Maybe you can have a look at the work made by JF Pérouse :

http://ifea-istanbul.academia.edu/JFPerouse

Nicolas

You'll be interresd in reading the interresting and solid work of Franck Dorso.

His PhD in Sociology is called :  

La part d'ombre : transactions et conflits entre les usages informels et les opérations de rénovation de la muraille de Theodose II à Istanbul, Directed by Professor Maurice Blanc (University Marc Bloch of Strasbourg, France).

This research aims to rethink the place of informal uses in the urbanisation process, and the place of unexpected facts in urban renewal operations. It is based on a study about territorial appropriation conflicts on the city walls of Istanbul. How can the local users retain their presence and influence the restorative works, despite a power imbalance ? Led by the paradigm of social transaction, this work shows that apparent conflicts are masking practical agreements. Behind an explicit transaction about territorial appropriation, appears an implicit transaction, about social and urban norms. However, this regulating transaction has to remain tacit to operate effectively. The research explores these processes of occultation and deviation, and considers their implications on urbanism.

He also publish few articles on that topic :

Dorso Franck, « Feux nocturnes d'Edirnekapı. Territoires de l'informel et évolutions des régulations urbaines à Istanbul », Annales de géographie 6/2014 (n° 700) , p. 1285-1309 DOI : 10.3917/ag.700.1285. (summary : Istanbul’s ancient city walls are a territory of informal uses, in three domains: housing, economic activities and daily social practices. Despite calls for “clearance” and sporadic operations towards that end, these uses manage to survive, because of their regulatory role in economic, urban, social, psychological and symbolic terms. Practical compromises are built by the different agents, both users and authorities, to maintain these “valves” of urban life and general life in society – recognized as useful but not legitimate. A chronicle of the last fifteen years allows comparison of the remaining stabilities and resiliencies with certain changes in those processes induced by the recent urban renewal schemes.)

Dorso Franck, « La transaction sociale, paradigme et outil : proposition d'un schéma synthétique et opératoire. Applications à une étude sur des conflits d'usages et d'appropriation territoriale à Istanbul », Pensée plurielle 1/2009 (n° 20) , p. 107-120, DOI : 10.3917/pp.020.0107. (Summary : Social transaction: proposals for a operative and synthetic diagramThe paper offers a synthetic diagram of the social transaction paradigm, used in a doctoral research about illegal uses of urban spaces in Istanbul. Transactional situations are driven by structural oppositions – described with four degrees. The internal dynamic of those structural oppositions is dealt with the metaphoric term of oscillation. The conclusion deals with the concrete activation of those oppositions in the social world.)

Dorso Franck, « Batailles territoriales et symboliques autour de la muraille de Théodose II à Istanbul », Espaces et sociétés 3/2007 (n° 130) , p. 103-117,

DOI : 10.3917/esp.130.0103. (Summary : The dove-tailing of urban planning operations and popular forms of urbanisation enables us to take an interest in the power to change the city, especially when popular forms, despite an unequal imbalance of power, succeed in influencing those operations for decades. This is the case, for example, of the City Walls of Theodosius, in Istanbul. As a result of Istanbul’s entry in 1985 onto the unesco’s world heritage list, clearing operations and spontaneous clandestine “re-colonisation”, follow each other alternately, thus characterising an unstable and permanent process of territorial composition. This article explores some possible explanations, showing the paradoxical position of the historical aspect in the local urban stakes, caught between ideological reconstitution and repression.)

Hope it could help you,

Christophe Gibout

Of course Franck Dorso also!

Try to search for Istanbul and Historic Urban Landscape. You should find something!

Dear Costanza

Here are a few additional references, that I use in my teaching and hope wll be useful to you too

Tuna Kuyucu and Özlem Ünsal:

http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/02/08/0042098009353629.short

Iclal Dinçer:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13563475.2011.552474

Ozan Karaman:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01163.x/full

Fatih Terzi et al.:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09654310903141797

And of course all the work by Jean-François Pérouse, starting with:

http://www.persee.fr/doc/ingeo_0020-0093_2004_num_68_2_2941

Best regards

d.

Thanks a lot for the availability and information.

Have a look at the publications below. I am certain there is something of interest

There has been plenty published on urban development in Istanbul. A few publications that covers various themes and aspects I have listed below. I sincerely hope htat they are helpful to you.

