Erdemli after 60 years: Migratory Habitus of Settled Politics

When joseph szyliowicz realised his doctoral field study in the fifties, erdemli was a new settlement founded by the union of three villages. the author had noted the recent launching of a modernisation process and foresighted its fast development in the town. when revisited after sixty years, we actually observe a developed city in economic, social and urban terms. however, a closer regard at the city reveals that the town has inherently sustained some of its rural characteristics, particularly with regards to political culture. in the framework of this paper, we shall identify some of these migratory elements in the political life of erdemli by reference to pierre bourdieu’s concept of habitus. for this purpose, we shall examine the political life of erdemli since its transition to multipartite regime in order to identify the importance of large families, personal relations and populist policies in the local politics.