Mehmet Akif Sag on "The importance of the city region approach for the governance of metropolitan areas: the case study of Antalya (Turkey) city region"

1. The importance of the city region
approach for the governance of
metropolitan areas: the case study
of Antalya (Turkey) city region
by Mehmet Akif Sag
Research Assistant, Selcuk University, Faculty of
Engineering and Architecture, Department of City and
Regional Planning, Konya, Turkey
e.mail: sagmakif@gmail.com

2. INTRODUCTION
• With city region, generally an area is defined
which contains the whole of economic activities
tightly bond to each other.
• While on the one hand city region is being the
most distinct environment of the space of the
globalization process on the other hand it stands
against the content of the globalization that goes
beyond the borders.
• When the concept is defined in its own inner
integrity, it limits the argument of non-existence
of national borders with the region content.

3. INTRODUCTION
• Urban space is defined not as a sole city but as a
region comprising many settlements inside.
When dependence of the satellite towns of the
metropolitan city, which consists of industrial
areas settled out of the center due to the fordist
production type, to the center is taken into
consideration, that the settlements in the city
regions emerge as settlements adequate for
themselves and that direct their relations without
the need of a central city, forms its conceptual
difference.

4. INTRODUCTION
• When predictions regarding that within the
coming few decades 3 of every 4 countries whose
population will exceed 10 millions will take place
among developing countries are taken into
account, it is another issue to discuss to what
extent accumulations in these countries can be
regulated with the city region concept. With
other words, whether it is possible to make an
original city region definition special to them that
can be used to explain the accumulations in these
countries.

5. Neo-Liberal Structuring and Its Effects
on Urban Government
• Welfare state, a product of the restructuring
process at the end of the Second World War,
in order to get rid of the financial crisis it has
entered into a comprehensive transformation
with economic, social, political and
governmental policies of the new right which
is the discourse of the neo-liberal policies in
the political field in first half of the 1970’s.

6. Neo-Liberal Structuring and Its Effects
on Urban Government
• With the economic restructuring process of the
80’s as well, besides the developments the local
potential and effects created in the economy
discipline, local governments (especially in the
developed western countries) started to gain
economic and social sovereignty in such a level as
to remind old city states. Sovereignties gained by
the cities firstly brought the competition concept
and a competition started between the cities
especially to draw investments and capital flows
taking place in the globalization process.

7. Neo-Liberal Structuring and Its Effects
on Urban Government
• Urban governments, with this new process
started restructuring in line with structures
composed of new coalitions including capital
groups and governance concept. In this context,
two basic changes in the urban space are spoken:
The first one is that local governments leaving
function of reproduction of labor and takes the
reproduction of the capital and the second one is
that the local, with a competitive city model
engages in more paradigmatic relations with
national state and in international area.

8. New Spatial Concepts
• Parallel to this transformation in economic order
there appear conceptual changes in urban area
relations system as well. Especially to explain new
orders of large cities and their sprawl process; it
is found that Camagni and Salone (1993) tried to
conceptualize as City Networks, Batten (1995) as
Network Cities, Dieleman and Faludi (1998) as
Polynucleated Metropolitan Regions and Westin
and Osthol (1994) as Multicore City-regions. In
all these studies, it is researched how cities
extend according to new capital movements and
what kind of a distribution among their functions
they form a basis to.

9. New Spatial Concepts
• Especially in European countries it is seen that multi-
centered city regions are subject of discussion over the
concept of ‘urban networks’ in Belgium, ‘polycentric
national centres’ in Denmark, ‘urban networks’ in Estonia,
‘networks of cities’ (réseaux des villes) in France,
‘metropolitan regions’ (metropolregionen) and ‘urban
networks’ (Städtenetze) in Germany, ‘twin poles’ in
Greece, ‘linked gateways’ in Ireland, ‘Metropolis Vilnius–
Kaunas’ in Litvania, ‘urban networks’ in Holland, ‘duopols’
in Poland and ‘networked urban system’ (vernetzte
Städtesystem) in Switzerland.
• In all these countries the issue of what kind of a
government model needs to be taken with the most right
conceptual framework regarding the growing and sprawling
cities is directing planning policies.

10. New Spatial Concepts
• In Turkey, recent years, an effort to make large
cities population of which are increasing with a
great speed attractive in respect of capital
movements is observed. Especially it is made a
basic purpose to develop the cities and make
them gain competitive advantage by providing
suitable conditions to investing companies
through privatization of public fields.
• This situation causes to get out of the decisions
set forth in urban plan schemas and to put plan
amendments continuously in agenda which has
become a frequently applied method. Out of plan
developments cause cities to extend and
settlements with different administrative borders
to intertwine with one another.

