Theses supervised by Doç. Dr. Ziya Umut Türem
13 theses · Boğaziçi University
Market reconstruction in Turkey: From sugar market to sugar beet farming
This dissertation investigates the reconstruction of the Turkish sugar market within the context of neoliberal globalization. It adopts a socially and politically constructed view of neoliberalization and analyzes the reconstruction process and emerging market dynamics at both national and local levels. First, the study examines the trajectory of sugar production, tracing its shift from a state monopoly to market liberalization after the 1980s. The historical functions and uses of sugar production, and also beet production providing farmers with a reliable source of income made the market reconstruction a process harboring conflicting logics, interests, and actors. Second, through field research conducted in Konya, the study analyzes the consequences of market reconstruction on beet farming in the local context, highlighting the transformation of agrarian Turkey. Production quotas, adopted as the main tools for reorganizing production had tremendous effects in the local context. Within a context of increasing financialization of agriculture, beet becomes essential due to the networks and opportunities it provides, allowing farmers to sustain their livelihoods despite their disadvantaged market position. However, during its trajectory, beet also transformed from a primary income-generating crop to a commodity produced not for its profit but for secondary benefits. Overall, this research sheds light on the reconstruction of the Turkish sugar market, offering insights into the complex dynamics of neoliberal globalization and the role of sugar beet in farmers' livelihood strategies.
The representation of inter-class encounters in the art-house cinema of Turkey
The theme of inter-class encounters became a significant part of art-house movies in Turkey during the 2010s. The New Cinema of Turkey refers to movies that emerged during the mid-1990s within neoliberal transfor-mations that resulted in two distinct commercial and art-house film mar-kets. The art-house movies of New Cinema involve the theme of inter-class encounters in various respects. Considered from a historical perspective, the complexity and significance of inter-class encounters increased since mid-1990s, especially after the 2010s. The changes are interpreted based on Gilles Deleuze's conceptualization of "modern political cinema," suggesting it can be considered the development of an ethical attitude. An "ethics of en-counters" contextualizes them in their social history, opening potentials for self-problematization and transformation by taking the ethical responsibility of one's position within the social context. It is argued that the art-house movies of New Cinema involved this ethical perspective gradually concern-ing the representation of inter-class encounters. This process can be inter-preted based on Turkey's economic, political, social, and cultural transfor-mations. As the effects of neoliberal transformations increased the precarity and wealth inequality and the political power regime became authoritarian systematically, an ethical attitude towards the representation of inter-class encounters also became a significant part of the art-house movies in the New Cinema of Turkey.
The state formation in eastern provinces in the early republican era: The case of the People's Houses
This dissertation examines the complex historical dimensions of state formation in the Republican era in massively Kurdish populated Eastern provinces focusing on the institutionalization of the People's Houses (Halkevleri), between 1932 and 1951. In the literature even though there are varying interpretations as to how successful or failed the state in Eastern localities it tries to penetrate, People's Houses have been put forward empirical evidences of an independently existing central and autonomous state. This study examines how the People's Houses in the Eastern provinces ruled by the exceptional state regime functioned and existed in encountering spaces, beyond binary oppositions such as success/failure, strong/weak of the state or mere obedience and silence or resistance of the people. This thesis first analyzes the discursive, political and administrative organization of the People's Houses in the East within the limits of the struggle and negotiation of state and local residents. Secondly, it draws an analytical picture of the dynamic and contested relations and phenomena in the physical space of Halkevleri. Third, it analyzes everyday forms of publicness and socialization in which the tactics and strategies of actors producing People's Houses' space are more salient. Finally, it examines the People's Houses and the state's violent practices of linguistic assimilation in the context of the state's boundaries of "inclusion and exclusion" and the subjects' multiple ways of coping. This dissertation demonstrates that People's Houses and the East are shaped and produced by multiple interactions and power relations in spaces of encounter.
