Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu is a political scientist with an interest in political ecology, decentralization, local governments, civil society organizations, and citizenship. She worked as a faculty member at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University and was the Faculty Leave Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University during the 2023/24 academic year. She is a member of the interdisciplinary political ecology working group in Turkey and the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice in the UK. She is a country expert (Turkey) for the European University Institute’s Global Citizenship Observatory. She received her PhD from McGill University and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge.
The Greening of Cities: Transformative Climate Governance or Showcasing Pilot Projects?
Urban areas generate 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In response, municipalities around the world have implemented urban sustainability initiatives such as 15-minute cities, urban ecological corridors, green community spaces, and the “greening” of urban transportation to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. This project will focus on municipalities’ urban mobility and green space policies to analyze whether the projects that are implemented have the potential to go beyond the pilot phase to generate long-term institutional change within urban areas. Bridging IPC’s focus on urbanization and local governance with its focus on climate change, this research project will comparatively examine cities in Germany and Turkey in order to understand the factors that motivate municipalities to undertake sustainability transition projects. Furthermore, this project aims to bring together municipal actors and civil society organizations from Turkey and Germany to determine which practices engender success and failure. Accordingly, this project seeks to identify policies that can have long-term impacts on mitigating the consequences of climate change and adapting cities.
Final Evalution Meeting
The Initiative held the Final Evalution Meeting with our 2024/2025 Mercator-IPC Fellows on September 26 at IPC Karaköy. The event featured presentations of reseearch project results by fellows. The presentations were followed by the fellows' evaluations of the program in terms of its objectives, impact, and future direction. A farewell dinner marked the conclusion of the 2024/25 fellowship cohort.
Urban Sustainability Transitions: Building Bridges Across Cities
Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative organized a roundtable discussion “Urban Sustainability Transitions: Building Bridges Across Cities” with the initiative of 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu on June 12 at IPC Karaköy.
Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions Webinar Series 4-Nature-Based Solutions and Governance Pathways for Climate-Resilient Cities
The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative is pleased to organize the webinar series “Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions,” led by 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Research Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu. The fourth episode, “Nature-Based Solutions and Governance Pathways for Climate-Resilient Cities,” was held online on June 10, 2025.
Please click here to watch.
Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions Webinar Series 3 - Safe and Renatured Public Spaces for Urban Sustainability
The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative is pleased to organize the webinar series “Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions,” led by 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Research Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu. The third episode, “Safe and Renatured Public Spaces for Urban Sustainability,” was held online on May 13, 2025.
Please click here to watch.
Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions Webinar Series 2 - Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility
The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative launched the new webinar series “Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions,” led by 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Research Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu. The second episode, “Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility,” was held online on April 7, 2025.
Please click here to watch.
Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World - An Analysis Through Project Localities and in the Context of Neoliberal Policies:Transformation of the Anti-Nuclear Movement
The Initiative hosted the fourth session of the Political Ecology Seminar Series, initiated by 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu and 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellow Fikret Adaman. The fourth meeting of the seminar series, featuring a presentation by Pınar Demircan on "An Analysis Through Project Localities and in the Context of Neoliberal Policies: Transformation of the Anti-Nuclear Movement" was held on March 26, at IPC Karaköy.
Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions Webinar Series 1 - Urban Doers and Sustainability
The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative launched the new webinar series “Reimagining Cities: Urban Sustainability Transitions,” led by 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Research Fellow Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu. The first episode, “Urban Doers and Sustainability,” was held online on March 4, 2025.
Please click here to watch:
Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World - Ecological Feminisms
The third meeting of the seminar series titled "Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World" with the initiative of 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Researcher Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu and 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Senior Researcher Fikret Adaman, was held online on 12 February 2025 with Dr. Özlem Aslan's presentation "Ecological Feminisms".
Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World - Environment Between Law and Justice: Legal Consciousness of Environmental Movements in Turkey
The second meeting of the seminar series titled "Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World" with the initiative of 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Researcher Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu and 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Senior Researcher Fikret Adaman, was held at IPM Karaköy on 11 December 2024 with Dr. Rüya Yüksel's presentation "Environment Between Law and Justice: Legal Consciousness of Environmental Movements in Turkey".
