Social municipality activities: Çiftlikköy Municipal example

Globalization, the effectiveness of neoliberal policies, and the decentralization approach, which has come to the fore in parallel with the rise of cities, impose social policy roles on municipalities. Accordingly, municipalities nowadays have an active role in providing social justice and social peace and redistribution of welfare by providing social assistance and social services besides basic urban services. This new role assumed by municipalities is called "social municipality". Social municipality in Turkey started to be discussed in the 1970s and has been included in the basic areas of social responsibility municipalities with municipal law enacted after the 2000s. However, the social municipality role of municipalities varies according to the dynamics of the city, the attitude of the managers, the demands of the people and the municipal facilities. In this study, the social municipality practices of local administrations were determined by the example Çiftlikköy Municipality. The study includes three chapters, except Introduction and Conclusion and Recommendations. In the introduction of the study, the subject, purpose, importance, method and hypotheses of the study are discussed. In the first part of the conceptual and theoretical framework of the study, the concepts of local government, social policy, social municipalities, social assistance and social services are discussed; the place of local governments in social policy is examined. In the second part,the situation of social municipality in Turkey has been discussed. The historical development process of local governments and legal framework of social municipality in Turkey was discussed in this topic. In the last part of the study, the findings and comments of the study are included. In this study, document analysis and utilization of existing statistics were used. Within the scope of the study, official site of the municipality, activity reports, project reports and magazines were examined. In the research, the following findings are reached: The social assistance practices of Çiftlikköy Municipality are limited with in-kind assistance. Social work practices focus on social, cultural and artistic activities that appeal to all people. Social service practices for the protection of disadvantaged groups are insufficient.