M.A. Theses

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The local welfare system in Turkey: The case of municipal care services in Istanbul
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Çelebi, Elifcan.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Social care is an immature welfare policy domain in Turkey, which is characterized by the central role of the family in social care provision, the limited public expenditures allocated to social care, and the low level of institutionalization and professionalization in social care provision. With the legislative reform in the mandate of municipalities in 2004, municipalities initiated social care programs and have become important actors in social care provision. Inspired by the literature on the local welfare systems and using social care as a case in understanding changing welfare governance and provision, this thesis explores the emerging role of district municipalities in social care in selected districts of Istanbul. In this way, this thesis sheds light on the local dimension of social care in Turkey and contributes to a better understanding of the changing social policy landscape in Turkey. The research reveals that, district municipalities are increasingly important, albeit disorganized, components of social care policies in Turkey. Each implements a different set of social care programs in a similarly disorganized manner. Without exception, the scope of their services is limited. While district municipalities do not differ from the central government in targeting the poor sectors of especially people with disabilities and the elderly in need of care and their reliance upon cash for care, their narrowscoped home-based care provision points to an innovation in social care policies in Turkey.
The contesting roles of the Hak-İş Trade Union confederation: Class and political identities
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Arıcan, Yunus Furkan.; Buğra, Ayşe,
This thesis aims at scrutinizing the tension between class and political identities of the Trade Union Confederation Hak-İş from a historical institutionalist perspective. This has been done by putting the transformation of the Confederation’s religious character and its elective affinity with the political Islamic parties in Turkey into economic and political institutional contexts from 1976 to 2017. Setting certain historical episodes, this thesis first analyzes the harmony and tension in the class and political roles of the Confederation by taking into account the Confederation’s responses to the ever-changing post-fordist pressures and incorporation practices. Then the thesis looks at the ways in which the Trade Union Confederation Hak-İş engaged in a privileged relationship with the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) government. By putting a great deal of emphasis on the period of the AKP government, this thesis attempts to offer insights into the ways of politically supported interest mediation that favored the Confederation and how this privileged relationship resulted in the short-term gains of the Confederation at the expense of long-term benefits. Finally, by drawing lessons from the nature of the political exchange between the AKP government and the Trade Union Confederation Hak-İş, the thesis claims that the Trade Union Confederation Hak-İş has become part of a newly-emerged political community around the AKP government that has been consolidating not around class but around an identity axis which will trigger the competing roles of the Trade Union Confederation in the following years.
Social housing policy and the welfare regime in Turkey: A comparative perspective
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Gürbüztürk, Anıl.; Buğra, Ayşe,
This thesis examines how the housing policy and the housing sector in Turkey have been shaped by the country’s welfare regime through its transformation in the Republican period. The investigation of the Turkish case is undertaken in a comparative historical perspective, where Turkey’s welfare regime is discussed in terms of its similarities with the Southern European one, and this discussion is extended to the common characteristics of the housing policy and the housing sector in Turkey and in four Southern European countries. It is argued that the direction of welfare regime change in Turkey was different from the one observed in South European EU member states, and this difference is reflected in the new trajectory of housing policy.
A cash-for-care scheme targeting children with disabilities in Turkey: Parent / caregiver perspectives
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Avşaroğlu, Nazlı.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
A cash-for-care scheme targeting mainly families with at least one disabled member has become the central policy response to the care needs of persons with disabilities in Turkey’s welfare regime. This thesis explores how beneficiaries perceive this program by focusing specifically on caregivers of children with disabilities. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 caregivers of children with disabilities—four primary caregivers who have been receiving cash-for-care at the time of the research and four primary caregivers who have lost their benefits—in Istanbul’s Atasehir and Sultangazi districts between February and May 2016. The research reveals that although cash-for-care scheme has been widely welcomed by the informal caregivers, it has been perceived by the caregivers as a symbolic financial aid instead of a wage in exchange for their informal care work. In addition, cash-for-care beneficiaries that were included in this study perceive this scheme primarily as a financial support for poverty alleviation rather than a cash benefit in order to meet the special needs of their children with disabilities. While the introduction of a targeted cash-for-care allowance has signified an extension of state responsibility in social care, this thesis concludes that the program functions not as a care support scheme but as a social assistance scheme for the very poor.
