Spatial Reproduction under Neoliberal Restructuring: Antalya’s Urbanization Experience after 1980

CERTEL Y. B., CETİN S.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt.13, sa.2, ss.723-750, 2026 (ESCI, TRDizin)

Özet

The main objective of this study is to critically examine the effects of neoliberal policies implemented in Türkiye after 1980 on urban restructuring, using Antalya as a case study. The study evaluates how planning approaches based on public interest and spatial integrity were gradually eroded through market-oriented legislation, exceptional planning powers, and rent-driven interventions. First, it examines the 1978 Can Plan, which proposed a comprehensive planning framework aimed at protecting Antalya’s natural, cultural, coastal, and agricultural assets. It then analyzes how legislative changes-including the Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634 (1982), successive zoning amnesties, and Development Law No. 3194 (1985)-legalized unplanned construction, increased building densities, allocated coastal land to private investment, and converted agricultural land to residential use. The research employs a qualitative historical case-study design based on planning documents, legal and administrative records, municipal decisions, official statistics, and aerial survey photographs obtained from the General Command of Mapping (GCM). The findings indicate that Antalya’s post-1980 spatial development was shaped by cumulative plan amendments, exceptional authorities, density increases, and legalization mechanisms that prioritized exchange value over use value. These interventions contributed to the commodification of public and coastal assets, intensified socio-spatial inequalities, and weakened comprehensive planning control. The Antalya case demonstrates how planning in Türkiye has increasingly been integrated into capital accumulation processes and highlights the need to re-establish a planning approach grounded in public interest, social equality, ethical responsibility, and environmental sustainability.