Restructuring Processes and the City: a Case Study on Izmir and Its Region

Abstract

This thesis is mainly about the debates, issues, and agendas stemming from the social, economic, political, and cultural .restructuring processes., which have been experienced since the end of the 1970s and are yet ongoing at the outset of the 21st century. The conceptualizations, analyses, and explanations made on these profound processes, and on the city and the region are the crucial foci within the thesis. The major findings derived from the evaluations, discussions, and propositions are explored in a case study on one of the major cities of Turkey, İzmir and its region. Among many, especially the .regionalism., .governance., .growth management., and .strategic planning. are the highlighted subjects. The .city-region. is offered to be a proper spatial analysis and planning unit for the integrated strategic planning approaches; the .producer services. is pointed out as a rising service sub-sector representing the economic restructuring processes with the important spatial concerns; and furthermore, the role of the spatial planning, policy, and the planner within the restructuring division of labor, the rise of strategic planning and of large scale projects on the redefined cities, city-regions, and the wider regions throughout the restructuring processes are the emphasized planning concerns within the thesis. Though not so dense and intensified compared with that of İstanbul region, İzmir region and the wider economic-geographic region are identified to be subject to substantial restructurings coupling with the global, nationwide, and İstanbul region centered processes since the beginning of the 1980s. The fundamental evidences on İzmir region are cited within; the repositioning in the national economic and spatial system, the shifts in the GDP and employment structure of economic sectors, emerging major spatial projects, changes and transformations within the spatial order and land use pattern, and the recent tendencies of planning approaches. GIS has been used as a fundamental tool throughout the economic, geographic, and historical analyses. One of the major points that the thesis points out is the need for critical and empirical work on the dialectics between the restructuring processes, and the cities, city-regions and the wider regions especially in the so-called third world geographies to be of use in the developing governance, management, and strategic planning studies within the complex and hierarchical interrelations of the settlements.