Tax policies and social expenditures: Comparing impacts on inequality and poverty in Turkey and Mexico
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Toprak, Muhammet Halil.; Zenginobuz, Ekrem Ünal.
This thesis examines and compares the impacts of overall Turkish and Mexican fiscal system on poverty and income inequality by using the "conventional" incidence analysis method, based on micro data derived from household budget surveys. The fiscal system in both countries reduce relative and absolute poverty and income inequality. In Turkey, the social security system is more effective than the tax system, while the biggest problem of the fiscal system is the relatively high level of "regressive" consumption taxes. This thesis makes three basic recommendations: Readjusting of the Social Security Contribution (SSC) rates in favor of lower income groups; increasing the number and adjusting of income tax brackets; and reducing of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Special Consumption Tax (SCT) rates, or, preferably, eliminating them completely on basic consumption goods and goods that are important for middle income groups. Mexico's tax system is more effective than its social security system, which is less effective than even the other transfers, while Mexico's main problems are imbalances in social security system and low collection of personal income taxes due to high informality. Tllis thesis asserts that increasing the low SSC rate for pensions would increase the effectiveness of Mexican social security system, while decreasing the high sse rate for health for incomes below three times of the minimum wage income would decrease informality, which in turn would result raise the amount of income tax collected.
Mental health care policy reform in Turkey: User group perspectives
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Bilir, Merve Kardelen.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
The mental health policy of Turkey has been undergoing a transformation process since 2006. The main aim of this change is to prioritize the establishment of community-based mental health care services and to organize an accessible mental healthcare service network across the country. In this regard, this thesis explores the politics of mental health policy change in Turkey through a qualitative analysis of the views of mental health user groups on these changes. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the politics of mental health policy change in Turkey and to understand the role of user groups in this process by a qualitative analysis of the views of mental health user groups on these transformations. There are 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews in this thesis that were conducted with representatives of mental health user groups in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir between April and June 2018. The thesis reveals that this policy change took the form of the balanced care model, and the introduction of community-based mental health care centers provided to increase the utilization of mental health care services. However, it is not sufficient to bring a holistic view of the Turkish mental health system, which provides recovery-based services through medical and social support to empower individuals living with mental health issues. In addition, the user group representatives were included in this study believe that this policy change did not meet the expectations of user groups and remained insufficient in other respects.
Public-private partnership in Turkish healthcare provision :|the city hospital model
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Gün, Çağla.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
The city hospital program has been the latest example of the public-private partnership (PPP) paradigm in the Turkish healthcare system, which has transformed the role the public sector plays in public service provision. This thesis examines the city hospital model as a case study of PPP that has emerged out of a process of policy transfer and an interplay of public and private actors within policy transfer networks. In this regard, this thesis explores the policy networks, motivations of actors to involve in these networks, political dynamics behind the introduction of PPP in healthcare provision in Turkey, and the perceptions, contributions and resistances of different actors about this introduction. This thesis relies on participant observation and a comprehensive review of legal and policy documents. The analysis has unveiled four key findings. First, the model emerged out of the government's relationing to epistemic communities and is an example of policy transfer in which the state was voluntarily involved and appreciated contributions of private actors. Second, the model was implemented in a top-down, undemocratic manner, with critical details of projects not disclosed to the public. Third, the lack of expertise of the public sector created information and power asymmetries, which resulted in pushing the public sector into a passive role and the empowerment of private actors. Fourth, rapid implementation of the PPP model in healthcare without ample planning is in line with the appreciation of health care as a short-termist economic growth strategy that is capable of yielding popular support and legitimacy.
