Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2015
What is the export-oriented manufacturing potential of provinces that have historically claimed a minuscule share of Turkey's industrial output? The answer is relevant to the ongoing re-evaluation of the country's growth strategy. On one side are the optimists who see the spatial expansion of the industrial base as evidence of Turkish entrepreneurs' ability to respond to new opportunities in an increasingly globalized market. On the other are the pessimists who read the same evidence as proof that Turkey's place in the global division of labor is as shaky as ever because it rests on low productivity-low wage labor.