Turkey: uncertain emblem of the future?

Abstract

Denizli is a city of almost 300000 in southwest Turkey which has experienced unprecedented growth over the past 2 decades. Until the 1970s the only important development in Denizli was the establishment of a new textile factory in 1953. The first substantial measures supportive of industrialization emerged in the 1970s with the State Planning Organization in 1973 designating the province as a priority area for industrialization. The 1980s were a turning point for Denizli initiated by local textile producers who took advantage of the export-oriented transformation in Turkey as well as the global restructuring of textile and related production. Trade firms played an important role in the process. At the beginning a small number of medium-sized firms entered subcontracting agreements especially to produce towel and bath rope. This early entrepreneurship fueled the growth of other small producers and medium-sized firms to the extent that Denizli operations generate almost 10% of the rapidly growing Turkish textile exports in the 1990s. The transformation experienced in the city has produced some large-scale changes in the structure and nature of local alliances and conflicts. This paper describes the local transformation process which Denizli has undergone over the past 2 decades with emphasis upon the emerging forms of inequalities and strategies of resistance upon the part of the excluded masses.