Ph.D. Theses

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One-party regime in Turkey and communications 1923-1946
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute of Social Sciences, 1984., 1984.) Öcal, Hakkı.
The impacts of alternative Weltanschauungs on political theories :|a comparison of tawhid and ontological proximity
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1990., 1990.) Davutoğlu, Ahmet, 1959-; Mardin, Şerif,
Immanuel Kant's philosophical-anthropological approach to international relations: |freedom, equality and human rights within constitutional and international legality
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute of Social Sciences, 1996., 1996.) Sinirlioğlu, Feridun Hadi.; Parla, Taha,
This dissertation attempts to challenge the axiomatic separation and isolation of the international from the domestic politics through the. medium of Kant. In this context, the "republican constitutionalism with a cosmopolitan intent" appears as the underlying concept. In a critical dialogue with Kant, this study tries to show why his position with respect to the "international relations" is directly locked into his critical philosophy as a whole. Thus, it demonstrates that Kant's approach to "international relations" provides us with a theoretical framework which considers "domestic" as well as "international" as interdependent parts of a cosmopolitan whole. The praxis-oriented, forward-looking conception of history together with a theoretical humanism lays down the foundations for a novel approach to the international relations theory, which combines morality with legality through politics.
Germany's commitment to and impact on European integration: |continuity or change?
(Thesis (Ph.D.)- Bogazici University. Institute of Social Sciences, 1998., 1998.) Kaiser, Bianca.; Avcı, Gamze.
This study examines whether, and to what extent, united Germany's commitment to and impact on European integration has changed. A cO)llparative analysis over time is undertaken by contrasting West Germany's European policy with that of united Germany. Special importance is attributed to political parties and public opinion. Both influence the shaping of European policy, that occupies a position in-between foreign policy and domestic policy, because the European Union is not only an arrangement between nation-states, but affects individual citizens directly. The process of German unification, Germany's new foreign policy and Germany's impact on European integration are studied for indications of Germany's alleged new "assertiveness". Our main finding is that the commitment of German political parties to European integration has not decreased, but even increased. However, Germany's foreign policy has shifted towards "benign" realism, and its European policy has become more . pragmatic due to new challenges in the international environment. United Germany's influence in the European Union has increased, and is, at the same time, decreasing as Germany is pushing for more supranational decision-making. The "permissive consensus" of the German public is eroding due to the changed nature of the European Union that has started to confer more rights and duties on individual citizens since the Maastricht Treaty. Notwithstanding certain changes, Germany's basic consensus on European integration continues to exist. As a trading state, the country can best ensure its interests in a peaceful and cooperative environment and considers European integration as the best tool to prevent history from repeating itself.|Keyword: Germany - European Integration - German Unification - Political Parties - Public Opinion.
The "Ethnic Conflict" factor in democratic consolidation
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2003., 2003.) İlter, R. Ebru.; Yılmaz, Hakan.
This study aims to explore the potential linkage between ethnic conflict and democratic consolidation through scrutinizing the experiences of two consolidated and two unstable democracies. Four different variables assist this endeavor. Such an analysis reveals that there are a number of conditions which facilitate democratic consolidation in spite of an ongoing conflict. It is a central argument that rather than the conflict management strategy adopted by political systems, other peculiar variables are critical in accounting for democratic consolidation. The level of violence, political party role, and popular stance in relation to the conflict surface as factors central to the determination of the extent to which democratic consolidation is possible under circumstances posed by the conflict. Unlike various accounts which stress the centrality of the conflict management strategy, this study underlines the fact that it is other supporting conditions that distinguish the performance of consolidated democracies from unstable democracies. While the identification of the combinations of conditions that enable democratic consolidation even under circumstances created by ethnic conflict is attempted, a final effort entails the analysis of the Turkish case with an emphasis on the extent to which the reigning conditions allow for democratic consolidation. Hence, the extent to which an integrated strategy of conflict management is accompanied by other supporting conditions in the case of Turkey is utilized as a benchmark in evaluating the prospects for democratic consolidation.
