Dark Ecology in Industrial Areas: the Case of Turkish Sugar Factories

Abstract

The sugar industry is one of the most important representatives of industrialization and modernization in Turkey. Sugar Factories have become the tools of urban and social transformation and developed the regions where they are established. But, over time, the ideologies that formed sugar factories decayed. Such a decay could be caused by reasons such as the lack of adaptation to the changing economic and technological conditions in a short time, the restriction of sugar production with the amendments made to the law, the inability to maintain the continuity of the modern daily life in the campus areas. In this respect, this study is to discuss the dark-depression faced by the sugar industry theoretically within the framework of Timothy Morton’s con- cept of Dark Ecology. This phenomenon is developed from ecological awareness and is dark-depressing. This concept is a way of thinking about future coexistence called Dark Ecology. Sugar factories will become inactive and turn into brownfields as an inevitable end of all industrial areas such as the Ruhr region in Germany and Dock- lands in England. When the day of this inactivity comes, methods of accepting the dark sides of these areas and living with them have to be found. With this discussion, the uncertain future of sugar factories, which are the places of industrialization and modernization, will be approached with the new-dark perspective created by Timo- thy Morton. Thus, it will be possible to contribute to the infrastructure for the future of the areas theoretically.