Reclassifying the Turkish welfare regime in the light of child well-being indicators
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Gürbüz, Didem.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
This study reexamines the welfare regime clustering of Turkey based on the data of child well-being across OECD countries between 2014 and 2017. In the previous literature, Turkish welfare regime is characterized as part of the Southern European (Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Italy) cluster. This thesis argues that the clustering of the Turkish welfare regime would be different from the previous literature’s finding, if child well-being indicators were taken into consideration. The thesis relies on the OECD’s following child well-being dimensions: material well-being, educational well-being, health and safety, risk behaviors. This thesis suggests that in terms of child well-being indicators, Turkey diverges from Southern Europe, and it resembles Latin American countries (Chile, Mexico, and Brazil). While a comparative analysis of social policy development in different countries lies beyond the scope of this thesis, the discussion presented in the study draws attention to the important role of family policies in determining the child well-being outcomes and suggests that gendered family policies appear as an essential factor affecting child well-being outcomes.
Educational well-being of Syrian refugee children in public schools :|a qualitative study in Istanbul
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Serim, Simla.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.
Starting from 2011, Turkey has been putting forth crucial efforts towards the education of Syrian refugee children. With the 2014 regulations, the Turkish government has made the decision to include Syrian students in public schools and phase out temporary education centers (TEC). This thesis explores the Syrian refugee children's perspectives and interpretations on their education in the light of child well-being perspective. Konu and Rimpela’s (2002) "School Well-being Model" is used as an analytical framework in this study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with 12 Turkish-speaking Syrian children strongly supported by humanitarian organizations and recruited through a refugee community center located in Sultanbeyli, Istanbul. The findings of the research reveal that children are highly motivated to get an education and very eager to learning. Despite the children’s high motivation to be successful in education, they are placed in a highly-supported environment and their intense psychological investments towards education, the thesis demonstrates that they still face serious difficulties in the Turkish education system that negatively affect their school adjustments and well-being in education. Disadvantaged position in the education to due language barrier, perceived unfair measurement, and evaluation systems, fear of losing their fluency in their mother tongue, discrimination and exclusion occurred in their vertical and horizontal relationships in school are the recurrent themes in children's subjective experiences. Thus, this thesis concludes that comprehensive and inclusionary social and education policies have to be developed by taking into account Syrian children’s capabilities, actual needs and their sense of fairness in education.
Attitudes of young Turkish workers towards private pension plans
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Gülmez, Müge.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Having established public pension schemes since the 1940s, Turkey introduced the voluntary private pillar in the early 2000s and launched the auto-enrolment in the private pension plan for all employees under 45 in 2016. Nevertheless, around 60 percent optedout out the private pillar. This thesis explores the attitudes of young workers towards private pension plan in Turkey and the factors that young workers refer to in explaining their decisions to stay in or opt out of the private pension plan. The thesis relies on a qualitative study that includes 29 semi-structured interviews with working young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in two types of workplaces in the public and private sectors, namely municipalities and shopping centers. Using thematic analysis of interview data, the thesis offers an analysis of young workers’ attitudes towards the retirement, their motivations for opting out and staying in the private pension plan, their attitudes towards auto-enrolment and their reasons for trust and mistrust towards the private pension plan. The thesis finds that young workers are generally ill informed about pensions and have a myopic attitude towards retirement, which also shape their attitudes towards the private pension plan. While the nudge, in the form of autoenrollment, helped some young workers to stay in the private plans, the thesis suggests that most of those stayed in does not see private pension plans as a long-term saving plan. The nudge, however, failed to keep most young workers in the private pension plans, who referred to their current financial needs, preferring other saving mechanisms, high retirement age and mistrust towards the state, the state of the economy and private insurance companies as reasons for their decision to opt-out.
The role of domestic politics in the 2006 corporate tax reform in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Sarper, Şule Nur.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
This thesis examines domestic political factors that made the 2006 corporate tax reform possible by exploring thematic patterns within the political debate around the reform. The 2006 reform decreased the corporate tax rate radically by 10 percent along with other regulations on corporate taxation. While the literature on tax policy changes explains the global trend of decreasing rates of corporate tax based on tax competition as an exogenous factor, this thesis investigates the role of domestic actors in the process leading to a corporate tax reform in the selected country case. The thesis relies on a thematic analysis of the following documents: policy papers published by two key business organizations and the government, media reflections of the discussions around the corporate tax reform between 2001 and 2007, and the parliamentary minutes. This thesis demonstrates that most political parties in the Turkish Parliament and the two business organizations perceived tax competition in their own interest and thus contributed to the 2006 corporate tax reform. There was a political consensus for the 2006 corporate tax reform and the preliminary legislations to ease the tax burden of corporations before the reform. The instrumental power of the selected business associations, MÜSİAD and TÜSİAD, provided them with an opportunity for interest representation during the policy formation process of the reform. This thesis argues that the 2006 corporate tax reform was one of the mechanisms of the governing party to strengthen its alliance with the business world, which sidelined the notion of tax fairness in the policy debates around the corporate tax reform.
