The urbanization policy of Turkey: an uneasy symbiosis of unimplemented policy with centralized pragmatic interventions

Abstract

Regarding urbanization policy in Turkey, one can observe how policy-making efforts continuously have moved away from transnational influences and reverted to more pragmatic, national-oriented practices in the last three decades. The results of different attempts to make sustainable urbanization policy for Turkey are vivid examples of how aspirations to reframe national urban development pattern through policy transfer failed and a nationalistic, pragmatic and authoritarian intervention, each time more hard-hitting than before, emerged with dire consequences. Occasionally, distinctive characteristics of the Turkish experience manifested itself in the uneasy symbiosis of policy-making with neo-liberal practices in cities. Using qualitative methodology, this study provides an account of Turkey's urbanization policy-making episodes in the last decade to show how consecutive attempts to use policy learning and participation as leverage gradually alienated policy intermediaries and allowed strengthening of neo-liberal interventions in urban sphere.