ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 epidemic that emerged in December 2019 and the social problems it created affected both the social policy regulations of the nation states and the active role of local governments. Today, municipalities are emerging as the most important actors in the local welfare system that provide prosperity and meet common needs. In this study, the services provided by the municipalities in the field of social policy were evaluated from the perspective of the welfare state and local welfare in order to reveal the potentials, capacities, areas of struggle and opportunities by addressing how to respond to a global epidemic at the metropolitan city level of Istanbul at the local level. İt was used document review method in this study. For this purpose, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and five district municipalities determined to have different socio-economic and demographic conditions were examined. As a result of the study, the municipalities took protective and preventive measures at the level of local governments; It was determined that they carried out some social assistance practices and offered limited social services to disadvantaged groups. The findings show that at the onset of the pandemic, municipalities prioritize services aimed at meeting basic needs; it revealed that they started to gain new experiences in using technology such as psychological counseling, telephone counseling, video and live internet broadcasting and informative seminars in the later period. Although it is predicted that the information and services obtained from these experiences can be maintained, it has been determined that the quality of social services in the context of institutionalization, income and socioeconomic development of the municipalities has been determined