Contradictions in the Neoliberal Policy Instruments: What Is the Stance of the State?

Abstract

In many countries the neoliberal policies caused the rise of the critique of progressive planning, ranging from arguments against spatial planning to variety of positions that accept some form of intervention in certain contexts. The changes in the planning legislation and institutions, although define the general tendency to cope with the interests of the global capital, are quite uneven and diverse. This paper aims to explore how the policies of neoliberalism and globalisation have affected planning system in Turkey, indicating that the agenda defined under the neoliberal policies was destructive in the Istanbul Metropolitan Region. Following the description of the changes in the recent past, three questions define the core debates of the paper. What is the possibility of attempting to develop spatial strategies if the neoliberal policies dominate economic development? Does increasing uneven distribution of benefits via deregulated urban land market can create a new awareness in the spatial regulation domain? Given the increasing confusions of planning rights and responsibilities, is it possible to redefine a new planning system which can cope control of public rights and the different interests and value systems increasingly differentiated from each other?