For several decades, Turkey has witnessed increasing investments in housing. There is evidence that some households benefited from this increase. The transfer of housing assets today is also an extensive social and economic phenomenon different from the traditional processes. There are several issues related to this process the most significant being the universal concern for its contribution to wealth polarization. Supply impacts in the markets are other aspect of the same process. Since greater accumulation of housing wealth has pooled in the hands of household heads aging 50 and more, the process of housing wealth transfers will gain significance soon. No extensive study of this process has yet been made. After reviewing the factors affecting the process of wealth transfers and elaborating the institutional background of inheritance, the intergenerational property transfers in Turkey are examined with the 1994 Households Income and Consumption Expenditures Survey, The Population Census and The Death Statistics of Turkey. It is possible to develop a model to investigate the number of potential benefactors and beneficiaries and, the prospective property transferred in one year as a result of inheritance. Then, the amount of transfer taxes by Ministry of Finance could be compared with taxes realized for the same year, as one method of exploring problems of process of housing inheritance in Turkey. The results depict that in one year 30 477 individual property owners die and approximately 102 000 individuals benefit. It is concluded that property wealth is in general transferred to those who are already homeowners. It is observed that the amount to be taken by the Treasury as inheritance tax should be 13 times greater than the actual amount transferred. And finally, it is concluded that taxation system should not be the only solution for the problems in inheritance processes, but Reverse Mortgage may be a solution for transmission of wealth inequalities and for the efficient use of inherited property. It is also mentioned that inherited properties may be pilot areas for new rehabilitation projects for declining neighborhoods.

As many American metropolitan areas spread outward, urban sociologists are interested in the effects of sprawl and in efforts to limit suburban expansion. To rein in urban sprawl, land use measures known as “smart growth initiatives” are gaining popularity. Urban growth boundaries are the particular type of initiative examined in this research. An urban growth boundary delineates where development is encouraged and where it is discouraged or prohibited. My first research question is whether urban growth boundaries contribute to the exclusion of racial minorities. I also explore whether urban growth boundaries affect residential segregation. I study 86 places throughout the U.S.: 43 matched pairs of places (with each pair comprised of a place with an urban growth boundary and a place without a boundary but otherwise similar to its partner). I also consider Atlanta, with no constraints on growth, and Portland, Oregon, a smart growth leader. Census data and residential segregation indexes from 1990 and 2000 for whites, blacks, and Hispanics are analyzed. The analysis consists of comparing change in the number of blacks and Hispanics due to in-migration and population growth in places with and without urban growth boundaries, and examining levels of segregation in them. I find that urban growth boundaries do not reduce blacks’ or Hispanics’ in-migration or population size. Also, the preponderance of the results supports the view that urban growth boundaries are not a cause of racial residential segregation.

The aim of this study is to discuss white collar industrial employee&rsquo / s alienation to urban life in Kocaeli. In this context, Lived Space of white collar industrial employees in a selected factory in the city is examined in terms of employees&rsquo / use and perception of the urban space. To this end, several expert interviews (local media representative, head of chamber of industry and head of the department of human resources of the selected factory) and subject group interviews were carried out and analyzed in combination with an application of a questionnaire conducted with 62 employees. At the micro level, the study shows that white collar industrial employees only feel limited &ldquo / urban attachment&rdquo / and perceive Kocaeli as a place they have put up with in order to gain a living. At the macro level, it is suggested that a spatial regime in which Kocaeli is the industrial periphery of the Istanbul Metropolitan Region is an important determinant of the assumed alienation of the subject group. In this context, the results attained from the field study show that although the white collar industrial employees use the urban space partially in their daily activities and establish some community relations, they are still alienated to the city in terms of their perception of the urban space and stuck in the centrifugal structure between the metropolitan centre and the industrial periphery.

