M.A. Theses

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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.
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.
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.
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.
An examination of diabetes policy in Turkey :|a qualitative documentary analysis
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Ekici, Ekin.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Diabetes Mellitus is the 9th leading cause of death globally, accounting for about 2 million annual deaths as of 2019. Turkey is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of diabetes. Turkey’s position in diabetes outcomes worldwide needs explanation as it has a relatively strong healthcare system and allocates a significant budget to the management of diabetes and its complications. In this context, this thesis explores the policy factors explaining Turkey’s failure. Using Walt and Gilson’s policy triangle framework, this thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of diabetes policy in Turkey by examining Turkey Diabetes Programme 2015-2020 and the transcriptions of Diabetes Parliament meetings held between 2015-2018. The thesis reveals a wide gap between policy and implementation, the lack of cooperation among diabetes actors and inadequate recognition of social determinants of health (SDoH) in Turkey’s national diabetes programme. Turkey’s adoption of a vertical like, disease-centred, treatment-focused and group-based approach in the management of diabetes may have contributed to the failure of its diabetes policy.
Working beyond pension age in Turkey :|a qualitative analysis from a life course perspective
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Kösem, Mine.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.
Working in later life is increasingly becoming the norm in contemporary societies. Current developments in labor market and pension policies have extended working lives. This thesis focuses on the emerging pattern of working beyond retirement age in Turkey. It provides answers to the following questions: How do older workers in Turkey explain their reasons to continue working beyond the retirement age? What factors do they perceive as accounting for their continued employment? To what extent do they see their continued employment as an obligation or a choice? This thesis relies on 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews that were conducted between April and June 2021 with individuals who are 55 yearsold or above. Based on a qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews from a life- course perspective, the findings of this thesis reveal the complexity of factors in explaining respondents' decision to continue working beyond the retirement age in the case of Turkey. These factors, spread out over the course of life, cut across multiple levels, such as changes in the welfare system and the labor market, household needs, and individual motivations. Last butnot the least, this thesis suggests that the narratives of working in later life are also indicative of the individualization of the risk of income loss in old age in the Turkish context.
Political discourse and health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey :|a critical analysis
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Şen, Tuğba Zeynep.; Kolluoğlu, Biray.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, governments had to devise policies to respond to a novel situation with imperfect and uncertain information. Developing government discourses to make meaning out of these unprecedented circumstances has been a key component of the pandemic response. This thesis examines how the Turkish government discourses have constructed the relationship between the state and citizens in terms of their respective responsibilities during the pandemic. Focusing on the government discourses in two significant turning points during the pandemic in Turkey, the thesis applies Political Discourse Analysis to analyze 27 speeches delivered by President Erdoğan and Health Minister Koca. The thesis finds that these discourses have served political aims that go beyond the pandemic response. As political communication, these discourses have served political goals through its framing of the pandemic as a naturalized event outside of its control and the government as a strong and proactive leader in pandemic response with past healthcare reforms being treated as evidence for its current success. As health communication, government discourses were often evidence-based, informative, and persuasive. However, the limitations of the broader social policy environment have undermined the effectiveness of this otherwise successful health communication. In the context of the uneven and inadequate financial support for affected households that could facilitate their compliance with public health measures, these discourses have created a framework where individuals are “responsibilitized” in protecting their own and others’ health regardless of their ability to do so.
Exploring social justice implications of mitigation policies :|positions of climate action advocates in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Yeniev, Gökçe.; Zenginobuz, Ekrem Ünal.
