A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE ECONOMY IN TURKEY

Culture economy is the total sum of the industries with the inputs of creativity and cultural labor and outputs of intellectual property products and events. The fact that culture is viewed as a distinct area of economic activity does not necessarily render it subservient in any sense but to the contrary the economic value of culture promotes its interactive merit and deepens its sphere of influence. Culture economy paves the way for worldwide recognition of the local benefits and basic values. In this study the effect of total values created by local economies on the culture economy are investigated with a view to evaluate the cultural accumulation from an economics’ perspective. The study explores the inter-city and regional differences in cultural accumulation as an increasingly impulsive force within global economy as classified by the categories of film industry, performance arts and library according to their economic contribution. To this end, two main regions and two city centers were nominated; the Aegean Region and Central Anatolia as regional bases and Izmir and Konya as city centers respectively. Within the scope of the relationship between culture and economy, the flourishing of the culture economy in the aforementioned regions and the cultural structuring in the sample cities are introduced in a general overview. According to the analysis results, the context of the cultural economy, in Turkey in the Aegean Region and in Central Anatolia for the period of 1995-2011, performing arts, visual and plastic arts and film industry sub-sectors, there seems to be a promising development.