Counter-Urbanization Experience in Developing Countries: the Case of İstanbul Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Urbanization is the popular phenomenon in the 1950s that was replaced with counter-urbanization in the 1970s, which defines the population movement from metropolitan areas to rural settlements. The counterurbanization mobility that is directly shaped by economic development, legal regulations, technological developments, causes the socio-economic and spatial transformation of rural settlements. although there are exceptions, the counter-urbanization process is generally associated with economic development. The research aims to reveal the differences of the counter-urbanization movement in developed and developing countries in terms of process, causes, and effects, and how Turkey's counter-urbanization experience differs from the world examples. With this aim, the method of the research is to examine the counter-urbanization literature in-depth, to put forward the counter-urbanization conceptually. While rural development, gentrification, and sustainability are the focus of rural research in Turkey, the counter-urbanization which has a direct impact on rural areas, has not been sufficiently researched yet. In this way, this research contributes to the counterurbanization literature. However, rural areas are ignored by the legal regulations, rural settlements which are the basis of the country's socio-economic and spatial sustainability are transformed from production centers to consumption centers with the effects of counter-urbanization. The differentiation of the counter-urbanization process according to country, region, and metropolitan scale and blurring of rural-urban borders in metropolitan cities make it difficult to define the counter-urbanization movement. In this context, the definition of the counter-urbanization process within the borders of the metropolitan area, the driving forces causing counterurbanization, and its socio-economic and spatial effects on rural settlements were examined through the example of Istanbul, one of the most important metropolises of Turkey. As seen in the example of Istanbul, the transformation process of the rural life model and the rural economy, the social relations in rural areas, and the counter-urbanized social group differ from the world examples. While the counter-urbanization process emerged with the individual preferences of the households who are ready to adopt the rural life model, in developing countries such as Turkey is managed by mega-scale public and private investments, plan decisions, transformation in legal and administrative structure, and rent. While the rural life form is preserved in developed countries, the urban and rural population acts with a collective consciousness and social integration is ensured. For example, while the rural population transfers the place-specific knowledge to the urban population, the urban population supports rural production models with the integration of information technologies and contributes positively to the socio-economic development of the rural areas. In Turkey, legal regulations, directing public and private investments to rural areas by planning toolsresulted in urban sprawl and rural areas and population urbanized with real-estate and construction-oriented development model. Moreover, counterurbanized groups in Turkey even if the movement reason is natural and rural idly, they prefer to isolate themselves from the rural population socio-spatially and deepen the social segregation. Although the counterurbanization process in Turkey started at the local level in the 2000s, factors such as the socio-economic problems experienced in the recent period, the increase in density in the cities and urban problems, the change in the urban demographic structure, and the pandemic trigger the desire for life in the rural areas, and it is observed that the counter-urbanization trend will continue. In this context, to define the counter-urbanization concept clearly and examine the counter-urbanization processin the world is so important to guide the counterurbanization process in Turkey.