Abstract:

An individual is not like an object located on a specific place in a city; s/he imprints and internalizes places in a city, distinguishes these life spaces from the rest by giving meaning and identity to them; builds strong bonds with these places and constructs place identities. One of the essential means of this construction process is social representations that are created, developed and shared within the everyday life. Cities are integral parts of our daily conversations; therefore, they form one of the most important issues in social representations on which we produce implicit theories. This paper discusses how city identity and city as a place of identity are constructed for the city of Izmir . In order to do so, social representations regarding Izmir are examined within the entries of Izmir and being Izmirian in Eksi Sozluk, which is an important platform for social thought.

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