Rethinking rural transitions :a case of Bozcaada Turkey

Abstract

This thesis presents an empirical study of rural transitions, focusing the socio-economic and the cultural transitions on the island of Bozcaada, a Turkish island on northern Aegean Sea, during the last three decades. In a novel way, this research brings together a diverse body of literature on rural development, tourism and gentrification in rural areas and informed by an original empirical research, developing a new conceptual framework on rural transitions. The thesis presents a qualitative case study of a small community experiencing a series of complex transitions alongside sectoral shift in its local economy. The findings suggested that the island`s local economic change from viniculture to tourism was initiated under challenging circumstances of neo-liberal agricultural policies for small producers. Meanwhile in-migration of urbanites to the island triggered socio-economic and cultural changes on the island as well as endorsing the change in the local economy. In the 2010s, local tourism activities to supplement decreasing income from viniculture became the main income source for most the local community while the number of newcomers on the island has been increasing continuously. These changes in the local economy and the socio-cultural structure of the island intertwined and co-produced current phenomenon: seasonal out-migration of the residents, and inherited gentrification on the island. This research makes three main contributions to the existing body of literature. First, it offers a new understanding of rural transitions by producing a new conceptual model: the evolution of Bozcaada into a tourism destination, which demonstrates rural transitions of Bozcaada through exploration of changes in local economy, characteristics of newcomers, landscape and local services, and annual cycle of life on the island. Second, it adds a new concept to the literature on gentrification: inherited gentrification, a generational process of rural gentrification based on characteristic differences of gentrifiers. Third, it reveals a unique pattern of seasonal migration, characterized by seasonal movement of local population with lifestyle motivations.