Process oriented value judgments of actor groups in mass housing : the case of Eryaman fourth stage, Ankara

Abstract

This study is an attempt to develop an understanding of the mass housing process, through establishing a wider perspective to acknowledge the contributions of various groups. The theoretical structure of the study is composed of understanding the life-cycle of building, and the appropriation of the social constructionist paradigm; as well as establishing value judgments as the tools of analysis. “Actor groups”, refer to the various social and professional groups who act within the process, whose values are formative of mass housing. Value judgments are proposed as the assertion and expression of values. Mass housing in Turkey, and the role of Housing Development Administration (HDA) is noted, followed by explaining the case of Eryaman as a demonstrational project by HDA. The fourth stage of Eryaman is focused on as it includes wider variety of actor groups with distinct roles. An exploratory part, an inquiry into the value judgments of executive policy makers, has been conducted. This is followed by a survey study where representatives of various actor groups are exposed to the derived value judgments. The results present situations that provide knowledge on various conflicts and values of groups. Conceptual contributions as well as insights on the case are provided, as schemes of process oriented value judgments, classified according to a hierarchical structure are proposed. The second conceptual contribution is the introduction of six conceptualizations for further studies of values in the building context, which are consensus, opposition, inter-group valuations, fields of authority, notions related to conjuncture, and internal polarizations within groups.