Islamism and islamic literature in contemporary Turkey: From epic to novel understandings of Islam
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering, 2004., 2004.) Çayır, Kenan.; Arat, Yeşim,
This study explores Islamism and Islamic identities through literary representations of Islamism in Turkey in the last two decades, a period in which Islamism came on the public agenda through novels, films, music and other artistic productions. My focus will be in particular on the Islamic novels of the 1980s and 1990s in order to elucidate Islamist actors' perceptions of 'self' and 'other' and of the social milieu in which they lived. I will note a change in emphasis in Islamic representations and discourse between the 1980s and 1990s. I will argue that with their didactic and pedagogical narratives detailing 'how Muslims should live in the modern world,' Islamic novels of 1980s provided Islamists with a means to disseminate ideas in popularized form and to develop life strategies that paved the way for assertive collective Islamic subjectivity. By contrast, in the 1990s more self-reflexive/self-exposing novels have emerged in Islamic circles that mirror the questioning of radical conceptions of the previous decade in Islamic circles. The new Islamic novels, with their self-reflexive forms and their narratives exploring the inner conflicts of Islamic actors in the face of changing social relations challenge the collective definitions of Islamic identity and signify novel practices and interpretations of Islam.
Militarism, capitalism and the State: putting the military in its place in Turkey
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering, 2006., 2006.) Akça, İsmet.; Parla, Taha,
This dissertation̕s overriding objectives are to theoretically come to terms with and toempirically expose the complex forms of articulation between militarism and capitalismin Turkey. Following a critical evaluation of theoretical approaches to the complex relationship among militarism, capitalism, and the state, it first lays out a nonreductionisttheory to analyze state-class relations, which is indispensable for theanalysis of the militarization of state forms. Drawing on Gramsci, Poulantzas, andJessop, I propose a Marxist theoretical framework which conceptualizes the state as a social relation, recognizes its constitutive impact on the formation of class relations, andwhich analyzes the class struggles through the concepts of hegemonic projects andaccumulation strategies. Secondly, I critically evaluate the prevailing state-centric modesof analysis of the state and the military in Turkey. Then, I focus on two phenomenal forms of articulation between militarism and capitalism. I analyze the militarization ofstate form through the case study of the May 27 Coup. I argue that the militarizationprocess was organically embedded in capitalist power relations. The militaryintervention was both constrained by and constitutive of capitalist class relations and capitalist hegemonic projects. Lastly, I analyze the militarization of the capitalisteconomy through a specific form of military-industrial complex whereby the militarybecomes an economic actor. Through the study of military capital (OYAK), I exposehow the military has historically become embedded in class power relations and accumulation strategies. I also underline the high military expenditures and war industryas a factor further accelerating the militarization of the economy.
Turkish-US security relations 1945-2003: a game-theoretical analysis of the institutional effect
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Tuğtan, Mehmet Ali.; Eder, Mine,
This study aims to test the relevance of the neo-institutionalist theory in Turkish-US security relations by using a game-theoretical model. If successful, such an undertaking would provide one with tested theoretical generalizations about the place of institutions (in our case, NATO) in Turkish-US security relations, imply policy-making alternatives to remedy the power asymmetry between the two actors, and help pinpoint problematic issues in the bilateral relationship. This study has looked at the salient issues in Turkish-US security relations from 1945 to 2003. Its key findings suggest that NATO as an institution moderates relative gains made by the parties, and this effect is independent from domestic or international structural changes. The power asymmetry between Turkey and US results in an uneven distribution of relative gains that is particularly evident in problematic issues like the Middle East, US military aid to Turkey, and the presence and activities of US forces in Turkey. The findings of this study suggest that further institutionalization would moderate the distribution of relative gains in both issues.
The policing of social discontent and the construction of the social body: mapping the expansion and militerization of the police organization in Turkey in the post-1980 period
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Berksoy, Biriz Gonca.; Gambetti, Zeynep Ç.
The police organization in Turkey has gone through a major transformation process after the 1980 coup d’état. Within this period its personnel and budget were significantly enlarged, para-militaristic units were established, police powers were extended etc. The thesis examines the expansion and militarization of the police organization in Turkey in the post-1980 period. As the thesis puts forward, this process can neither be evaluated as a “modernization” move to advance the public “services”; nor as an isolated case caused by the particular “anti-democratic” methods of the state in Turkey. The grounds of this transformation, whose equivalents had been experienced previously in the bedrocks of neo-liberalism (United States and Britain), must be sought within the legacy of social relations in the country and in the path-dependent neoliberalization process, through which this legacy have been re-constructed since the beginning of 1980s. This is accomplished in the thesis by taking into account four clusters of social relations and their re-configuration since 1945, for it is claimed that they constitute the minimum core relations that comprise the capitalist state and their modifications leave a major impact upon its institutions, especially if it is a police organization. These are the relations constituting the accumulation regime, hegemonic discursive relations, relations between state institutions affecting the iv political regime and international relations leading to international norm/policy transfers.
