Large-Scale Urban Projects, Production of Space and Neo-liberal Hegemony: A Comparative Study of Izmir

• Main Author: Mehmet PENPECİOĞLU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KARE Publishing 2013-04-01
• Series: Megaron
• Subjects: Large-scale urban projects; hegemonic project; Izmir; production of space; neo-liberal hegemony.
• Online Access: http://www.journalagent.com/megaron/pdfs/MEGARON-87597-ARTICLE_%28THESIS%29-PENPECIOGLU.pdf

With the rise of neo-liberalism, large-scale urban projects (LDPs) have become a powerful mechanism of urban policy. Creating spaces of neo-liberal urbanization such as central business districts, tourism centers, gated residences and shopping malls, LDPs play a role not only in the reproduction of capital accumulation relations but also in the shift of urban political priorities towards the construction of neo-liberal hegemony. The construction of neo-liberal hegemony and the role played by LDPs in this process could not only be investigated by the analysis of capital accumulation. For such an investigation; the role of state and civil society actors in LDPs, their collaborative and conflictual relationships should be researched and their functions in hegemony should be revealed. In the case of Izmir’s two LDPs, namely the New City Center (NCC) and Inciraltı Tourism Center (ITC) projects, this study analyzes the relationship between the production of space and neo-liberal hegemony. In the NCC project, local governments, investors, local capital organizations and professional chambers collaborated and disseminated hegemonic discourse, which provided social support for the project. Through these relationships and discourses, the NCC project has become a hegemonic project for producing space and constructed neo-liberal hegemony over urban political priorities. In contrast to the NCC project, the ITC project saw no collaboration between state and organized civil society actors. The social opposition against the ITC project, initiated by professional chambers, has brought legal action against the ITC development plans in order to prevent their implementation. As a result, the ITC project did not acquire the consent of organized social groups and failed to become a hegemonic project for producing space.