chapter seven "The Middle-Class Moment" and chapter eight "Culture Wars") in which he weaves together a richly-sourced account of the roots of various Antebellum reform movements, including Quaker communitarians, Shaker celibates, Boston Brahmins, and Concord Transcendentalists (p. 13). His foundation is a sophisticated cultural biography of the Hutchinsons, a Maine-based family act whose career and repertoire provides a soundtrack for analysis of the rise, antebellum apotheosis, and post-War twilight of abolitionist reformism and its "legacy . . . of contradictions" (p. 270). Scope and range of coverage are a challenge in tracing the history and social impact of North American popular song: where to begin? Upon what genres to focus? Where—most significantly—to cut off the narrative? Roberts handles the first two questions effectively, but his concluding chapter ten, on the aftermath of minstrelsy ("Musical Without End"), faces a challenge. His address to the period 1870– ca. 1925 undertakes some of the most complicated synthesis of the entire text, tracing blackface aesthetics in urban expressive arts, and the way that "Minstrel-based perceptions would structure the way white people would see these more authentic forms of black music" (p. 284). However, the sheer volume and ubiquity of these manifestations requires conflating too many...

Nativity and Occupational Determinants of Physical Activity Participation Among Latinos

Latinos in the U.S. bear a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular risk factors, including physical inactivity. Previous research among Latinos has focused on leisure-time physical activity, limiting understanding of the different ways in which populations, particularly working-class groups, achieve recommended levels of physical activity. This study examined associations of race/ethnicity; nativity; and leisure-time, transportation, and occupation-related physical activity among Latino and non-Latino white adults. Participants sampled in the 2007-2012 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey self-reported domain-specific physical activity. Data were analyzed in 2016-2017 using multivariable log binomial regression models to examine differences in meeting guidelines for each physical activity domain separately and as total physical activity among Latinos (n=4,692) and non-Latino whites (n=7,788). Models were adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and health status and tested interactions between nativity and occupational categories. In adjusted models, foreign-born Latinos (prevalence ratio=0.70, 95% CI=0.63, 0.77) and U.S.-born Latinos (prevalence ratio=0.85, 95% CI=0.76, 0.95) were least likely to meet physical activity guidelines through occupation-related and leisure time physical activity, when compared with non-Latino whites. By contrast, foreign-born Latinos were more likely to meet physical activity guidelines through transportation physical activity than non-Latino whites (prevalence ratio=1.26, 95% CI=1.01, 1.56) and were proportionately more likely to participate in vigorous modes of physical activity. Interaction results indicated that foreign-born Latinos were the least likely to meet physical activity guidelines compared with U.S.-born Latinos and non-Latino whites if they worked in non-manual occupational categories. All racial/ethnic groups working in manual occupations saw the largest increase (40%-50%) in meeting physical activity guidelines when occupation-related physical activity was combined with leisure-time and transportation physical activity. These findings suggest variability in the relationship between nativity and the physical activity domain Latinos engage in compared with non-Latino whites, with occupation contributing substantially to meeting physical activity recommendations for all population groups.

The contradictions of populism: reasserting adult education for democracy

The context for this paper is the rise of populism across the UK, Europe and the US, a trend which is sweeping western liberal capitalist democracies in particular but also beyond in countries such as Turkey. Populism is used primarily as a derogatory label to demean the poor, working class groups and people with low educational attainment, as not having the experience or capacity to make wise decisions. In the UK this has led to demands for a second referendum on leaving Europe because the ‘will of the people’ was manipulated. It is also claimed that Parliament is sovereign so the decision to exit Europe should be made by its members who are better informed and can legitimately overturn the referendum decision. On the other hand, demagogues of the far right who led campaigns of disinformation and thinly veiled racist vocabulary to sway the Brexit result champion the ‘will of the people’ in disingenuous ways. If we widen our lens, there are also examples of progressive populist politics in Europe, such as Podemos in Spain, which are indicative of a counter-trend to the neoliberal model of globalization. Whilst populism is mainly used as a derogatory label, it can also be framed progressively as a response of the powerless, the poor and the ignored reacting to the limits of liberal democratic institutions in the current context. The election of Trump in the US and the Brexit result in the UK can be understood in these terms too. The repressed, overlooked or denigrated by the political and media elite, have responded at the only opportunity available to them. At the same time, the kind of social purpose adult education which aimed to engage with people in communities, on their own terms, has withered as neoliberal forms of lifelong learning and citizenship transform educational practices into ‘remoralising’ citizens to take care of themselves. In this context adult education and democracy are in crises. However, both crises can be turned towards generating productive synergies which adult educators need to connect with. This presentation seeks to explore and stimulate this debate.