Labor resistance against neoliberal challenges to the traditional trade unionism in Turkey: 1986-1991
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Doğan, Mustafa Görkem.; Candaş, Ayşen.
It is a well established tendency to depict the aftermath of the military intervention of 1980 as an era devoid of any significant labor mobilization. This study aims to shed light on the last important cycle of protest led by the organized labor movement spanning from the mid eighties to the beginning of the nineties. This last process of mobilization contains two of the most noteworthy episodes of labor protest, spring actions and the great march of miners to be exact. These two instances from that overlooked era were usually accounted as spontaneous reactions to the deteriorating living conditions of the workers. This study claims that the second part of the eighties witnessed a protest cycle led by the unionized workers and the dynamics of the mobilization can be understood using the political process model of the social movements’ literature. It also argues that the main factor instigating the workers to act was a perceived assault on the moral economy of the industrial relations’ regime of Turkey, existing mostly in the public sector. This moral economy is constructed historically and in a mutual interaction between the state, workers and related political developments in three subsequent periods of the Turkish Republic. Firstly, the late thirties set the pattern of the state led industrialization and the ideological mainframe of the industrial relations; secondly the transition to multi-party politics also determined the circumstances of acceptable union activities and appropriate government responses and finally the introduction of import substitution enlarged the place of the organized labor within the political system. The neoliberal transformation implemented under the Özal administration targeted this moral economy among other things and trade unions mobilized in these circumstances creating one of the most illustrious moments of the Turkish labor history.
Europeanization of Turkish civil society organizations during the accession process to the EU : a Gramscian analysis
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Zihnioğlu, Özge.; Yılmaz, Hakan.
The EU has long recognized the importance of civil society organizations for European integration. In parallel with this, the urge for their Europeanization in the candidate countries, meaning their increased role in matters relating to the accession process, and thereby to the liberal-democratic transition of the respective society has been prevailing. The related EU policy draws from the liberal-democratic tradition that links civil society with democratization process. The EU displays one of the most vivid examples of this civil society policy during Turkey’s accession. As part of its policy, the EU has increasingly been providing various instruments to civil society organizations since the official announcement of Turkey’s candidature in 1999. In this respect, this dissertation aims to understand the interaction between the EU and the civil society organizations in Turkey as well as how these organizations are instrumentalized during the accession process. Accordingly, this dissertation problematizes the EU civil society policy and questions how well it fits the Turkish context. This problematization begins with delineating the EU policy for Turkish civil society organizations by looking into official documents, setting out the method and instruments employed by the EU and discussing their wider implications such as the legal and institutional changes. The in-depth interviews conducted with civil society organizations as well as experts and public officials working with these organizations help to identify the predicaments and their reasons emerging during the implementation of this policy. This reveals not only the discrepancy between the expectations and the outcome regarding the EU civil society policy, but also that the civil society organizations are autonomous agents interacting with various dynamics. On the other hand, the domestic socio-political conditions relevant to contemporary Turkish civil society that would relate to its reaction to the EU policy are also analyzed. This dissertation establishes the inappropriateness of the EU civil society policy in the Turkish context and challenges the very definition of civil society adopted by the EU. In doing so, this dissertation offers to go beyond the problematic of democratization which has been the focus of most academic work on this subject.
The politics of uncertainty in a global market: the hazelnut exchange and its production
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2012., 2012.) Bilbil, Ebru Tekin.; Çalışkan, Koray,
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the market works on the ground. It analyzes the hazelnut market in Turkey and explores the interaction between the market agents. It reveals how this interaction relates to the presence, production and circulation of forms of uncertainty. It also ascertains what uncertainty means in market settings and what role production, representation, dissemination and limiting of uncertainty play in market relations. In market relations, intentionally or unintentionally, individuals try to forecast, value, prevent and qualify (as risk or loss) uncertainties. They assume that they can perceive, measure and avoid uncertainties on the basis of probabilities, level of knowledge about unknowns or ability to overcome. As such, uncertainty is assumed to be given yet with inadequate attention into its constitutive dynamics, actors of its making and its role in the market creation. The dissertation examines how uncertainties are constructed and what role this construction plays in constituting the market exchange and relations. The conclusions reached are that economizing uncertainty becomes a market device in production, exchange, circulation, pricing and policy making. The dissertation starts with an analysis of the market reform policies and agricultural transformation in Turkey. Next, it traces the processes of the production and calculation of hazelnuts, examining how hazelnuts are produced and measured under uncertainty, and how uncertainty is created in the calculation of hazelnuts. It then explains exchange relations and price politics created at different spheres and with different expectations. After that, it explores the struggles and controversies among market groups over the production, calculation, exchange and pricing of hazelnuts and policy making. Subsequently, it analyzes what the politics of uncertainty means and how it is produced in the market setting. Following uncertainties and observing their making in markets require a research program that draws on literatures concerning economics, political science and sociology. The research program includes the discussion of material things, individuals, formal and informal institutions and prices as well as their interactions. The research was based primarily on qualitative interviews, participant observations, case studies and document analysis conducted between 2006 and 2009.
