The effects of rapid urbanization process on social structure: Batman

This article discusses the urbanization process of Batman, the city having been established by migration towards the region under the influence of industrial plants ( Oil Rafinery) installed around a village since 1950s and the social structural changes occured within the process. One of the main purposes of the study is to show that the industrialization which is the locomotive of urbanization process has rapidly lost its effects in Batman in the following years and to explain the new dynamics put forward with the introduction of different factors in recent times ( 1990-2016) in the city. Considering that the factors especially the family relationships forming the social structure have changed during the rapid urbanization process and the fact that this change experienced in the city is an important research topic for social sciences, that no other analysis of the social structure in this context in Batman has been carried out so far is the main determinant of this study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in the study to determine the changes appeared within the urbanization process and different techniques of these methods were used to examine this descriptive study in detail. Questionnaire and interview techniques were conducted in the city center taking the theoretical and basic applications of the study into account. The main aim of this is to add the deeper information obtained by the qualitative method to the data provided by the quantitative technique. In this regard, this study has investigated the rapid urbanization, social structural changes and some social trends and the state of urbanization in Batman by using many socio-economic and demographic variables. Finally, this study has given answers to several questions such as at what level the effects of industrialization on urbanization in Batman in the following years are though it was the main factor to start urbanization in the first years, what the fundamental dynamics of the immigration to Batman are, what changes have been experienced on the elements forming the social structure after rapid urbanization and, consequently, what types of problems have been appeared and how people see certain social issues and urbanization process by the help of questionnaire, interview and observation techniques. To conclude, the results have shown that there is a specific differentiation in Batman in terms of urbanization process and its effects in our country.