Villages at the state/society interface during the crisis: Toward new territorial boundaries in metropolitan municipalities

Abstract

Rural settings in Turkey have been challenged by various developments in the neoliberal crisis era such as deagrarianization, dispossession, and migration. These processes alter the forms of production, livelihood strategies, and the use of land and labour in rural sites. In addition to the discussions on disappearing ruralities, the state policies on rural development and governance have accelerated ongoing transformation and turn our attention toward state-society interface in the countryside of Turkey. In 2012, the Law No. 6360 expanded the boundaries of metropolitan municipalities with the intention of providing more effective and qualified local services. According to this law, villages and sub-provincial municipalities within the administrative boundaries of metropolitan municipalities lost their legal status. Villages are no longer accepted as legal entities but they are now considered as neighborhoods. In the crisis era, the abolishment of villages and the creation of new legal status as neighborhoods result in considerable change in rural governance and socio-political processes specifically on decision making, the use of common goods and land, and the design of rural development policies. Therefore, this chapter focuses on socio-technical and political arrangements in newly opening scenarios for rural areas in the crisis period in Turkey within the theoretical framework of neoliberal governance, metropolitan ruralities, as well as local representativeness and democracy. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.