A tale of Aliağa: Transformation from a farm to an industrial hub

Abstract

Within capitalist production relations, industrialization processes and policies change and transform settlements socially, economically and spatially. This change and transformation also change the hierarchy and gradation system between settlements, which are described as urban systems. In this context, Aliağa is an important settlement located in İzmir, the third largest metropolis in Turkey, and has been referred to as an industrial zone since the 1960s and has strategic importance as a national and international import and export port. While it was a rural settlement where farm and farm workers lived, it has been transformed into a settlement where macro-scale investment decisions such as special industrial zones, organized industrial zones, industrial areas, energy conversion facilities, thermal power plants, ports, railways and highways are located. While this process is still dynamic, it has become an important settlement chosen by large capital integrated into international production and value chain networks. While industrial areas have increased more than 3-fold in the district between 1990 and 2018, capital accumulation continues to accelerate with new investment decisions. Today, the fact that it hosts the country's largest foreign-capital companies (PETKİM, TÜPRAŞ, HABAŞ, SOCAR, NEMPORT, STAR Rafineri, etc.) and that the ship dismantling facilities, which are the only ship recycling facilities in the country, are located here, carries the district to an important position. When examined in terms of İzmir cargo regimes in 2020 (export, import, cabotage and transit), having one of the most important ports of the country with a share of 75.1% (İzmir Development Agency; 2022) has also brought the district to the forefront, and the settlement has entered a rapid change and transformation process. This study analyzes the historicity of the industrialization, capital concentration and spatial transformation processes of Aliağa district using qualitative (examination of studies on the historicity of Aliağa) and quantitative data-based (ISO 1000 company ranking, satellite images, plan studies) methods. It analyzes the "growth" adventure of a village settlement that has a population of over 100 thousand at the end of a 70-year period and has become an industrial city with industrial zones, ports and energy infrastructures, and the growth process initiated by public investments guided by development plans, which accelerated and transformed with the impetus of private sector investments, by analyzing the periodic development of capital accumulation and industrialization dynamics. This study differs from the literature by analyzing the spatiality of capital accumulation cycles and contributes to the literature by analyzing how the tendency of capital accumulation affects its spatial change and transformation in the example of Aliağa district.