This volume investigates the 'cool city' phenomenon with an empirical focus on Istanbul. The book approaches 'cool Istanbul' not only as a consumable brand but also as a socially produced and politically performed phenomenon. The contributions draw attention to the significance of thinking production, consumption and performance of cities in relation to their imagination, and trigger critical questions beyond disciplinary academic boundaries.

Derya Özkan received her Ph.D. degree in 2008 in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester, USA. From 2011 to 2016, she was the leader of the Emmy Noether Research Project 'Changing Imaginations of Istanbul. From Oriental to the >Cool< City' at the Institute of European Ethnology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. Since 2016 she has been working as an Assistant Professor in the Cinema and Digital Media Department at the University of Economics in Izmir, Turkey.