Yalcintan, Murat Cemal
(2005)
Globalisation, politics and planning decisions: A case study of Koc University in Istanbul.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This study aims to develop an understanding of local politics and planning within the context of the interplay of global-local forces. It focuses on the actors and the decision-making processes in Istanbul, using the development of the Koc University campus as an illustration. In doing this, globalisation is shown to contain plural processes with many possible scenarios and local interests are seen to have an important role. In this context, globalisation, either as a concept or reality, was found to be too broad and vague to provide an immediate basis for analysis. Thus, it was necessary to deconstruct it. Discussions on globalisation in this study aim to contribute to the methodology of globalisation studies as well as creating a usable framework for analysing the case study. The case study focuses on the impacts of globalisation on one important urban decision-making process - the location decision of a higher education institution, Istanbul's Koc University, as the investment of a multi-national company. In the chapters setting up the framework, the relations between globalisation and higher education are explained drawing on theory and practice. Debates on the location of higher education institutions in the literature are also introduced with examples from around the world. Then the actors and decision-making processes in Istanbul are analysed in depth to find out how globalisation impacts on behaviours, motivations and negotiation strategies. It is concluded that the global impacts on the decision-making processes are quite vague - often only discursive and speculative. There is much continuity with the past in the way that actors behave although they have to respond to the increasing influence of civil society. However, globalisation has brought shifts in the different strengths, motivations and negotiation bases in decision-making. Consequently, new forms of local politics, planning and decision-making are necessary to respond to the new elements introduced by the penetration of global forces although appreciating that traditional local forces remain strong.
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