Tolga İslam, Current Urban Discourse, Urban Transformation and Gentrification in Istanbul Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)   Architectural Design     Year:2010, Volume:80, Issue:1, First page:58, Last page:63

Idil Arslan-Alaton; Gulen Iskender; Aysegul Tanik; Melike Gurel; Suleyman Ovez; Derin Orhon         Current situation of urban wastewater treatment plants in megacity Istanbul , Elsevier Desalination, Year:2009, Volume:246, Issue:1-3, First page:409, Last page:416

Ahmet Karaburun; Ali Demirci; I-Shian Suen, Impacts of urban growth on forest cover in Istanbul (1987–2007) , Springer-Verlag, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Year:2010, Month:07, Volume:166, Issue:1-4, First page:267, Last page:277

C. Nil Uzun, Globalization and urban governance in Istanbul, Springer-Verlag, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Year:2007, Month:03, Volume:22, Issue:1, First page:127, Last page:138

DIKMEN BEZMEZ    The Politics of Urban Waterfront Regeneration: The Case of Haliç (the Golden Horn), Istanbul             Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)            International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Year:2008

Month:

Day:

Volume:32

Issue:4

First page:815

Last page:840

ÖZLEM ÖZ; MINE EDER     Rendering Istanbul's Periodic Bazaars Invisible: Reflections on Urban Transformation and Contested Space         Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)            International Journal of Urban and Regional Research             Year:2012

Month:

Day:

Volume:36

Issue:2

First page:297

Last page:314

Sencer Ayata   Migrants and Changing Urban Periphery: Social Relations, Cultural Diversity and the Public Space in Istanbul’s New Neighbourhoods          Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)            International Migration             Year:2008

Month:

Day:

Volume:46

Issue:3

First page:27

Last page:64

Tahire Erman; Aslýhan Eken    The “Other of the Other” and “unregulated territories” in the urban periphery: gecekondu violence in the 2000s with a focus on the Esenler case, Istanbul           Elsevier            Cities   Year:2004

Month:

Day:

Volume:21

Issue:1

First page:57

Last page:68

Ülke Evrim Uysal         An urban social movement challenging urban regeneration: The case of Sulukule, Istanbul             Elsevier            Cities   Year:2012

Month:

Day:

Volume:29

Issue:1

First page:12

Last page:22

Kuyucu, T.; Unsal, O. 'Urban Transformation' as State-led Property Transfer: An Analysis of Two Cases of Urban Renewal in Istanbul      Sage Publications         Urban Studies Year:2010, Volume:47, Issue:7, First page:1479, Last page:1499

Arzu Kocabaş Urban conservation in Istanbul: evaluation and re-conceptualisation      Elsevier            Habitat International             Year:2006, Volume:30, Issue:1

Ozan Karaman            Urban Renewal in Istanbul: Reconfigured Spaces, Robotic Lives         Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)       International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Year:2012

Lovering, John; Türkmen, Hade           Bulldozer Neo-liberalism in Istanbul: The State-led Construction of Property Markets, and the Displacement of the Urban Poor       Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           International Planning Studies             Year:2011, Month:02, Day:

Volume:16, Issue:1, First page:73, Last page:96

Dinçer, İclal     The Impact of Neoliberal Policies on Historic Urban Space: Areas of Urban Renewal in Istanbul             Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           International Planning Studies   Year:2011, Month:02, Day:, Volume:16, Issue:1, First page:43, Last page:60

Lovering, John; Evren, Yigit     Urban Development and Planning in Istanbul    Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)             International Planning Studies   Year:2011, Month:02, Day:, Volume:16, Issue:1, First page:1, Last page:4

Demir, Hülya; Yilmaz, Ahmet   Measurement of Urban Transformation Project Success Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process: Sulukule and Tepeüstü-Ayazma Case Studies, Istanbul          American Society of Civil Engineers     Journal of Urban Planning and Development        Year:2012, Month:06, Day:, Volume:138, Issue:2, First page:173, Last page:182

Enlil, Zeynep Merey     The Neoliberal Agenda and the Changing Urban Form of Istanbul       Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           International Planning Studies   Year:2011, Month:02, Day:, Volume:16, Issue:1, First page:5, Last page:25

Karaman, Ozan           Resisting urban renewal in Istanbul       Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           Urban Geography             Year:2014, Month:02, Day:17, Volume:35, Issue:2, First page:290, Last page:310

Ozus, Evren; Turk, Sevkiye Sence; Dokmeci, Vedia    Urban Restructuring of Istanbul            Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           European Planning Studies       Year:2011

Month:02, Volume:19, Issue:2, First page:331, Last page:356

Mills, Amy       Cultures of assemblage, resituating urban theory: A response to the papers on ‘Assembling Istanbul’             Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           City      Year:2014, Month:11, Day:02, Volume:18, Issue:6, First page:691, Last page:697

Schoon, Danielle van Dobben ‘Sulukule is the gun and we are its bullets': Urban renewal and Romani identity in Istanbul             Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           City      Year:2014, Month:11, Volume:18, Issue:6, First page:655, Last page:666

Eyüboğlu, Engin; Sema Kubat, Ayşe; Ertekin, Özhan   A New Urban Planning Approach for the Regeneration of an Historical Area within Istanbul's Central Business District         Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)           Journal of Urban Design Year:2007, Month:06, Day:, Volume:12, Issue:2, First page:295, Last page:312