Research Information System
REASER- Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, vol.18, no.2, pp.30-42, 2019 (Scopus)
The emergence of solidarity economy initiatives in Turkey could be considered as a result of the
historical process of the 1980s and the strengthened neoliberal policies over the past two decades. In this
context, the disengagement and decentralization of the State, as well as the rise of civil society, challenges the
role of the solidarity economy initiatives in territorial development. Are they integrated into the governance
and regulation of their field of activity? Rather than a total disengagement, Turkey has been marked by a
concentration of power and government control over many sectors and strong interdependence of civil society
organizations. By targeting six activity fields (short food circuit, education, popular university, construction,
refugees, and consumption without purchase), we conducted 25 interviews and a two-day workshop with the
members of the solidarity initiatives. According to our findings, these initiatives have emerged outside of the
market and public authorities. The social movements that occurred over the past years have significant effects
on their emergence. Faced with the reluctance and/or rejection by the public authorities, most of them are
characterized by a form of autonomy and self-organization capacity in their emergence phase. While in the
beginning, they were based on the reciprocity principle, they aim to be consolidated by the market and nonmarket resources in the next phase. Finally, the solidarity economy initiatives would provide a basis for civic
or citizen governance through their network ties and could have a positive impact in terms of social, economic,
cultural, and local development.