Urban identity fact and hometown associations: Instance of İzmir

Especially together with the era at the beginnig of industrial revolution, cities as the site ofincreasing dynamism in social transformation processes have become the centers determining thesocial process? directions. Urban identity, as one of the basic structure forming the relation between past and future of societies, has always been important in every era and every period. With the increase in population mobility that how much cities keep their identities and sustainabilities in these transformations, is a matter which needs to be taken seriously.In this study, urban identity is discussed with its basic component urbanisering and in this context in the privacy of hometown associations with an integrated approach through philosophy of governance. With the increasing migration movements the influence of cities on immigrants is important for the sustainability of urban identity. And in associations, the infleunce of hometown associations on their members is dealt with the perspective of providing sustainability of the urban identity by making people feel and conscious about their rights to live in this city.Hometown association are organizations constituted by the people who change their living places as a result of migration movements. Shaped by the perspective of traditional solidarity, hometown associations, has the capacity to influence urban integration processes. This study focuses on relations between hometown associations and their members to make integration processes easy with an organized democratic society philosophy in terms of İzmir. In this research there are interviews with the managers of federations and surveys conducted with the members of hometown associations and their attitudes towards cities are analyzed.Key Words; Urban, Attachment, Urbanisering, Urban Identity, Hometown Associations