The changing socio-spatial structure of metropolitan city peripheries in the post-pandemic period: The case of İstanbul-Kocaeli̇-Teki̇rdağ city region

Rural areas have undergone many legal and administrative changes and transformations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in habits such as education, work, shopping, and especially the widespread use of remote working have led to critical transformations in the centre-periphery interaction in metropolitan cities. This study aims to examine the socio-spatial change of metropolitan city peripheries and rural-urban interaction in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Istanbul- Kocaeli-Tekirdağ urban region. As primary data in the study, 'Investigation of the Realised and Expected Effects of Adaptations to Remote Working after the Covid-19 Pandemic on Travel Behaviour and Housing Location Selection: Istanbul-Kocaeli-Tekirdağ City-Region Example', the results of the survey conducted with 4643 people residing in the Istanbul-Kocaeli- Tekirdağ urban region and currently working in a job between November 2022 and February 2023 within the scope of the TÜBİTAK-1001 project were used. In order to use the centre-periphery distinction in the Istanbul-Kocaeli-Tekirdağ urban region, centre-periphery assumptions were produced with distinctions adapted to the urbanisation level (Eksen), socio-economic development level (SEGE), density (TUIK), centrality level (YERSIS) values of districts or neighbourhoods and used as secondary data. Within the scope of the study, the differentiation of socio-spatial change in the centre and periphery and the centre-periphery interaction were measured and interpreted by statistical significance tests. These differences were statistically analysed using Pearson Chi-Square test for categorical-categorical variable pairs and T Test for categorical-numerical variable pairs. In this study, in which socio-spatial change and rural-urban interaction in the Istanbul- Kocaeli-Tekirdağ urban region were examined, statistically significant results were obtained. In the centre-periphery distinction made according to the level of centrality in the study area, it has been observed that the effect of teleworking on housing location choice is higher for those residing in the centre than those residing in the periphery. Differences were found between those residing in the periphery and those residing in the centre in terms of education and income level. With the combination of these results, it can be said that there is a conscious strategic migration from the centre to the periphery. The rate of remote working of those working in the periphery; while it was around 2% before the epidemic, it increased to 32.3% during the epidemic xvi period and decreased to around 7.4% after the epidemic. However, the rate of preferring to work partially or completely remotely in the future reaches 66.8%. The effect of the pandemic on remote working, the fact that this effect will continue and that it is preferred is understood from the increase in percentage values. In addition to these, important findings regarding residence-workplace flows between the centre and the periphery have been reached within the scope of the study. Finally, the results of the analysis were compared with the results of similar studies on the periphery concept in the Istanbul-Kocaeli-Tekirdağ urban region and the rural concept in the literature, and recommendations were made.