Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Since the 1980s, agriculture and food sector in Turkey has been undergoing an intense process of restructuring which witnessed the transition from a figure of the peasantry under the aegis of the state to farmers producing for the market economy. Since 1999, the Turkish state has introduced institutional changes to ensure the unhindered internationalization of Turkish agriculture, resulting in increased impoverishment of the rural masses and the abandonment of agriculture by small- and medium-sized households with a concomitant exodus to urban centers. What is not discussed in the growing literature tracing the socio-economic effects of this transformation is the rise of peri-urban spaces in Turkey as alternatives to ongoing neoliberalization of both Turkish economy and Turkish life. For the purposes of this paper, peri-urban areas will refer to transition zones where urban and rural uses of land mix and inform each other. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and archival research conducted in Seferihisar, Turkey and its peri-urban environs, this paper argues that various implementations of the slow city criteria in peri-urban spaces in Seferihisar Turkey provides an alternative way of life and production directly challenging the neoliberalization of both Turkish economy and social life. However, the benefits of living in these peri-urban spaces are not shared evenly among the occupants, as affinity with local governance affects access to resources and connections. Ironically, these peri-urban spaces face the problem of uneven commercial and private development schemes as well as increased tourism and migration.