Istanbul Unbound

Inaugural volume in the new series Transregional Middle Easts

Istanbul Unbound offers a timely and urgent rethinking of one of the world’s most storied urban centers through an environmental lens.

As Istanbul faces mounting ecological pressures—from the recently proclaimed “death” of the Marmara Sea to deforestation driven by mega-infrastructure, rising sea levels, and the threat of a major earthquake—this volume argues that environmental history is essential to understanding the city’s predicaments. Co-edited by K. Mehmet Kentel and Onur İnal, it bridges urban and environmental history, foregrounding nonhuman actors, ecological processes, and material landscapes, while challenging how the concept of “the City” has been defined and contested. Istanbul Unbound integrates environmental dynamics, recognizes fluid boundaries, and centers nonhuman agents in urban transformation, revealing the inseparable entanglement of urban life and environmental change in one of the world’s most dynamic metropolises.