ANKARA, 1923-1950: THE SOCIO-SPATIAL MANIFESTATION OF REPUBLICAN WILL Tak, Ahmet Ph. D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya &Ouml / zcan February 2007, 248 pages The social, cultural, aesthetic, and spatial aspects of the urban transformation in its specific relationship with a certain ideology is examined in the study. Ankara, as the capital city of a new state, is regarded as a materialized reflection of the modernization program of the Kemalist ideology which defined the main foundations of the Republic and shaped its formation. The formation process of Ankara is tried to be understood in a historical deepness. Therefore, in order to comprehend the nature of the social transformation, in a historical context, Istanbul is taken into consideration as a model for the traditional Ottoman city because it had represented the Ottoman urban ideals with its social, cultural and aesthetic aspects. From the Ottoman period to the Republican, the structural transformation of the cities is tried to be studied with referring to a notion of crisis which has covered the cultural area. Ankara had been the most important place where the endeavors of the Republican elite to build a nation and to create a national culture and identity had became manifest explicitly and in the most pure form. Therefore, the creation process of Ankara presents us an important exemple to understand social and cultural dimensions of the Turkish modernization in the Republican period. In the context of Ankara, the process of establishing a modern and national high culture and identity in the tensions between modernity and traditionalism and its consequences are examined in the study.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the class and consciousness formation in a local setting by also developing and applying a theoretical framework which allow us to study the interaction of locus of class consciousness with the other loci of consciousness formation such as the community and the state. Such an approach is also grounded in the belief that a relational understanding of these processes requires us to take spatial dynamics such as local dependency, spatial fix and fixity and mobility into account. By critically drawing upon historico-geographical materialist approach(es), the thesis attempts at resolving the tensions between &lsquo / locality-wider society&rsquo / and &lsquo / structure-consciousness&rsquo / . By integrating them into a holistic and operational conceptual framework, it investigates the highly complex patterning of relations within urban structured coherences, and their effects upon the class and consciousness formation processes. It is shown that interpenetration of these fields of tension through urban processes is crucial in shaping a backbone for the concrete struggles fought by working class against capital in and of the urban regions. These issues are discussed with reference to two working class neighborhoods in Bursa. The first community, Emek, is an unplanned, illegally built settlement, hosting mostly migrant, and lower-wage earning industrial workers, and the second one, Akpinar, is a planned settlement, composed of low-cost housing cooperatives, symbolizing a higher living standard environment for well-paid, socially secure workers, mostly local in origin. The field research focuses on the relations between &lsquo / the labor market, housing market and local dependency&rsquo / and &lsquo / the strategies between mobility-fixity adopted both on part of capital and labor&rsquo / . The specific character of these strategies also tell us how the patterning of the relations between class, community and state loci of consciousness formation and the formation of local coherences mutually shape one another. It is often assumed in this context that formation of class-based consciousness is hindered by other loci of consciousness such as the community-based one. This study shows that community-based consciousness is itself largely absent in the communities in hand and when community-base is deployed by the local workers it is often strategically employed to get personal benefits. In this sense, the study concludes that the lack of community-based consciousness does not device more effective strategies of formation of class-based consciousness but perhaps another adverse factor in developing class-based consciousness in an environment heavily dominated by individualized form of consciousness.

This study aims to understand the glocal character of shopping malls and consumption patterns in the specific case of Ankara. The shopping mall has been a manifestation of globalization in the changing urban space as well as culture in Ankara since the 1990s. It has marked a significant shift from local dispositions of consumption and retailing, too. The study explores how this shift occurs in Ankara with regard to four aspects: spatial reorganization of urban space via malls / changing consumption patterns and urban public culture / the rise of organized retailing / and, finally, the interplay between the global and the local in commodification processes. The data was collected from semi-structured interviews with twenty-eight salespeople in four malls, namely Begendik, Arcadium, Ankamall and Optimum. These four cases each display a distinct blend of global currents and local orientations. It was realized that malls are increasingly popular for they signify a much-needed urban space and public life for the socially and culturally differentiating people in the city. Orientations of mall visitors vary regarding age, gender, neighborhood and occupational differences, while urban or rural identities can be also effective in the social practices in different malls. The ways shop employees differentiate themselves change according to their perception of consumers in a certain mall, too.

Rural migration process resulted in both spatial and social problems in large Turkish cities. Squatter housing transformation constitutes the spatial dimension of the problem. On the other hand, rural migration has led to social problems such as non-integration, social exclusion and urban poverty of the migrant groups. This dissertation which believes the necessity of searching rural migration as a socio-spatial process attempts to explore the relationship between squatter housing transformation and social integration of rural migrants into the urban life. Within this framework, this study attempts to answer three major research questions: (1) What are the rural migrants&amp / #8217 / perceived attributes of urban integration? (2) Which attributes significantly explain urban integration of rural migrants? (3) Does the urban integration of rural migrants differentiate according to where they live &amp / #8211 / squatter housing neighborhoods, transformed squatter housing neighborhoods via improvement plans, and transformed squatter housing neighborhoods via urban transformation project model&amp / #8211 / ? I design this exploratory study as a case study since a case study method is an appropriate methodology for holistic and in-depth investigations. I conduct the case study of this thesis in Dikmen that includes different rural migrant settlements. I conduct in-depth interviews with rural migrants to collect the data, and apply multivariate analysis techniques to answer the research questions of this study. Thesis findings provide that urban integration is a multi-dimensional phenomenon / and multiple relationships exist between dimensions of urban integration, between dimensions and evaluations of urban integration, and urban integration and squatter housing transformation.