An analysis of rehabilitation policies in Turkey from the perspective of disability rights activists
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Gencelli, Anıl.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities is considered as a human rights issue in the Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD). Along with the ratification of CRPD and implementation of the 2005 Turkish Law on Disability, Turkey experienced a modest welfare expansion especially in services and social transfers to people with disabilities. In this context, the thesis examines the perspectives of disability rights activists on the contemporary rehabilitation policies while situating their perspectives in a historical trajectory of rehabilitation policy changes in Turkey. The thesis draws on two types of data: documents and in-depth interviews. First, documents analysed in this thesis include media reflections of debates around rehabilitation policies, relevant legislations, policy documents and available data on rehabilitation services. Second, eight interviews were conducted with disability rights activists from six NGOs in İstanbul, İzmir and Bursa between January and March 2019. Both documentary analysis and thematic analysis of interviews demonstrate that rehabilitation services in Turkey still considerably diverge from a human rights approach to disability. The thesis identifies the following four obstacles against the full adoption of a human rights approach to disability in Turkish rehabilitation policies: 1) the domination of the medical model of disability in rehabilitation services in Turkey, 2) inadequacy of rehabilitation services in meeting the need, 3) insufficiency of social security coverage, and 4) inefficacy of rehabilitation services in taking individual differences among beneficiaries into account that limits its potential.
Refugee women's employment in Turkey's humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis :|a qualitative documentary analysis
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Gürbüz, Şeyma Nazlı.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Eight years ago, first flow of refugees started to cross the Turkish-Syrian border, fleeing a bloody civil war that started to tear their lives apart while looking for a fresh new start in a new country. Soon after, these refugee flows turned into a humanitarian crisis that no longer seeks emergency actions for its problems but instead necessitates permanent integration strategies that would ease life for both Turkish and Syrian societies. This thesis examines how and to what extent humanitarian actors approach the labor market integration of the Syrian refugee women in Turkey. The thesis relies on exploratory qualitative analysis of documents produced by five prominent humanitarian actors, namely Yuva Association, Support to Life Association, Turkish Red Crescent, Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants, and United Nations agencies in the post-2016 period, which was the year that the work permits for the Syrians under the temporary protection was issued. The thesis argues that the selected humanitarian actors adopt an approach that fits in between the Basic Needs Approach and the Instrumentalist Approach according to Olivius’ categorization of humanitarian responses to refugee women. The thesis finds that, although the humanitarian actors in Turkey acknowledges the importance of gender mainstreaming in their rhetoric, this acknowledgement is not reflected in their discourse on livelihood programs. Refugee women mostly appears in the humanitarian actor discourses on basic needs programs.
Turkey‘s tobacco control policies in comparative perspective: An analysis of anti-tobacco NGO stances
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Zülfikar, Sercan.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
This thesis explores Turkey‘s tobacco control policies from a historical and comparative perspective and situates the country‘s tobacco control policy framework within the comparative tobacco control regime framework. To compensate for the static analysis that the regime framework offers, the thesis complements this analysis with a qualitative analysis of six anti-tobacco NGO stances on the Turkish tobacco control policies. In doing so, the thesis relies on a qualitative thematic analysis of two sources of data: the review of tobacco control legislation, policy reports and secondary literature and semi-structured interviews with representatives of six influential anti-tobacco advocacy NGOs. The thesis demonstrates that the historical trajectory of Turkish tobacco control policies can be analyzed in four periods: the first period (1983-1996) without any tobacco control legislation; the second period (1996-2006) when the first tobacco control law was legislated; the third period (2006-2011) which significantly expanded the scope of its tobacco control policies; and the fourth period (2011- to the present), during which time progress on tobacco control measures has been stagnant and the enforcement has been loosened. The thesis argues that tobacco control policies in Turkey has undergone a transformation process from being a hands-off control regime to a high-control one. An analysis of interviews with representatives of anti-tobacco NGOs, however, reveals that Turkey has lost its commitment to tobacco control in recent years, which signifies a tendency towards transformation into a moderate control regime.
