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This paper investigates the twists and turns that characterise the political reactions of some 'left-behind' places. Offering a situated, context-sensitive and temporal analysis of Turkey's once extractive heartland, we unveil a volatile and particularly fragile political terrain and throw light on its contingency on changing modes of state intervention and power-laden strategies responsive to disaffection and discontent. We suggest that this power-laden mechanism that plays down, if not eradicates, the ability of places to transform and thrive precludes conceptions that invariably position left-behind places as 'vengeful' and invites dynamic and context-sensitive comprehensions of discontent and agential and processual reconceptions of left-behindness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are substantial differences in the entrepreneurship levels of different regions. Recent studies have shown that supply- and demand-side determinants fall short of explaining the level and type of entrepreneurship of a region, and have emphasized the critical role of region-specific institutional factors in regional entrepreneurship. This paper aims to contribute to understanding how region-specific institutions encourage or inhibit regional innovative entrepreneurship, concentrating particularly on the less studied normative and cultural-cognitive institutions. The study, based on face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interview data from four regions of Turkey with different innovative entrepreneurship patterns, reveals the significant role of normative institutions in defining different regional innovative entrepreneurship pathways, as well as those of some regulative and cultural-cognitive institutions. It highlights further that policies and regulations that alleviate bureaucratic procedures facilitate access to financial resources and strengthen coordination between local government agencies are encouraging regional entrepreneurship in general, while policies aimed at eliminating discrimination in society, supporting tolerance and openness, encouraging individual freedom and enhancing the skills and experience of entrepreneurs through new role models are critical for alleviating the disadvantages of regions and supporting innovative entrepreneurship. We contend that these policies are essential for improving the entrepreneurship environment and altering the perception of society regarding entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A study was conducted to investigate the importance of policy networks compared with other widely recognized factors of competitiveness to the economic performance of settlements in the Izmir region in Turkey. The importance of policy networks in administrative reform processes and economic development policies is also discussed.

Copyright of Megaron is the property of KARE Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines growth machine politics operating in shrinking cities. Instead of de-growth politics logics emerging in shrinking cities, the paper finds, through an empirical study of Zonguldak, a shrinking mining city in Turkey, a politics that is better described as another variant of growth machine politics. Invigorated by the difficulties encountered in the implementation of state-driven growth agendas, and the subsequent reactions of local stakeholders, Zonguldak's emerging policy agenda maintains a distance from the discourse of growth and instead adopts such themes as ecology, industrial heritage, quality of life and liveability when reframing and deploying a variety of conventional practices to make the city attractive for investment. In so doing, a broad coalition of diverse local interests are effectively brought together, and this paper suggests that these dynamics characterise a politics that is better described as adaptive response to align with growth machine politics. To explore this, the paper builds on an exploratory research design that complements secondary and documentary data analysis of the city's economic and population trends and key policy and planning documents with an analysis of unstructured interviews with local policy makers and focus groups with local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles of social networks in regional economic development and factors which influence differentiated network structures are evaluated by focusing in Turkish industrial development.