In search of preservation strategies for the historic cultural landscape of Karabağlar Yaylası in Muğla

Abstract

Historic cultural landscapes consist of pattern of layers reflecting mutual interaction of the local people with the land through time. They have material and immaterial traces of collective practices of the initial inhabitants and a local culture. Traditional determinist approach has a tendency to split material and immaterial, natural and cultural values and evaluate them separately. However, the concept of cultural landscape has been arisen as a criticism against this duality and distinction and thereafter landscapes started to be regarded as cultural representations that are shaped by both natural and cultural values. This article explores the historic cultural landscape of Karabağlar Yaylası in a rural-urban continuum in search of preservation strategies regarding changing relations with modernization and urbanization. Karabağlar Yaylası is a semi-urban and semi-rural settlement close to Muğla city centre. The seasonal migration and socio-economical interdependency have been two significant facts that sustain the settlement. However, the historic cultural landscape of Karabağlar is under threat of urban sprawl and increasing development pressures with urbanization. Modernization tools and implementations have fragmented and transformed the distinct socio-spatial pattern of Karabağlar and destroyed its character defining features over the last five decades. In order to reveal socio-spatial transformations in Karabağlar, a survey analysis was conducted. Two similar face-to-face questionnaires carried out in 2006 and 2020 are evaluated comparatively. The questionnaires have been structured over how the inhabitants of Karabağlar perceive the space, how they develop land use and the symbolic meaning they attribute to the space. Findings related to field research and the empirical results of the questionnaires are evaluated holistically and changing social, economic and environmental relations are elaborated. To combat with the problems arising due to socio-spatial transformations, the article proposes some preservation strategies that care cultural values as far as natural values, perception of residents, collective memory, sense of community and their interaction with the land. This study has a potential to set up a research agenda in terms of preservation strategies for similar geographical settings.