Capitalist urbanization in Turkey between the 1920s and the early 1990s: an alternative interpretation

Abstract

This study examines the relation between the development of capitalism in Turkey and urbanization through a period of seven decades. It aims to contextualize urban development as a complex social phenomenon within the broader framework of changing economic, social and political structures in order to provide an alternative reading of the history of urbanization in the Republican era. The task required a questioning of theories on urbanization in capitalist economies by using information mostly gathered from secondary sources on Turkey's experience with rapid urbanization and its consequences. The survey on the economic and social context of urban development was presented in three major periods, with a historical account of the development of local governments and planning in Turkey, based on the transformation of municipal government schemes and programs dating from different periods. The historical development of urban transportation and housing production were also analyzed in connection with the state's political responses to the growing problems of rapid urbanization. The analysis was concluded with a survey on the development of squatting practice as the spontaneous response of the urban poor to shortage of urban housing after the Second World War.