A cluster based approach in economic geography perspective: the case of Konya rural area

Today's economic policies have neglected the rural area and prioritized the urban oriented economic development and the spatial planning approach that serves this development. The approaches that trying to explain the processes through economic and social development dynamics, have disregarded the countryside and led to the rural being pushed to a disadvantageous position against the cities. This situation has led to an increase in environmental changes which have become a fact rather than a foresight in last thirty years and extraordinary events and to a decrease in the quality and ecological value of agriculture. In this process, neglected rural settlements, started to be evaluated at the center of economic development approaches. One of the main arguments is to make a sustainable approach dominant by establishing the relations between the settlement areas and their surroundings in a relational way, especially by subjecting the lands defined as the back zones of rural and urban settlements to the planning mechanism It is obvious that such a subject necessitates a wide range of consideration from the physical environment to the human and social environment related to social and cultural values. In this framework, it is aimed to discuss the necessity of a development approach based on spatial planning, in accordance with the theoretical background of economic geography, for the economic, social, and spatial development of rural areas by increasing the competitive power of rural economic spaces.