Post-cold war Turkish-Russian relations: the limits of competition and cooperation in Eurasia
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2012., 2012.) Kelkitli, Fatma Aslı.; Kut, Gün.
This dissertation examines post-Cold War Turkish-Russian relations in their political, economic and military aspects. The study, first of all, aims to shed light on the current nature and motives of the relationship, whether it is an example of genuine rapprochement based on common determination and willingness on both sides or a conjectural coupling which drew two states closer due to their discomfort and disappointment with some policies of other actors such as the EU and the USA. Secondly, the dissertation intends to find out to what extent the growing economic relations, especially Turkey’s energy dependence on Russia, contributes to the easing out of political tensions between the two countries. Lastly, the study explores whether the growing economic cooperation and intensifying political dialogue between Turkey and Russia can bring out common outlook and joint policy actions toward the resolution of the regional conflicts in the South Caucasus. The research based on an analysis of documents concerning the topic along with the in-depth interviews I have conducted with the representatives of the Turkish-Russian business associations and officials in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs demonstrates that Turkey and Russia have been engaged in a deliberate compromise which is strengthened by their ascending economic relations particularly by the increasing and diversifying collaboration in the energy field. However, consolidated economic ties and increasing contacts at the governmental as well as at business and people-to-people levels are not adequate to prevail over the competition and political divergence regarding Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia issues in the South Caucasus.
The politics of religion in the United States Federal context: the faith-based initiative
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2012., 2012.) Ekşioğlu, Nevin Deniz.; Akan, Murat.
Religion in the United States is a complicated, yet often under analyzed and misunderstood, phenomenon. Although it boasts one of the high rates of personal belief in the world, the U.S. is also frequently presented as one of the best examples of institutional separation of church and state available. Despite this, however, recent decades have witnessed the increasing presence of religion and faith in the public sphere and in the political realm. Understanding this reality, along with the simultaneous permeation of the public sphere and the concurrent emphasis on religiosity and religious belief requires analyzing a number of intertwined and overlapping factors. This dissertation seeks to analyze the underlying issues that have contributed to the current atmosphere of neutrality and accommodation towards increased religiosity in the political and public spheres. This is done through a historical analysis of religion in the U.S., a consideration of the role of federalism in allowing for increased religion in politics and public policy, and the in-depth analysis of a recent federal policy, the Faith-Based Initiative, which indicates the new role religion has been able to play in federal, and state, policy. Despite the decline of religion predictions offered by the secularization thesis, religious belief and practice have played, and continue to play, crucial roles in American political life since the founding of the nation. By considering the historical development of the nation, the degree to which religion was a factor in this development, and the current reality of religion in general, and state-religion relations specifically, this dissertation presents the context for a more in-depth case study analysis of recent federal policies involving religion. Not only have public political attitudes vis-à-vis interaction between religious organizations and government evolved in recent decades, but shifts in judicial opinion have also helped to solidify the development of a new, more accommodating stance towards state-religion relations. Beginning with an analysis of America’s position in general secularization studies, this dissertation then looks carefully at the current position of religion in both the political and judicial realms, and the manner in which this has influenced legislation nationwide. Using both primary and secondary sources, including Congressional records, Court documents and decisions, government reports and websites, scholarly analysis, and media accounts, the dissertation argues that it is the culmination of these historical and institutional factors that allowed for the rise of two important federal level policies; first the Charitable Choice Amendment of 1996, and second, in 2001, its successor, the Faith-Based and Community Initiative. Together these two programs aimed to enhance the availability of relations between the government and religious social service organizations. The Faith-Based Initiative, its development and implementation by the George W. Bush Administration, its programs, and the challenges the Initiative faced politically, socially, and legally are all examined in detail in order to best present a picture of how the politics of religion function in the federal United States.
