The current size of the creative class should be improved. Each city should have a higher share of the Gezi Park community. Otherwise, there will be no prosperity.

The Gezi Park incident started at the end of May 2013. The park in Taksim was about to fall victim to a profit distribution operation, the kind to which we were accustomed. Then something unaccustomed happened. People began to protest the project and said, “leave this park as it is.” We were not used to taking to the streets for such things. But these people did things like chain themselves to trees. Their response belonged to the twenty-first century. Our administrators, who still live in the first half of the previous century, had difficulty understanding what was going on. It was the first time the routine of politics in Turkey was broken. This was just the first political action of Turkey’s creative class; it was urban professionals who took to the streets. Their concerns did not belong to the twentieth century. Urban professionals, that is, the creative class, constitute an interesting community. As their share in the total labor force increases, the goods Turkey produces become less ordinary. If goods are less ordinary, the region will become richer. The Gezi Park community is highly important for the Turkish economy. If their share in a city’s total labor force increases, the overall level of urban wealth also increases. So, to those who are seeking to solve the urbanization problem in Anatolia, I recommend they attract more Gezi Park residents. Let me tell you how.

Until today, figures tell, the industrialized cities of Anatolia received migration. They attracted unskilled individuals from nearby cities. This is the pattern I see, but now it has to change. It seems that the future of industrialization in Anatolia depends on an even distribution of the creative class throughout the country. Why? The quality and sophistication of the manufacturing industry goods produced in a given city increases as the share of the creative class in the total labor force increases. If a city cannot attract a skilled labor force, that is, members of the creative class, it will continue to produce ordinary goods. 

According to a study by Efşan Nas Özen of TEPAV, the share of the creative class in the labor force is 21 percent in Turkey, compared to around 40 percent in the US. Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir host about 40 percent of Turkey’s creative class and another 10 percent are hosted by the industrialized cities of Kocaeli, Bursa, and Konya. What we have is an uneven distribution, which cannot make Anatolia richer. I would like to derive a few conclusions here. First is that, it is the human capital which brings prosperity. Industrialization increasingly asks for individuals who are open-minded, speak foreign languages, and have technical skills. The pathetic content of discussions about what to teach in the schools in Turkey is unfortunately has nothing to do with the enrichment of the country. Just mark my words.

Second, the cities which fail to raise the share of the creative class in their labor force will be condemned to mediocrity in industrialization. This is the very reason why urban affairs should be decided by the residents of the city rather than by centrally appointed bureaucrats. The administrative mentality left from the nineteenth century attracts only fake Groucho Marxes: they are funny, but they make no contribution to enrichment. Third, officials dealing with industrialization have to be attentive to urbanization policies as well. The Gezi Park community wants to see bees, birds, and green in the city. It demands decent sidewalks, cycling paths, gyms, theaters, concert halls, good restaurants, and good wine.  It wants to see in Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Kayseri, and Diyarbakır all that Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir have. Otherwise, there is no way that Anatolia can attract them. Even if they come, they will lack motivation and productivity, and the city will be stuck with ordinary products. No innovations, no wealth. Here is a thought experiment for you: there are around 900 provinces in Turkey. In how many of them do you think a young engineer who has studied at a top-rank university would like to work? What do you think is the number in Italy or Germany? Turkey’s question for the twenty-first century is to distribute the quality of life and the creative class evenly throughout the country.

The current size of the creative class should be improved. Each city should have a higher share of the Gezi Park community. Otherwise, there will be no prosperity, R&D, or innovations for Turkey. Instead, there will be mediocrity. It settles for being the small fish in the small tub. Every man is the architect of his own fate.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 17.01.2014