The Place of Cultural Economy in Development Policies of Developing Countries: Van Province

Abstract

Van city has serious socio-economic cultural development problems. Despite these problems, Van's cultural and natural diversity, as well as its potential to be an important commercial center due to its geopolitical situation, are important for the solution of extant problems. In this regard, this paper strives to examine the challenges of Van from the cultural aspect. Accordingly; in Van, the investments determined by the actors affecting the development and planning process periodically (2003-2016) were evaluated vis-à-vis the classification of cultural economy and human development index. Content analysis was used in the research. The European Union (EU) is one of the international actors in Van and the national actors are; Ministry of Development, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, T.C. Prime Ministry General Directorate of Foundations, Eastern Anatolia Project (EAP) Regional Development Administration, Eastern Anatolia Development Agency (EADA) and Municipalities. It is seen that these are important actors in development policies and the investments they have made coincide with the strategies they have targeted. International actors prioritize social and human development investments within the framework of EU regional development policies. National actors however followed both a development model within the scope of industry, trade and services, which was predominantly based on the economic perspective, and a development model from the tourism perspective in the services class. Consequently, it is seen that development in Van is not directly evaluated from the cultural view, but evaluated together with tourism, culture is instrumentalized for tourism and cultural tourism is brought to the fore and cultural policies are developed from the tourism perspective.