An evaluation on social municipality practices of Mardin Metropolitan Municipality

The social municipalism approach is gaining more and more importance in countries that adopt the principle of social state that aims to improve the quality of life of their citizens. It is possible to say that social municipalism has become widespread in Turkey, which is a model of a welfare state, not only in metropolitan cities but also in small-scale cities. As a matter of fact, recent studies have revealed that social municipalism makes significant contributions to the quality of life of citizens by focusing on the social aspects of their daily lives and aiming to respond to their needs and demands. This is because social municipalism goes beyond he classical municipalism approach and includes services such as social, cultural, sportive activities, education and counseling, and focuses on activities especially for disadvantaged social groups. The subject of this study is the social municipalism practices of Mardin Metropolitan Municipality and the aim of the study is to evaluate these practices in the context of social municipalism. Although there are many studies on social municipalism in the literature, the originality of this study is that it is the first study conducted in the context of Mardin Metropolitan Municipality. The importance of the study is to strengthen the understanding of social municipalism by drawing attention to the scope and practices of social municipalism in Mardin, which became a metropolitan municipality in 2012 and is relatively new in metropolitan municipalism. The methodology of the study is based on literature review and document analysis. As a matter of fact, the social municipalism practices of the Metropolitan Municipality were evaluated according to the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Annual Reports published on the official website of the Municipality. The evaluation was made on a yearly basis and according to the disadvantaged groups covered by social municipalism. Activities and practices were analyzed according to target group, scope and content. As a result, it has been revealed that Mardin Metropolitan Municipality has planned a number of projects and activities within the scope of social municipalism, some of which have been implemented, while others have not been implemented due to various reasons; it has expanded the scope of social municipalism with each passing year and included social municipalism in its municipal vision.