11. Antalya City Region Borders
• Antalya with its functions loaded to it in regional
and urban respects in the process of last 25 years
with the entering into effect of Tourism Incentive
Law has become the main region in Turkey in
which Tourism policies are applied. The city,
gaining specialization in this sector rapidly is
leading a rapid way towards having a property of
an international metropolitan center united with
the world which tends to rapidly integrate with
contemporary world.
• Figure 1 below shows current main borders of
Antalya.

12. Antalya City Region Borders
Antalya Province Border
Antalya Metropoliten Municipality Border
Town Municipality Borders
Mediterranean Sea

13. Antalya City Region Borders
• That Antalya being the leading city in Turkey’s tourism sector,
makes it a need to take the city within tendency of
contemporary planning and to determine regional
development policies in a most efficient way. In giving politics
decisions preparing only physical and implementation based
zoning studies will leave the city undefended against
speculative approaches. In current local government system,
location, conformity with top policies, distribution of land use
types and description and direction of areas subject to lower
scaled planning, in every settlement within the city region
bear the risk of facing the threat of inconsistent or uniform
approaches. Consequently, such type of a government model
is seen as an important disadvantage in reaching synergy
environment that can be achieved in important economic
regions like Antalya.
• Figure 2 below shows current main arterial roads of Antalya.
Continuity in the coastal band shows the corridor effect of the
sea.

14. Antalya City Region Borders
Fig. 2 - Current Main Arterial Roads of Antalya

15. Antalya City Region Borders
• In Figure 3, you can see points where Tourism
Facilities are accumulated. The effect of
coastal tourism passes beyond Antalya
metropolitan border and continues
uninterruptedly on the coast corridor.

16. Antalya City Region Borders
Mediterranean Sea
Fig. 3 - Tourism Facilities.

17. Antalya City Region Borders
In Figure 4, the drawing between the coastal band settlements is shown
by arrows indicating extending directions of the settlements.
Mediterranean Sea
Fig. 4 - The Coastal Band Settlements.

18. Antalya City Region Borders
• Nearly all of the settlements along the coastal
band are left under the effect of Antalya
Metropolitan City, but this tourism corridor is
tried to be governed by local government
units of tens of different settlements. A region
that features continuity in respects of nature
and economy needs to be defined as Antalya
city region and the requirement of a top
government model suitable to this structure is
clear.

19. The Need to Restructure the
Government in City Region
• Planning discussion made over the spatial organization
of changing relations between settlements in city
region makes it seen that in fact there is a shortage of
an institutional structure developed regarding this
situation. Although relations between settlements, for
a rather long period, have been explained according to
Christaller’s hierarchy model, as in the case of Antalya
it is seen compulsory to take it on an institutional level
in the explanation of new spatial organization of more
horizontal network relations. This new spatial
organization type is generally referred to as urban
network structuring in literature.

20. The Need to Restructure the
Government in City Region
• Network concept is used in a strong relation with
synergy concept. Synergy concept, with its best
known meaning, is functioning together of two or
more things to produce a result not
independently obtainable. In Antalya city region,
it clear that synergy can be achieved by taking
every settlement especially tourism movement in
coastal line as together but not in their own
administrative borders. However, in Antalya
according to the observations over relations
between public institutions, it can be said that
the relations between public institutions are very
weak and only at a pious plane.

21. The Need to Restructure the
Government in City Region
• Analyses we have made show that urban
network structure development in city region
can be useful in respect of synergy creation as
horizontal networks. Relations between
settlements, it must be taken as synergy
mechanisms. Planning this mechanism with
multi-level governance is seen as the best
choice.

22. Conclusion: What is required for an
organization model suitable to this structure?
• As can be observed from the arguments above, the
most important issue in organization model suitable to
city region structure is the ability to form a common
decision between actors with different quality,
expectation and view. Globalization process which is
the agenda since the beginning of 1980’s change of the
role of the state with the economic depression
globalization brings, reorganization of nation states,
tries to localize the government structure by
weakening central decision system are among the
issues that are discussed mostly in the last twenty
years. Within this framework, changing structure of
the government is defined as transition from
government to governance.

23. Conclusion: What is required for an
organization model suitable to this structure?
• The most important one of the main elements
of governance is the formation of politics
networks. In European countries, politics
networks which gained importance after 1980
today are becoming institutions feeding
decision processes participants of which take
equal duties.

24. Conclusion: What is required for an
organization model suitable to this structure?
• There is no implementation chance of
decisions made under the domination of
central or local authorities. For this reason in
realizing multi-actor and multi-level decision
processes although there are many hardships
rising out of current deficiencies, it is seen
that there is no other solution than
establishing infrastructure of these processes
and rising awareness among individuals.

25. … Thank You Very Much…
Much…