Armenian schools in contemporary Turkey: Governmentality, community, resilience
In the grip of central examination systems, the marketization and pri-vatization of schooling, regulations of a nation state which maintains its emphasis on its Turko-Islamic tenets, and the escalation of competition among students as an outcome of an endeavor to be incorporated into global job markets, the Armenian schools struggle to breed a nurturing soil for Armenian cultural sustainability. The main objective of this re-search is to analyze to what extent the Armenian schools serve as plac-es of cultural empowerment in spite of the external constraints that the educational system in Turkey breeds and the political targeting Armenian community experiences today. Although the schools are places of acculturation in which the wishes of the nation state almost always prevail, this does not mean that latitude in education is fully en-compassed by precepts of national education. There is a possibility for the schools to function as spaces for cultural self-realization as opposed to the political targeting and marginalization they are subjected to. The aim of this study is to unpack the broader educational field encapsulat-ing the Armenian schools, and to paint a comprehensive picture which summarizes bureaucratic functioning, quotidian practices, daily predic-aments, the network of relationships interwoven around the schools or any pattern that delineate their overall milieu, so that it could be possi-ble to understand how self-meaning is produced in the schools.
Conservative transformation of education in Turkey (1980-2012): Policy processes and power alliances
This research explores the role of several civil conservative-Islamist organizations and their relational networks in the conservative transformation of educational policy in Turkey between 1980 and 2012. It examines how the pow-er bloc of the conservative Islamist organizations over the educational policy has been historically and relationally constituted and shaped. It analyzes the modalities and motivations that bring these constellations together, the shaping of their hegemony projects and their power building strategies, and the relational and historical dynamics that empower them to orient educational policy field. The research focuses on four major periods of educational policy between the years 1980 and 2012: The ideological designation of the education system with the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis in the 1980s, the process of the eight years of compulsory education reform during the 1990s, the neoliberal-populist regime of educational policies during the 2000s, the implementation of the 4+4+4 compulsory education model in 2012. Semi-structured inter-views and textual analysis are utilized as qualitative research methods. The research argues that conservative transformation of educational policy is not a monolithic and linear process defined with the steadily rising influence and power of the conservative-Islamist actors. Conservatism in edu-cation has rather been a product of the changing modalities and dynamics of alliance building among diverse agents, within which the currently powerful conservative-Islamist groups develop different power building strategies. The research claims that the main power resource of these groups is their interorganizational networks and expanding social capital across civil and political platforms. The proactivity for the advocacy for religious education, on the other hand, functions to forge a common ground that unities them as a conservative-Islamist power bloc.
Migrant workers in Turkish agriculture: Patterns of mobility and dispossession (1990-2018)
This dissertation examines migrant agricultural labor in Turkey as lens through which to explain the effects of economic, political, and geopolitical changes on rural mobilities. Two factors explain why Seasonal agricultural migration is on the rise. First, agrarian transformation starting in the 1990s resulted in a decreasing number of unpaid family workers, and the demand for seasonal migrant workers for agricultural work requiring manual labor surged since then. Second, domestic, regional, and foreign policies being to the Kurdish Question, the influx of Syrian refugees, and migration from the Caucasus have reshaped the new waves of agricultural migrants adding new categories such as refugees, irregular migrants, and internally displaced people to their profile. Given this situation, this study critically discusses how the transformation in agricultural production was realized through the availability of cheap, flexible seasonal migrant workers. Further, this work problematizes new patterns in mobility and the recent phenomenon of the dispossession of workers challenging the "temporal" characteristic of seasonal agricultural work. Based on research conducted in various regions among differing rural actors, this dissertation investigates new forms of rural mobilities and rural space which are being shaped by agrarian transformation, geopolitical developments, and agencies for migrants in Turkey since the 1990s.