United Nations employee perspectives on linking humanitarian and development aid :|Turkey’s protracted refugee situation
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Hacılar, Sevcan.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
A catalyst for the renewed focus on linking humanitarian and development aid has been the scale and protracted nature of the Syrian refugee situation. While policy and academic literature has emphasized the necessity for the link and offered pathways to a coherent response framework, research on how aid employees perceive and negotiate this link remains restricted. In this regard, this thesis explores perspectives of the United Nations (UN) employees on how the link is perceived and negotiated in the context of the UN-coordinated response to the Syrian refugee situation in Turkey. This thesis relies on a qualitative study including 9 key-informant interviews with the employees of two UN agencies in Turkey. Applying thematic analysis to the interview data, the thesis offers a contextual analysis of their perspectives towards conceptual framing of the link between humanitarian and development aid, distinctions between these two worlds of aid, the relevance of the link in Turkey and roles of main stakeholders in implementing this link. The thesis finds that perceptions of the UN employees on distinctions between the two types of aid and conceptual framing of the link present diversity. In the Turkish context, institutional capacity development in the public sector is perceived as the response’s overarching relevance and contribution to the link. However, a dilemma is observed between strengthening domestic institutions and building the resilience of people and communities.
A three-layered analysis of Turkey's social and economic support program :|intentions, implementations, and gender outcomes
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Keleş Yüksel, Şehide Zehra.; Kolluoğlu, Biray.
Female poverty, that can be rendered temporarily invisible by the traditional conjugal union, becomes a non-negligible problem when social aid mechanisms gain essential importance over single-parent households that are in majority led by mothers who themselves have become a new social risk both demographically and politically. Social investment paradigm aims at this new risk in a way to reduce the costs of motherhood and divorce especially for single mothers. This thesis examines a form of gendered economic vulnerability that has become visible with divorce or separation over a welfare program, Socio-economic Support Service (SED). Relying on the interviews with four bureaucrats, eight social workers, and eleven beneficiary single mothers; this study reveals both the challenging and route-making qualities of divergences between the designed, implemented and experienced SED. First it shows that, the criteria that trace whether the beneficiaries really lack alternatives to survive force women to make a choice between men and the state and most women prefer being dependent on the state’s budget. Hence, this policy ends up empowering women who want to build a new life outside the normative family. Secondly, since care policies fail to create alternatives, informal employment and compressed motherhood undermine government’s ideal of warm family environment. Besides, intergenerational transmission of poverty cannot be prevented as long as child poverty is considered separate from gender inequality. Over all, this thesis argues that social policy can give birth to unintended possibilities through practice and interaction of different domains.
The effect of diagnosis-related groups on clinical autonomy in Turkey :|the physician’s perspective
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Aktaş, Püren.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Since the 2003 Health Transformation Programme, Turkey’s health care system has been subjected to significant changes in financing, provision, and regulation. The diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) is among these regulations, which was fully introduced in 2013 to control increasing health care spending and secure efficient utilization of resources through standardization of reimbursement for medical services. This thesis explores physician perceptions of the impacts of the Health Transformation Programme and more specifically of the DRGs on their clinical autonomy. The thesis relies on an exploratory qualitative study that includes 14 indepth semi-structured interviews with physicians from different specialities working at public and private hospitals (excluding university hospitals). The findings of this research reveal that physicians perceive clinical autonomy as key to appropriately performing their profession based on scientific evidence, and they feel that the reform and the DRG model negatively affected their clinical autonomy. The thesis argues that the implementation of the diagnosis-related group transformed medical practice into an optimization problem that involves balancing incomes and expenses of the hospitals and meeting the medical needs of patients. While the thesis demonstrates that physicians still enjoy a partial autonomy in navigating the DRG model by resorting to formal and informal strategies to serve the patients, the overall impact that these strategies have may remain limited unless the problems of the DRG model are addressed systematically.
