A Tale of Eight Cities: New Localism and New Middle Classes in Turkey

“In the last decade, more than 70% of Turkey has urbanized; as a result of neoliberalism's overly developmentalist and consumption-oriented approach, cities have become commodified, environmental concerns have succumbed to profit and rent, and the hope for democratic and participatory governance has faded due to a centralist understanding. However, Turkey's urbanization and the rise of its middle class continued with certain pauses across Anatolia. In this context, just as in the rest of the world, the city in Turkey has become an important phenomenon for understanding and interpreting the political, social, and economic changes brought about by neoliberalism, leading to a search for alternatives to cope with the negativities it created in cities. The motto that best expresses this quest is 'cities for people, not for profit.'

“We attempted to conduct this discussion in the cities of Kayseri, Konya, Gaziantep, Izmir, Denizli, Eskişehir, and Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa. We believe there is a need to study and discuss the city and the urbanization process for understanding Turkey, particularly after the local elections of March 31, 2019, and for good, fair, and democratic governance. We hope that 'The Story of Eight Cities' will be read as a modest contribution to this discussion.”