The transformations of the regime of intimate violence in Turkey
When and how do regimes of intimate violence change? What lies behind the changes in legal norms and rules concerning the regulation of male violence? How do legislators, jurists, and scholars affect the flows of law with regards to the gendered hierarchies of power? These questions lie at the crux of this study which examines the transformations of the regime of intimate violence in Turkey throughout the long twentieth century. Analyzing the decisions of the Court of Cassation, scholarly, and parliamentary debates and legislation, this study traces the links between masculine power and state power in Turkey and presents an alternative account of modern Turkish history, revealing the extent to which state institutions have contributed to the reproduction of gendered hierarchies of power and marginalization of gendered bodily harms. This study shows that this regime of intimate violence went through various changes since the late Ottoman era and that its history followed a fluctuating course that included major masculinist restoration periods. In my analysis of these changes, I argue that major shocks that led to changes in the structure of the judico-political field or in the stance and standing of actors populating this field were crucial for the changes in rules and norms about intimate violence. This study also highlights the power of legal interpretation in leading to major changes in ground rules concerning masculine domination and underlines the importance of global legal flows in shaping such changes. It also challenges the argument that feminist activism is the more or less straight-forward determinant of progressive changes in policies and legal rules concerning gender violence and shows that -because of the intervening and constraining roles of institutions and male state elites in these institutions- such regimes may become even more tolerant of intimate violence in periods marked by the rise of mass and autonomous feminist movements.
Osmanlı sonrası şehirlerde kozmopolitlik serabı: İstanbul Beyoğlu, beyrut ve İskenderiye
Istanbul's historically cosmopolitan center Beyoğlu, went into a silent era in the twentieth century. Globalization in late 1990s triggered a nostalgic revival. Beyoğlu was home of a cultural renaissance. By mid 2000s, Istanbul was one of the most visited cities in Europe and Beyoğlu was its most inspiring neighborhood. I call this period the golden age of neo-liberal cosmopolitanism in Beyoğlu. This golden age was a brief one however. With the destructive effects of neo-liberal development and rising political tension in Turkey; the district lost its cosmopolitan soul, particularly from the perspective of the disillusioned groups. These circles relate this outcome to AKP's authoritarian turn. In this thesis –while recognizing the significance of political factors- I point out the inherent deficiencies of the neo-liberal revival. Gentrification and unauthenticity of the revival was already harming Beyoğlu's soul. The neo-liberal revival of the 2000s consisted of a consumption of nostalgia, commodification of history and cosmopolitanism. This was not a true renaissance of Istanbul's past cosmopolitanism. It was a mirage, a brief illusion. Even though this era was a cosmopolitan mirage; its social and cultural achievements are unparalleled in the Republic's history. This thesis is an attempt to understand the true nature of the past golden age and inspire a more sustainable future cosmopolitan golden age for Beyoğlu.
Power manifestations of the state: State of emergency and curfews in Cizre
In this dissertation, the legal transformation of the Turkish state's approach towards the Kurdish issue is investigated. However, what is being sought is not the analysis of the total investigation of the history of the Turkish republic, but the character of the exceptional regimes deployed by the state and governments. The main focus, therefore, is the '90s, during the state of emergency, and in 2015 and 2016, during the era of curfews. The law, exception, and sovereignty are key concepts of the thesis in the context of forms of power. The manifestation of power structures in the state's practices will be read within the framework of law institutions and their practices as well as the visibility of the state's deployment of means of control and constraint. The state's approach towards the Kurdish issue is examined throughout judiciary practices and documents such as indictments and court cases, across the district of Cizre. A broad jurisprudential framework and a theoretical perspective will be employed along with the aid of anthropological methods in data collection and analysis, textual collection, the analysis of space and state institutions in light of specific cases from Cizre.
