Reflexivity, Integration and Autonomy in Regional Development: Turkey—EU Partnership

Abstract

Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of field, capital, and habitus and the literature on development, I analyse how positions and autonomies of various actors as well as their interaction and management styles affect each other and the success of a regional development programme implemented in Turkey with EU assistance. Discrepancies between form and content or rhetoric and practice open up opportunities for change. I conclude that the reflexivity of actors with a critical^ethical perspective enables them to use these discrepancies with integrating interaction and open management styles for sustainable interventions. These qualities are related to the level of autonomy of individual and collective actors.

Social justice and spatial inequality

“…Bourdieu's theorization finds an echo in contemporary spatial studies. Noticeable examples are Açikalin (2011), Savage (2010, Watt (2009), Webber (2007), Bridge (2006), Roscigno et al (2006), andGatrell et al (2004). 8.…”

Gender Approaches in Development Projects: Lessons From Eastern Turkey

“…In addition, the development literature shows that an emphasis on equality and empowerment in rhetoric fades away in practice for a number of reasons, including awareness and capability problems of beneficiaries, experts, and organizations; financial restrictions; time limitations; and result-oriented, managerial and technocratic approaches (Açıkalın, 2010;Mosse, 2005, Rao andKelleher, 2005). When such difficulties are considered together in a Bourdieuan (1998) way, one could argue that the inequalities patterned at local, national and international levels interact with each other, and affect the results in local situations, e.g., projects in this article, while the hegemonic culture or structure reproduces itself at micro level (Açıkalın, 2010;Sirman, 2007). In this process, the local, national and international actors of development carry hierarchical or patriarchal political cultures and corresponding power relations into projects although these cultures and relations may historically refer to different inequalities.…”