Between empire and industry: negotiating urban heritage, modernization, and identity in Bursa, Türkiye

Abstract This article examines heritage-led urban transformation in Bursa, Turkey, as a contested process through which space, memory, and justice are actively produced. As a former imperial capital that later emerged as a major center of Republican-era industrialization, Bursa provides a critical case for analyzing how post-imperial urban identities are selectively reconstructed under contemporary heritage governance frameworks. Drawing on an integrated analytical lens that brings together Lefebvre’s production of space, Halbwachs’ politics of collective memory, and Harvey’s concept of spatial justice, the study investigates how imperial, religious, rural, and industrial pasts are differentially mobilized and valued. Focusing on key sites—the Hanlar District, Ulu Mosque, and Cumalıkızık village—and juxtaposing them against the Merinos Woolen Factory, the article demonstrates how UNESCO designation and neoliberal heritage policies foreground monumental Ottoman legacies while marginalizing and sanitizing Republican-era industrial heritage and everyday urban practices. Based on visual, spatial, and policy-based sources, the analysis reveals how heritage governance reshapes urban space through processes of commodification, selective remembrance, and symbolic exclusion. By foregrounding the tensions between preservation, modernization, and social equity, the article contributes to critical heritage studies and broader debates on urban memory and spatial justice in post-imperial cities shaped by global heritage regimes.