Disappearing onion producers in Karacabey: a micro analysis of farmers and land after structural reform
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Döner, Fatma Nil.; Çalışkan, Koray,
In the last decade, for the first time in Anatolian history, farmers have no longer been the largest working population. The decreasing number of farmers and the shifts in their strategies for agricultural production, employment, livelihood, and market incorporation are a direct result of SAPs of the post-1980 era. This dissetation investigates the multifaceted impacts of structural adjustment reforms, as well as the hardships and the challenging processes that farming families have faced during the last three decades in Turkey. The original contribution is to show ongoing rural transformation in a micro-environment of Bursa Karacabey, by emphasizing what the SAPs mean on the ground. Surveys and statistical data reduce farmers to production units so many goods and services they generate become invisible from a neoliberal perspective. Therefore, here, the challenge is to tease out the political, social, and economic consequences of the SAPs in a micro-environment with special emphasis on the experiences of farmers who are facing impacts of structural reform one-to-one. For the majority of small farmers, SAPs continuously diminish the level of income and farming on its own becomes unable to provide sufficient livelihood for rural dwellers. This dissertation teases out the process of easing away from a strictly agrarian existence and engaging in multiple activities by examining recent trends in rural employment, occupational shifts, changes in the main income sources, emerging economic activities, and spatial relocation in Harmanlı village. It illustrates how rural inhabitants in the village manage their subsistence and overhaul consumption patterns, gender roles, and environment in order to surmount the vicissitudes of structural reform with reference to the political dimensions of livelihood adaptation and relations with the state. In this dissertion, the attention given to real experiences of rural producers instead of statistics enables us to investigate micro-level impacts of SAPs and what kind of coping strategies derive in Harmanlı village. Besides, a comprehensive analysis on livelihood strategies reminds us that resistance to free-market system begins with the mechanisms used by households to preserve subsistence level and social reproduction. Finally, a critical perusal of the rural-urban linkages which are useful lens for understanding the complexities of rural inhabitants’ livelihoods and their coping strategies including some form of mobility, diversification of income sources and occupations, and rural dwellers’ mechanisms of confrontation enriches our analysis in this dissertation.
Business associations and foreign policy: revisiting state-business relations in Turkey
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Atlı, Altay, 1974-; Eder, Mine,
Economic considerations are increasingly playing a role in defining Turkey’s foreign policy, and as a result, non-state actors from the economic realm like the business associations as the institutional representatives of the private sector are emerging as key actors in the formulation and implementation of policy. This study deals with the question of whether the increasing activism of business associations in foreign policy issues represents a transformation of state-business relations in Turkey from a state corporatist mode with clientelistic tendencies and patronage relations towards more formal, institutionalized and participatory forms such as liberal corporatism. In order to illuminate this issue, the experience of three business associations (Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, Turkish Contractors’ Union, and Turkish Exporters’ Assembly) over the past three decades is analyzed by employing using a two-tiered principal-agent model, which positions the state as the principal and the business associations as the agents performing certain tasks on the state’s behalf and receiving incentives in return, within a historical institutional framework. The model has the dimensions of the interaction between the government and bureaucracy; the contract between the state and the business associations; autonomy of business associations; interaction between the administration and the constituency of business associations; and cooperation and competition between the business associations. Investigating the changes in these dimensions over time, this study discusses the development and limitations of state-business relations in Turkey. In this way, the study hopes to make a contribution to the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy.
The missing link in the Chain of oppression and resistance: last era of Kurdish banditry in modern Turkey, 1950-1980
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Özcan, Ahmet.; Gambetti, Zeynep Ç.
Referring to the denomination of the transitory period between the massive Kurdish insurrections suppressed in the early Republic and the organized armed struggle initiated in the late 1970s as ‘the period of silence’, the present thesis demonstrates that the period between 1950 and 1980 had been active both in the sense of State oppression and Kurdish resistance against it through the analysis of criminality in the Kurdish regions from the 1950s onwards. While the linkage between Kurdish criminality and the ‘Eastern’ question had instantly been forged, the rise of ordinary crimes was reconstructed either as one of the natural results of the ‘underdevelopment of the Eastern regions’ or as the overt sign for an upcoming Kurdish rebellion. Despite such discursive variations, all the Governments from the 1950s onwards applied mainly the same policies and technologies of power (i.e. (i) disarmament of the population, organization of (ii) massive bandit hunts, and (iii) a series of commando raids) against a perceived rise of criminality in the Kurdish regions. Detecting ‘separatism’ behind the ordinary crimes, the State used the Kurdish criminality to veil its penetration into the region in pursuit of suppressing the Kurdish ethno-political identity. While the massive emergence of banditry in the Kurdish regions from the 1950s onwards had been a spontaneous reaction of the traditional Kurdish society against the socio-economic transformation of the region, the inversion of the ‘Western’ political and moral values through the ‘Eastern’ bandit myth constituted the ‘primitive’ form of resistance against the penetration of the Turkish nation-state building process into the region.
