Community Houses: Education Institutions for Planned Development in Turkey

Throughout history, education has been one of the most influential means of becoming the ideal individual, and adult education has a special importance to this end. This importance stems from the flexible nature of these education programs and from the fact that adult education is shorter than formal education and thus reaches its aim faster. The notion of development that emerged after the Second World War led to the adoption of a new economic and social understanding that continued until the 1980s. As a result of this understanding, Western capitalist powers sought to sell this understanding to non-Western societies, which they have defined and continue to define as underdeveloped and developing. Though primarily defined in an economic context, the concept of development has gradually come to include social change and the concept of community development is particularly noteworthy. Throughout Turkish history, the notion of development has been discussed through the purview of economics and modernization, the latter being related to social change. Consequently, public education finds itself at the fore in these discussions. This study evaluates the community centers established throughout Turkey in the mid 1950s and their role in societal development.