Studies show that in the absence of corrective complementary social policies, environmental mitigation policies are very likely to fail to provide overall positive societal results. Although the challenges should be addressed to ensure a sustainable and equitable transition, so far scant attention has been directed to rebuilding the economy in a low-carbon and at the same time in a just manner, especially in the context of developing countries. Based on 21 in-depth interviews conducted with climate advocates in Turkey, the ways they address the impacts of mitigation policies on affordability, employment, equality, and social cohesion, as well as social policies they suggest offsetting the potentially-detrimental effects of mitigation policies are investigated. After reviewing briefly utilitarian, distributive, participatory, and capabilities approaches to environmental justice in the context of mitigation policies, the study proposes an analytical tool—by proposing a quadrant of justice—to map the corresponding justice approaches of various social measures recommended by climate advocates. The results of the study are as follows: a) Climate advocates consider the social impacts of low-carbon investments as relatively positive, while assessing the social risks of the policies that will impose sanctions on carbon-intensive industries as high; b) for the complementary social policies, climate advocates challenge the existing socio-economic structure when it comes to adopting a combination of different justice typologies; c) although the academic research on the social impacts of mitigation policies have increased quantitatively and qualitatively recently, the issue is not by and large on the agenda of climate advocates 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.
An analysis of Turkish oral healthcare system :|patients' perceptions and treatment pathways
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Aydın, Sibel.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Universal Health Coverage (UHC), as a globally set policy target in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, offers a unique opportunity for countries to make their healthcare systems more inclusive. However, oral healthcare provision and financial protection in oral healthcare have not been adequately addressed in the literature on UHC, despite its significance for health outcomes. Against this background, this thesis examines patient perceptions and treatment pathways in oral healthcare in the case of Turkey — a country that has achieved UHC and has taken steps to make oral healthcare more accessible in the recent years. In this context, this thesis explores the way the Turkish oral healthcare system shapes patient pathways to diagnosis and treatment. It relies on an explanatory qualitative study that includes 19 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in April 2021 with dental patients from a public and a private dental clinic in one neighbourhood in Istanbul. The thematic analysis reveals that four major factors have a significant impact on shaping the dental patients’ pathway towards diagnosis and treatment: Dentist stability, perceived dentist responsiveness to patient preferences, medical care costs, and waiting time. Based on these factors, this thesis identifies two distinct patient pathways that the Turkish oral healthcare system has: Shortcut and undefined pathways. Patients willing and able to purchase private services have a direct and fast access (shortcut pathway), whereas patients relying on the General Health Insurance have an unpredictable and meandering one (undefined pathway).
Locating Turkey's active labour market policies within activation typologies :|enabling or workfarist?
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Canbazer, Cemre.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
Labour market activation has emerged as a significant research area in the social policy literature due to the relevant policy developments of the last decades throughout the world. In Turkey, labour market activation mechanisms, including ALMP (active labour market policy) programmes, have also gained momentum in the policy framework, particularly in the last decade. This study explores the workfarist and enabling elements of ALMP and other activating labour market policy programmes of Turkey within the analytical framework put forth by Dingeldey (2007) and locates the case of Turkey in the activation typologies developed by Barbier (2004a) and Serrano Pascual (2007a). As the literature on activation typologies disregards the implementation dimension, the methodology of the study incorporates the thematic analysis of the 13 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with İŞKUR officials and the content analysis of legal and policy documents regarding labour market activation in Turkey. The findings of the study reveal that ALMP and other activating labour market policy programmes of Turkey are stronger in their workfarist elements than in their enabling elements in comparison. Nonetheless, workfarist elements are not implemented coercively and systematically due to several institutional factors. Regarding the activation typologies, it is asserted that the case of Turkey diverges from the ideal types, but it is closer to the liberal type within the typology developed by Barbier (2004a) and the economic springboard regime within the typology developed by Serrano Pascual (2007a) when compared to the other types.
