New rurality concept and rural change: Kırıkkale property for rural

Kırıkkale Province is located in Central Anatolia Region, Middle Kızılırmak sec-tion. There is Çankırı on its north, Kırşehir on its south, Yozgat and Çorum on its east and Ankara on its west. Kırıkkale, with the foundation of Military Factories in 1925, started to develop from a 12 housed village became a municipal resident in 1929 and gained district statue in 1944. The district which was populated 54138 in 1945 contin-ued to develop via letting in immigrants and became a province in 1989. Today, Kırık-kale is one of the important provinces in Central Anatolia with its 85 districts, 185 vil-lages and 11 municipal organizations. In this study, a rural area definition was made by focusing on new rurality. 196 rural units located in Kırıkkale province were redefined in terms of population, econom-ic entity, social life and infrastructural characteristics. Approaches towards the concept of rural area stand as a geographic problem for our country. Definitions regarding the rural area are made mostly over rural population and the differences in the developmental process of Turkey's demographic construction. In this context, the rural area approaches and management are dealt with those which are focusing on developing agriculture sector. Therefore, this situation is far from con-tributing to develop and change rural areas. As requiring a multi sectoral developing stage rural areas necessitates to be focused on a definition that is made with the concept of new rurality. Today, the population in rural areas is in an intense interaction with that of urban areas. Societies that are nonfarm payroll and facing extinction of social and cultural leg-acy constitute the socio economic characteristics of rural areas. Rural areas with this het-erogeneous entity have brought about a multi classified construction. Countries have diverse definitions for rural area in according to their social, cul-tural, economic, administrative and geographic construction. Technological develop-ments and social economic structure have great influence on rural areas. In the concept of new rurality many rural components such as population, economy, social life, culture, and infrastructure are to be evaluated together. In this sense, many countries accept the rural approaches of organizations such as EU and OECD. Yet, it will be wise for coun-tries to make definitions for new rural areas in terms of their geographic and administra-tive structure without ignoring social, economic and cultural changes. In this study, apart from the approaches of international organizations (such as EU and OECD), the research by International Geography Union (IGU), "ENYEDİ", "MILANO APPROAHC" , "GREEK APPROACH" and major scientists in Turkey is investigated and the literature is searched. Developing socio economic circumstances, income, technologic advances cause change in rural life culture. Therefore a more con-temporary and current rural standard is needed within this aspect. In the study, 196 rural units' population, economic entity, social life and infra-structural aspects were investigated and the data was processed in Village Information Forms. In term, a new rural classification was made following the procedure. These rural units were re-classified as integrated rural areas, middle level rural areas and dominant rural areas This classification is considered to be beneficial for future contributions, reform-ing life circumstances and using rural potential in an effective and beneficial way. Be-sides, it is considered to contribute to form a productive rural structure.