İdari Coğrafya ve Yerleşme Coğrafyası Açısından Mahalle Kavramı

In Turkey, different contexts are recognized in terms of the settlement and administrative geography of the neighborhood concept. The multiplicity of the neighborhood (i.e., same name but different contexts), creates confusion. Thus, this study discusses the causes of neighborhood confusion by evaluating it in terms of settlement geography and administrative structure. The neighborhood, which generally creates a mental image of an urban location, is grouped into three types of equivalents. The first is located in multi-settled village administrative areas in provinces, where no metropolitan municipality organization exists. The second pertains to neighborhoods that were transformed from villages in metropolitan municipal provinces and those connected to these neighborhoods. The last type is those found in sections of towns and cities. The three types of equivalents of the concept of neighborhood create confusion. To resolve this issue, the study cited examples, evaluated the classification using the quantitative and qualitative research methods in the context of settlement and administrative geography, and presented recommendations. Lastly, the study developed scales for determining the boundaries and optimal sizes of the neighborhood.