Selling voluntary health insurance in a publicly-funded system :|a study with insurance agents in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Hışıl, Oğuzhan.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Increasing voluntary private health insurance (PHI) uptake is a global trend. Turkey is not an exception to this trend despite it offers compulsory social health insurance for all. Two types of voluntary PHI are available in Turkey, namely, standard duplicate and supplementary PHI. This thesis explores the dynamics of increase in the PHI uptake through a descriptive analysis of official data and a qualitative study of insurance agent perspectives. Insurance agents are selected as key informants given their strategic position deriving from their closer relations with PHI buyers and holders and their possible role in increasing PHI sales. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with insurance agents based in Istanbul. Interview data were analyzed by using thematic analysis method relying on deductive coding approach. The thesis finds that increase in PHI uptake mostly occurs through individual purchases from insurance agents. It also shows insurance agents explain the increase in PHI uptakes in reference to two main factors: PHI buyers’ perceived problems in the publicly-provided healthcare services and PHI buyers’ and holders’ demand for private healthcare services that increased in capacity with the 2003 reform. In addition, this thesis also suggests that the trust relationship established by insurance agents with customers is a crucial factor for the growth of PHI's customer pool. Finally, the thesis provides evidence that the PHI product, which generally appeals to the high-income group in Turkey, has started to attract an economically diverse customer base with the introduction of supplementary PHI after the 2003 reform.
Exploring agency problems in the Turkish private pension system :|pension sector employee perspectives
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Aslan, Remziye Gül.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
The existing literature on Turkey’s private pension system highlights the limited financial literacy of its participants, which may lead to agency problems. Through a qualitative exploratory study on pension sector employee perspectives, this thesis examines agency problems in the Turkish private pension system in the context of its governance structure. The study relies on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 employees from eight pension companies, three portfolio management companies, and one of the regulatory and supervisory organizations. The analysis relies on a thematic content analysis of the interview data. The thesis finds that pension sector employees believe agency problems are prevalent in the private pension system, particularly in the relationship between pension companies and participants. It identifies four major agency problems: the provision of insufficient information to prospective participants, offering pension funds that mismatch participants’ risk preferences, the provision of insufficient information to participants about the performance of their funds, and making investments to their group companies at the expense of participants’ interests. The thesis suggests that these problems may negatively affect the rate of returns for participants and the efficiency of the system. It concludes that the state’s regulatory role of the in the private pension system is more critical in the Turkish case than in countries where secondary pillars are partially monitored through industrial relations in the absence of collective voice mechanism and contract-based governance structure.
Homelessness at the dining table :|needs-talk in the Hayata Sarıl Restaurant
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Dursunoğlu, Şeyma.; Kolluoğlu, Biray.
This thesis is based on a year of ethnographic research in the Hayata Sarıl Restaurant which is a soup kitchen serving free food for the homeless in Istanbul. It scrutinizes how, from what perspective, and for what aim the needs of the homeless are interpreted by the volunteers working there. ‘Needs-talk’, conceptualized by Nancy Fraser, refers to the ways needs are interpreted and it is an institutionalized part of the political discourse in welfare states (1989). This thesis indicates that for the Hayata Sarıl, homelessness is a process starting as a familial and social exclusion. It is deepened as a psychological problem through traumas. Then, it results in a lifestyle where finding a socially meaningful job does not matter to the homeless anymore. Accordingly, homeless people are considered in need for sociality, psychological support, and discipline the most. The state is responsible for creating concrete, human rights-based solutions, society is responsible for socially including the homeless, and the homeless are responsible for giving efforts to be housed again. This needs-talk aims for the homeless to change and become citizens who can exercise their rights. The study also shows that volunteers use victim-blaming and structure-blaming discourses of homelessness at the same time, which indicates that these discourses may well coexist. The thesis concludes that having more homeless people in the positions of volunteerism or jobs can help the relationship between ‘housed’ volunteers and homeless diners to be stronger and also the homeless to politicize their unspoken needs claims.

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