Migrants and the city: gentrification, ethnicity and class in a Berlin neighborhood
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Kadıoğlu Polat, Defne.; Yılmaz, Hakan.
The term gentrification has found its way into everyday vocabulary. However, neither in the academic nor in the non-academic community does there seem to be a consensus about what gentrification is, how and why it happens and what the consequences for local populations are. This thesis attempts to contribute to this debate by examining the relation between the gentrification of the working-class neighborhood Reuterquarter in Berlin, Neukölln and the social exclusion of immigrants from Turkey. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s sociology of space, particularly his notions of abstract and lived space, to understand why, how and with what effects on the local population Reuterquarter is gentrifying. Research is based on qualitative methods, combining field work in the form of 80 semistructured interviews to understand the repercussions of gentrification on the local populace and the analysis of secondary material such as newspaper articles, policy reports, websites and brochures to trace the evolution of this process. This dissertation firstly argues that research on gentrification must take into account both: economic and cultural change. Secondly, this work shows that the German state, despite its long welfare tradition, has played a pivotal role in Reuterquarter’s gentrification. Lastly, this study argues that gentrification’s consequences go beyond physical displacement and encompass effects such as overcrowding, emotional displacement and diversion to informal work. These effects can only be unraveled by research on the neighborhood-level, taking the experiences of residents into account.
Rethinking the political economy of contemporary water struggles in Turkey from a comparative perspective :|space, structures and agency
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Kavak, Sinem.; Eder, Mine,; Bastard, Benoit.
This dissertation examines role of political economy in contemporary agrarian mobilizations. By focusing on recent water struggles in Turkey against the run-ofthe- river hydropower plants (SHPs); the research digs into the societal and economic factors that enable or inhibit the emergence of strong mobilizations through a comparison of reactions against SHP projects in four localities of Eastern Black Sea region. The main logic behind the cross comparison is to find out if there is a relationship between the forms of rural livelihoods; mostly defined in terms of production, marketing, place in the general economic system, migration and viability of space; and political mobilization against SHP construction combined with the other possible reasons leading to an unrest and contention. The research revealed that prior transformation of the rural spaces affects the ways, means and discourses of the local struggles. I argue that spatio-economic transformation of the localities that unevenly transform rural settings in terms of production and consumption activities have impact on the patterns, discourses and agency in the contemporary ‘rural’ mobilizations. Therefore, the dissertation advocates for a need for theorization of contemporary agrarian mobilization from this perspective by putting the emphasis on the livelihood transformations, transformation and viability of space, commercialization of production and differentiation within the peasantry and the agency.
A critical history of the concept of progress: Salvaging the repressed normative content
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Yasin, Buğra.; Gambetti, Zeynep Ç.
This study revisits the concept of progress for the purpose of excavating and laying bare its normative content. The critical examination of its conceptual history enables me to delineate two ideal-types of progress which can be differentiated from one another based on their level of affinity with the utilitarian logic and instrumental rationality of market relations characteristic of modern bourgeois society. Auguste Comte's unilinear and scientific conceptualization of progress displays contiguity with the economic and social conditions following the dissolution of the ancien régime and works predominantly to contain the contradictions that posed a threat to the well-being of the bourgeois society. Tapping into the irrational elements of civil society, Kant posits two distinct areas of progress - moral and civilizational, the relations between which are shown to be marked with tension and contain a dynamic and dialectical dimension. Following this typological analysis, I explore Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of progress and do so by investigating his diagnosis of modernity as a period of nihilism. I show that Nietzsche rejects both Comte's and Kant's theorization of progress on account of their stark incompatibility with the model of agonistic individuality that Nietzsche judges to be the sole antidote for overcoming nihilism. In the final chapter, I direct my attention to Theodor Adorno's determinate negation of the concept of progress, which is argued to extend beyond the predominantly individualistic and abstract nature of Nietzsche's criticisms and develop a socially engaged and concrete idea of progress by sharpening its critical edge and rejuvenating its repressed emancipatory aspects.

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