Istanbul, undergoing the problems of urbanization in a rapid and remarkable way, is not able to meet the needs, expectations and desires of the child and is not able to provide safe environments to them. Due to the problems such as decrease in open air areas as a result of dense settlement, and increment in traffic load after high car possession, the open spaces of İstanbul have been becoming dangerous for children. As a result of this, today’s children are being deprived of facilities that close neighborhood which is supposed to present, in particular the streets. Thus their social, cultural and mental developments are being negatively effected.
The starting point of this study is the concept and initiatives of ‘Child Friendly City’. The aim of this study is to put forward child’s current condition at two different settlement examples, then to offer solutions to make Istanbul more livable for the child.
The study areas are Küçük Ayasofya Neighboorhood and Başakşehir Kiptaş 5.Stage Salacak Site. The method of the study consists of field surveys which include collection of numeric data related to the study area, observation studies, photography and child survey studies.
In the first stage of the study, necessary information about study areas have been gained and objective data have been presented through observations and photographs. In the second stage, surveys have been conducted with children at the age of 7-14.
At the last stage, upon the evaluation of child surveys and objective data relating to the settlements together, study areas have been examined in terms of physical environment’s child. At the end of the study, applications that should be performed which will make these settlements more livable for the children in terms of physical environment have been identified, and then proposals have been brought forward.

In this article a comparative research framework of an international project, which investigates gentrification processes in different cities, is presented. Building on assemblage theory, this research project adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understand how different social, economic and spatial processes coalesce in shaping neighbourhoods. This article covers different stands of work focusing on gentrification and builds the theoretical structure and methodology of the project. In the context of the project that aims to study gentrification processes in different European cities, complexity and actor-network theories along with relational approach are discussed.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, our understanding of cities has begun to go through paramount shifts due to major socio-spatial processes. Specifically for the last few decades, processes like globalisation and decolonisation have produced significant consequences in cities which attracted attention from prominent urban scholars. Among these urban consequences, segregation became one of the most infamous concepts postulated in numerous disciplines, including governmental debates and policies.
However, these socio-spatial transformations produced new fields of challenges for urban theory makers throughout history. At a certain point, the physical focus of early urban theories was no longer sufficient to interpret the city, causing a shift towards process oriented theory-making. The central theme of this paper is to investigate this shift by analysing the evolution of urban theories with regards to their implications for urban social geography. In this framework, analytical focuses of main urban theories are evaluated and their explanatory power for socio-spatial segregation is stressed. Such a developmental perspective enables the observation of urban theories’ receptiveness to changing circumstances, as well as their power to guide urban scholars.
The evaluation reveals that urban theories capture the essence of their time (zeitgeist) through their own lenses and explain the social geography of the city either partially or fully with regards to these lenses. As a conclusion, it can be said that urban theories which shelter implications for segregation are not generated universally, but rather in specific frameworks which might or might not be explanatory for other circumstances. All in all, it is believed that this evaluation will be illuminative for future studies that aim to understand and/or develop the role of urban theories in explaining socio-spatial segregation in the city.