The Digital Activism Gap: How Class and Costs Shape Online Collective Action

AbstractWhat is the relationship between social class and online participation in social movements? Scholars suggest that low costs to digital activism broaden participation and challenge conventional collective action theories, but given the digital divide, little is known about cost variation across social movement organizations from different social classes. A focus on high levels of digital engagement and extraordinary events leaves scant information about the effect of social class on digital mobilization patterns and everyday practices within and across organizations. This study takes a field-level approach to incorporate all groups involved in one statewide political issue, thereby including organizations with different social class compositions, from Tea Parties to labor unions. Data collection spans online and off-line digital activism practices. With an index to measure digital engagement from an original data set of over 90,000 online posts, findings show deep digital activism inequalities between working-class and middle/upper-class groups. In-depth interviews and ethnographic observations reveal that the mechanisms of this digital activism gap are organizational resources, along with individual disparities in access, skills, empowerment and time. These factors create high costs of online participation for working-class groups. Rather than reduced costs equalizing online participation, substantial costs contribute to digital activism inequality.

Re-imagining Bernstein’s restricted codes

While accepting that the concept of restricted code has a troubled history that resulted in Bernstein being associated with deficit models of working-class life, it is argued that the concept should be re-imagined rather than abandoned. Bernstein’s early work refers to restricted code as a form of condensed, shorthand established through familiarity that was not tied to class per se. In Volume 2 of Class, Codes and Control social class was an independent variable in the research designs and coding only that which could be explicitly spoken, produced working class groups as inferior in comparison to middle class groups: Bernstein’s disquiet can be sensed in many places across his work where he explicitly renounced a deficit model. Methodological and theoretical work on embodied knowledge is used here to explicate the more-than, codeable features of restricted codes. An illustration from studies in ex-coalmining, working-class communities is used to explore what is missed in conventional approaches to data coding. Other studies in ex-mining communities reveal the intergenerational transmission of rich resources that were vital for community survival. Re-imagining restricted codes as relational assemblages recognises the value of the dynamic, creative and intergenerational features of localised, embodied knowledge.

Reading Landscape in Beyoglu and Tarlabasi: Engineering a ‘Brand New’ Cosmopolitan Space, 1980–2013

This article discusses the intricate relationship between cultural identity formation and the urban landscape using an example of urban modernization in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district. The area under scrutiny is called Tarlabaşi and is currently the site where the state is executing a judicially contested gentrification project. The project is based in an area which housed an ethnically and religiously heterogeneous composition of middle- and working-class groups until the 1960s, became dilapidated from the 1970s onwards and was stigmatized by the Turkish government at local, metropolitan and national levels. It was portrayed by the media as an area of social and cultural deprivation, allegedly home only to the most marginal members of society. This article will discuss the relevance of landscape as a useful category in historical research. Secondly, it will discuss how and why dominant representations of Beyoğlu’s urban landscape have developed and been instrumentalized in modern Istanbul from the 1980s onwards. Finally, this article shows how successive attempts of socio-cultural engineering by local governments, in order to reform or ‘modernize’ the urban landscape, had a strong impact on the physical and imaginary landscape of Beyoğlu and Tarlabaşi. It will be argued that local Istanbul and Beyoğlu governments, inspired by neoliberal ideas of urban planning and city marketing, have attempted to reshape the cultural identity of Beyoğlu and Tarlabaşi in order to legitimize drastic interventions in the area’s urban landscape and socio-cultural composition.