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Karadeniz Ereğli is a single-industry city that transformed from a coastal town to an industrial city thanks to the establishment of Ereğli Iron and Steel Company in the 1960s. Kdz. Ereğli as a single-industry city started to change in regard to economic, social, and political aspects, and in the last 60 years, the company has been the major instit...
Citations
... As a typical case of an SIT, Ereğli was transformed into an industrial city from a coastal town in the 1960s through the Central Government's decision to establish Erdemir in the city center (Demirkol, 2021). In line with the SIT concept, Erdemir has become the primary source of income within the city over the years (Demirkol, 2020;2021;2022;Akbaş, 2013;2018). The triangulation among Ereğli, Karabük, and Zonguldak after the establishment of Erdemir has formed the import-substitution industrialization model's spatial reflection (Şengül & Aytekin, 2017: 27). ...
... Erdemir amplified the local financial development through its contributions to social life, demography, and economy. All in all, it has become the dominating economic actor in the city (Demirkol, 2020). ...
... The booming economy resulted in prestigious brands penetrating the local economy, such as bank branches or luxury car dealers. The improving financial status of local people allowed them to enjoy vacations in the country's most expensive tourist destinations and children's enrollment in private schools (Demirkol, 2020). Hence, the post-Erdemir period has been marked as fueling an impact on local socioeconomic development. ...
This paper dwells on how single-industry towns (SITs) locally develop and are affected by the privatization of those dominant sectors. To do so, we attempt to discuss the potential results of local development and privatization tension in SITs. Typically, SITs are where one dominant industry becomes the leading actor in the local socioeconomic structure. As a result of the statist planning approach, the SIT policy was implemented in Türkiye by the Central Governments for years, starting with the Five-Years Industrial Development Plans in 1934 and 1938. In line with these plans, building state-owned firms (SOFs) in specific locations implies fostering local and regional socioeconomic development while accelerating national industrial progress. Nevertheless, this statist and well-planned policy to utilize SOFs for SIT formation has shifted over the years. Under the local socioeconomic influence of an SOF, Erdemir, the city of Karadeniz Ereğli, Türkiye, has been a typical case of SIT formation. The Turkish Government's policy to build the iron and steel company in the small coastal town during the 1960s stimulated the city's evolution to an industrial city and reformed its structure as an SIT. However, the heritage of the early Republic's planned statist policies that lasted more than forty years in Ereğli has shifted with the privatization of Erdemir in 2006. Whereas Erdemir's privatization contributed to the national economic growth, the city's local socioeconomic development has shrunk. This paper, utilizing a qualitative research design following a theoretical discussion through secondary data sources, asserts that SITs are locally vulnerable to Central Governments' policy shifts and especially privatization. Hence, we stress that the Governments' shifting policies regarding local areas deeply affect those local people's lives.
