City and memory: Case of Antalya Cotton Mill

Cities are seen usually as centers where economic activities are intensively developed and socio-cultural activities are experienced in different forms. There are many factors that forming cities. One of these factors is undoubtedly the constructed buildings. One such building is "the factory". But factories are industrial spaces and social spaces at the same time. These industrial spaces are important bothfor the city and the workforce employed there. For this purpose, it has been tried to examine the meaning of the "Antalya Cotton Mill" –which was founded in mid 1950s and was closed in early 2000s as its activities were stopped- in collective memory is tried to be examined in this. The meaning of the factory in collective memory is represented by referring to "the oral testimony" of individuals who have been employed in the factory for some time or retired from the factory. The "oral history" method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this study.