Trade union responses to precarization :|the case of mandatory alternative dispute resolution in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Yüzüak, Batuğhan.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
The world of work has gradually fallen under the influence of the precarization trend, especially since the 1980s. One of the domains that this trend that can be observed is the changes in the judicial system and labor litigation. Trade union perceptions in the context of dual labor markets provide a valuable gateway into the implications of these changes for workers‟ rights and employment security. Turkey introduced a voluntary form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for individual labor disputes in 2012, which the country then made compulsory in 2018. In the current practice, ADR in individual labor disputes is a prerequisite for litigation. In the context of a low rate of unionization and collective bargaining coverage, trade union confederations in Turkey are organized along political lines. This thesis examines trade union responses to the introduction of alternative dispute resolution for individual labor disputes. In doing so, the thesis also investigates how their responses have changed over the course of three phases: the introduction of voluntary ADR, the transition from voluntary to mandatory ADR, and the implementation of mandatory ADR. This thesis is an exploratory, qualitative study that relies on six in-depth interviews and five written interviews with respondents from the three largest confederations and seven trade unions affiliated with these confederations. Based on a thematic analysis, the thesis finds that even though the initial responses of trade unions differ from each other in the first two phases, they have reached a consensus in the third phase against the use of mandatory ADR in individual labor disputes. The thesis argues that this consensus is especially noteworthy given the political divisions between these unions. This thesis demonstrates that confederations and trade unions object to the practice of mandatory ADR because, they see this practice, compared to labor litigation, has led to the erosion of the rights and employment security of non unionized workers especially. While this common response might lead to a momentum for trade union revitalization, the restrictive political atmosphere and the labor regime seem to restrict such possibility.
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.
Young activist perspectives towards Turkish sexual and reproductive health policy and services :|problems, barriers, ideals
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Çilingir, Dağlar.; Yılmaz, Volkan.
With the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the rights based approach has become the main policy framework for sexual and reproductive health (SRH). The action plan of this conference had a specific focus on youth and their inclusion in SRH service provision and decision-making, which paved the way for the establishment of youth-led organisations around sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in many countries including Turkey. Despite of almost a two decade history of youth activism around SRHR, youth activist perceptions of SRH policies and services have not adequately addressed in the literature. Against this background, this thesis explores the perception of young SRHR activists towards SRH policies and services and their own role in SRHR promotion in Turkey — a country where SRHR are under increasing political pressure alongside many others such as Hungary and Poland. This thesis offers a thematic analysis of qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 youth activists from three major youth-led organizations working on SRHR related issues between October 2020 and January 2021. The thesis finds that young activists identify the following major problems in SRH policy and services: barriers to accessing reliable SRH information, SRH services and essential products, and shortages in these domains as well as concerns about patient confidentiality. The analysis here also demonstrates that youth SRHR activists are important social actors in SRHR advocacy and promotion in a politically challenging context such as Turkey, which breaks the prevailing monistic and culturalist narratives aiming to legitimize backlashes in SRHR.
Breast cancer patient pathways to treatment in Turkey’s internal healthcare market :|a qualitative study
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Kesici, Zeynep.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.
The importance of managing noncommunicable diseases, such as cancer, has been viewed as a vital component of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) due to their worldwide high prevalence, significant disease burden, and sometimes life-long medical ramifications for patients. Having been deemed an achiever of UHC, Turkey has implemented an internal market for healthcare to achieve equal access to healthcare. Against this background, this thesis explores breast cancer patients’ experiences of access and pathways to treatment in private hospitals offering publicly-funded services (PHOPS) in Turkey. It examines the factors that shape these pathways and the implications of these pathways for patients. This thesis relies on a thematic analysis of an exploratory qualitative study that includes 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted between July and August 2021 with female breast cancer patients using private hospitals. It reveals two interrelated factors that shape patient pathways during the diagnosis and treatment stages: the projected cost of treatment and barriers to accessing integrated medical care. Based on these two factors, two distinct patient pathways, insured and underinsured patient pathways, are identified. While patients with private health insurance alongside compulsory general health insurance experience easy access to timely and effective treatment (insured pathway), those who only count on the latter deal with complicated processes of accessing treatment such as combining different providers (underinsured pathway). The thesis concludes that the insurance status of patients has a significant influence on experiences of access and pathways to treatment in PHOPS.
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.
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.
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.

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