© ISSN: 1307-9905 E-ISSN: 2602-2133 Sayı Issue 29, Cilt Volume 11, Yıl Year 2020-1, 543-558 DOI:10.31198/idealkent.642273 © Kent Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Urban Studies) http://idealkentdergisi.com Geliş Tarihi Received Date: 04.11.2019 Kabul Tarihi Accepted Date: 25.04.2020 What If You Were A Young Professional? A Scenario on The Critical Grounds of İlhan Tekeli’s Course * Gülşah Aykaç 1 ORCID: 0000-0002-6003-2704 Abstract This paper attempts to open a critical discussion of Tekeli’s graduate course discussing active citizenship and participation in extension with the labor and work of young professionals (as architects/urban planners/urban designers) in our era of urban crisis. With this aim, the frag- ments of a fictional scenario—which was the final task of the course—are analyzed within a twofold framework: First, the paper elaborates that there are both formal and non-formal agents playing roles in the production of urban space and knowledge of urban space. Not only a variety of formal institutions but also civil organizations and initiatives have emerged considerably since the 2010s in Turkey. Hence, the labor in the production of urban space is pluralized by diversified agents. Secondly, I point out that our generation has been witnessing an era of urban crisis with multiple dimensions such as urban resistance and repression, anti-participatory ag- gressive production processes of urban space, exploitation of young professionals’ labor in par- allel with unemployment, and the diminishing capacity of the profession. Through this twofold framework, I argue (and the fictional scenario accordingly ends in such a way) that young professionals could overcome the limits of the profession and generate new critical processes through prompting active citizenship and participation, including multiple actors of the pro- duction of urban space. This is the potential of the experiences of the last decade that we have just passed. Keywords: Labor and work, production of urban space, civil organizations, active citizenship, İlhan Tekeli 1 Doktora öğrencisi, ODTÜ, E-mail: gulsahaykac@gmail.com