The Importance of Local Organizations in Conserving Cultural and Historical Identity: The Case of Amasya-Turkey

Abstract

Many trends have been explained through the concept of globalization in recent times. This is seen as an expansion particularly for developing countries and contains serious handicaps. The main inspiration for the idea of globalization is the control of economic resources of developing countries by global forces and the elimination of the cultural-social differences between countries. However, this evaluation does not mean that the globalization process signifies a risk for developing countries in all ways. Actually, this process provides the way for the more effective use of spatial and cultural values.

The most important parts of cultural and spatial values are the historical quarters of urban areas. Today, conservation gains a new meaning in current discussions, indicating that conservation should be perceived as conserving spatial and cultural values in terms of the development and publicizing of locality.

In this frame, the two points should be raised: efforts for the conservation of cultural and historical identity are an important opportunity for developing countries and conservation cannot be achieved without local participation.