Co-operatives and housing co-operatives as main consideration of the dissertation are historically and philosophically developed institutions. Co-operative culture, although emerged in Britain during early phases of the industrial revolution, has been adapted by other countries within socialist, social democratic and even communist systems. In the contemporary era, housing co-operatives are still in existence and contribute housing production all over the world in every economic and political system. Institutional development of housing co-operatives in Turkey can be regarded as a process of adapting a Western institution and it shows how contextual differences result in changes in terms of ideology and implementation. In this respect, the thesis aims to evaluate Turkish housing co-operatives by putting forward their contextual differences. Housing co-operatives are non-governmental organizations and produce considerable amount of housing in Turkey. The dissertation regards housing co-operatives as a kind of collective action and discusses underlying factors of success of them with respect to collective action theories. Free riding, group size, critical mass, heterogeneity, network density and selective incentives are the factors obtained from the Theory of Free Rider and the Theory of Critical Mass and discussed regarding the Turkish co-operative development case to be tested via &ldquo / The Housing Co-operatives Interview Survey&rdquo / in istanbul and Ankara. The thesis&rsquo / findings provide that despite there might be expected effects of factors on success of housing co-operatives, these factors might be different due to the fact that they depends on desires of the critical mass / whether to act in favor of collective or individual benefits.

This thesis concentrates on the effects of poverty and socio-spatial exclusion on the local communities and the solidarity ties among the poor. The field research conducted in Bostancik Neighbourhood revolved around two basic questions / socio-spatial segregation of the poor communities from the wider society and the impact of this on the internal structure of these communities with special reference to the solidarity ties and networks. The findings of the research show that the urban poor have been excluded from the mainstream economy and such an exclusion is companied by their further exclusion from social and political processes and public spaces of the city which resulted with their confinement in such physical settings looking like ghetto. Likewise, the research findings point to the fact that in Bostancik Neighbourhood, the community relations revolving around supportive networks, so-called common norms and interests have been severely damaged by the increasing poverty and exclusion. What replaces such relations is a new life style characterised by fragmentation and atomisation of not only community but also other forms of solidarity. In turn, it is observed that there is a high level tension and hostility within the community. The overall findings show that as a result of the economic, social, political and spatial exclusion and social isolation, the communal characteristics of the neighbourhood have been largely dissolved in favour of an atomistic life style threatining the conditions of living together.

This study tries to identify agencies&rsquo / strategies in the &lsquo / urban restructuring&rsquo / of Antalya into a &lsquo / city of culture&rsquo / by examining the underlying relation between urban cultural policies and global capitalism. Pursuing the relational thinking of the Marxist urban political economy paradigm, the theoretical frames for the concepts of &lsquo / restructuring&rsquo / and &lsquo / city of culture&rsquo / were investigated using multi-dimensional approaches of existing scholarly literature. Since the concept &lsquo / city of culture&rsquo / involves growth oriented development strategies of cities competing with other cities for capital, the concept is examined in these sub-fields: (field of art and culture / subfield(s) of urban -planning, -governance, -politics, -design / field of economy / field of tourism). Thus, to outline a theory of practice for the &lsquo / growth machine&rsquo / agents, the transformation of the &lsquo / forms of capital&rsquo / that both the agents and Antalya &lsquo / city&rsquo / possess is examined in four sub-fields in the general field of power in Antalya. Various qualitative research methods were used to understand what underlies the restructuring process. Most of the qualitative data resulted from direct interviews / 28 individuals from six groups (the representatives of -cultural, educational and academic institutions / -capitalist investors / -local government / -NGOs / -central government / Antalyalite Intelligentsia) and a group interview (with 6 academics at Akdeniz University) during the field research conducted between 2006 and 2008. This thesis identifies the Antalya Greater Municipality (AGM) as the leading agency in the pro-growth coalition in Antalya with support from ATSO (Antalya Chamber of Trade and Commerce) among various other local and global agents (T&Uuml / RSAK, iGM-istanbul Greater Municipality, WTO, EU) with their wealth of economic, cultural, commercial, social, and symbolic capitals influencing urban restructuring in Antalya. Opposing them is a group critical of cultural, economic and urban policies compatible with the policies trying to ease the transformation of Antalya into a festival marketplace or fantasy city. Eventually, it is argued that the urban elites&rsquo / strategies to transform Antalya into a &lsquo / city of culture&rsquo / have produced a &lsquo / growth machine&rsquo / using the world city ideology to convince people of the benefits of this transformation. The essential finding of this study is that the &lsquo / state&rsquo / is the most active player in the restructuring process through its interventions in various fields.