A review of graduate theses on the implications of the transformation of villages into urban neighbourhoods under Law No. 6360

Within the scope of Law No. 6360, which entered into force in Turkey in 2012, the administrative boundaries of metropolitan municipalities were expanded to encompass the entire provincial territory; the legal personality of villages was abolished, and they were reclassified as neighbourhoods. With the dissolution of special provincial administrations, the provision of rural public services was entirely transferred to metropolitan and district municipalities. This transformation has resulted in significant administrative, socio-economic, and spatial consequences in rural areas. This thesis aims to conduct a systematic review of postgraduate dissertations written on the consequences of the transformation of villages into neighbourhoods under Law No. 6360, to thematically classify the findings presented in these dissertations, and to develop policy recommendations based on the identified issues. The reviewed theses were prepared under the auspices of various universities, and an examination of their disciplinary distribution reveals that the majority were produced within the Social Sciences Institutes, particularly in the fields of Political Science and Public Administration, Public Administration, and Urban and Regional Planning. Methodologically, qualitative and mixed research approaches were predominantly employed. It was observed that, in master's theses, case study and descriptive research designs were frequently used, whereas in doctoral dissertations, descriptive, cross-sectional, case study, and survey designs were applied. Interview and questionnaire techniques were commonly utilized in the data collection processes. The findings of the dissertations related to the transformation of villages into neighbourhoods encompass a broad spectrum of evaluations, ranging from administrative efficiency and social belonging to economic production and land use. Key Words: Metropolitan Municipality, Rural Area, Village, Neighborhood, Law No. 6360.