Social capital formation and disposition of the hometown associations in Turkish politics: the Ankara case

Download
2013
Şenalp, Eren
Large cities in Turkey have been at the centre of political field since the foundation of republic. However starting from the late 1950s, the political dynamics of the large cities have changed immensely thanks to the rapid migrations from the rural areas. In a short space of time half population of the large cities was constituted by the migrant population. In a competitive political environment political parties entered a dynamic relationship with the migrant population characterised by so-called patron-client relations. On the other hand there was also a process of radicalisation of politics during the same period led by the large city politics. There was an uneasy and delicate relationship between clientelism and radical politics in the 1970s. This balance has been changed dramatically in favour of clientelistic relations by 1980 coup d’état as the decline of the class politics paved the way for various forms of identity politics including Hemşehrilik relations and hometown associations as its organizational form. The thesis focuses on the hometown associations as a key form of social in general and political capital. Although hometown associations have been used as a stepping stone to the political carrier from the very beginning, this strategy became highly influential after the 1980s. The empirical research shows that despite effective working of such a strategy, it tends to create a legitimacy problem for the hometown associations and the political figures using employing such a strategy.

Suggestions

The International from the perspectives of Gezi Protestors
Göçer Akder, Derya; Altunışık, Meliha (2018-03-01)
Gezi Protests that started in Istanbul and spilled over to other cities in the Spring of 2013 has been regarded as an important episode of Turkish politics in the 21st century. Although it happened in congruous with protests movements in different localities in the world as well as significant transformations in Turkey's foreign policy, the question of the influence of the international in these protests has been largely unexplored. This paper presents the empirical findings of a fieldwork on Gezi Protests,...
The Military and Europeanization Reforms in Turkey
Ünlü Bilgiç, Tuba (Informa UK Limited, 2009-01-01)
The Europeanization reforms in Turkey are partly designed to bring about the demilitarization of Turkish politics. However, up to now reforms have not been free from the military's impact. The democracy game is still played in a field whose borders have been delimited by the Turkish armed forces (TAF) and its interpretation of Kemalism. Even when the boundaries of these borders were extended, it was more due to the TAF's self-restraint, motivated by the prospect of membership in the EU, rather than the rest...
Changing city identity: the case of Eskişehir /
Hakyemez, Dilara; Gökce, Fuat; Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Department of Architecture (2016)
In Turkey, many cities’ histories date back to ages ago. Many Anatolian cities are multilayered cities which mean cities can contain two or more different periods’ traces, ruins, monuments or parts, and Eskişehir is one of these multilayered cities. The city has been home to many cultures and civilizations, like Phrygians, Lydians, Roman and Ottoman Empires. In this thesis, identity of city will be trying to analyze; the permanent marks and also changes will be searched in the case of Eskişehir. Characteris...
Socio-spatial disparities: the production of marginality within urban space of Tehran (1963-1979)
Valizadeh, Paria; Sargın, Güven Arif; Department of Architecture (2018)
Cities operate simultaneously as a presupposition and an outcome of each mode of production in each period of history and hence city is the very first ground where major socio-economic and political relations find geographical materialization. City and its urban forms, then, are closely tied up with dominant strategies of production, reproduction and transformation of space. In this regard, modernization strategies of ruling powers are of significant importance that lay foundation for further urban developm...
Housing cooperatives as a tool of urban development in Adana
Erginkaya, Cüneyt Kamil; Günay, Baykan; Department of City and Regional Planning (2012)
Housing problem had firstly emerged in Ankara after the establishment of Turkish Republic and increased after the 2nd World War. With the population increases in the cities, due to the migration from rural to urban areas, the housing need have increased also as well as the other requirements. Housing Cooperatives that had first developed at 1934 represent a new type of licensed residence. Some precautions such as financial support were taken by the governments to solve this continuously rising housing probl...
Citation Formats
E. Şenalp, “Social capital formation and disposition of the hometown associations in Turkish politics: the Ankara case,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.