Bir siyasal partinin ötesinde: AKP makinesi ve örgütsel kapasitesi
Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) has been in power in Turkey since 2002. Since the beginning, the party successfully managed to increase its effect on the politics. The AKP also has not lots its popular vote base despite the fact that the party adopted different policies and discours-es. Studies mostly focused on the AKP's ideology, economic policies and foreign policy agenda. Especially the party's economic policies are taken into consideration to explain its effect on its constituents. However, from its foundation to today, AKP has chosen to appeal to the people when it has faced a threat against its legitimacy and existence. The par-ty has a confidence to organize voters/citizens during moments of cri-sis. This thesis argues that AKP's one of the most important aspects is its ability to organize different segments of the society. From this point this thesis delves into the characteristics of the AKP's grassroots organ-ization which is one of the missed angles by the researches conducted about the AKP. Theories about political parties have explained the role of political par-ties as organizing popular vote base for either representing a certain ideology on the state level or satisfying personal ambitions of politicians. However, in this thesis I argue that the AKP moved beyond a political party on the account of its disciplined and ceaselessly working grassroots organization. Considering the history of political Islam in Turkey, this thesis further asserts that the AKP professionalized a cer-tain organizational model which it inherited from Milli Gorus Move-ment.
Neoliberal Türkiye'de devlet ve sinema sektörü: Düzenleme mi yoksa keyfi müdahale mi?
This study's main purpose is to analyze the role of the state in the cinema industry of Turkey with a focus on the laws, regulations, and statistical data. These analyses dwell on the ways in which the cinema sector in Turkey has been influenced by the state policies particularly throughout the 1980s and afterwards that was characterized by neoliberalism and globalization. The analyses are also accompanied by a comparison of the relationship between the state and cinema sector in Turkey with France, the United States, and India. The historical and ethnographic data demonstrates that the Turkish state lacks policies to facilitate the cinema industry growth as a profit-oriented sector; to protect national cinema against the domination of the foreign profit-oriented cinema sectors; and/or to support the art cinema. The Turkish state gets involved in the sector only through some arbitrary and non coherent interventions and through the implementation of neoliberal policies, the sector is essentially abandoned to the market conditions. This abandonment eventually causes monopolization in various parts of the cinema sector. By highlighting these significantly under researched political economic dynamics, this thesis fills a gap in the literature on cinema in Turkey which so far has focused primarily on its historical and artistic dimensions.
State Planning Organization and technocracy: A review of planning documents of 1960-1980 period
In 1960 State Planning Organization was established to plan Turkey's road to development. Comprehensive five-year developmental plans that covered social and cultural as well as economic aspects were prepared by a small number of young planners. For their lack of previous civil service experience, and their basis of hiring being technical educa-tion, these planners were usually called technocrats of Turkey. Although there has been voluminous work on DPT, especially by the former planners themselves, the institution's effectiveness in development, its power vis-à-vis the politicians, and the reasons for Turkey's failed attempt at being a developed country has been the focus. By look-ing at the planning documents that received less public attention and therefore contained relatively independent analyses, I seek to under-stand what planning tried to do rather than was it able to do it. The focus in analysis is how Turkey's problems were identified and in what manner solutions were offered. To do so, specialization theses written by planners and special expertise commission reports prepared for five-year plans by non-DPT personnel are reviewed. A comparison between two groups involved in the planning process shows that DPT planners not always had a technocratic approach, and that a technocratic mentality was also observed in non-DPT personnel.
Homogenization and Turkification practices in Kuzguncuk, Istanbul in the context of the events of 6-7 september 1955
Kuzguncuk is a small, popular village in Istanbul near the Bosphorus. According to most official and unofficial written and oral documents, Kuzguncuk was a village of mostly Jews, Greeks, and Armenians rather than Muslim Turks up until the mid-twentieth century. In other words, the neighborhood is usually described by residents and in local and official discourses as a village of peace, harmony, and tolerance. Kuzguncuk's non-Muslim population started to decrease following the Turkification and homogenization practices of the Turkish nation-state such as Turkifying street names (the 1930s), a capital tax (1942), 6-7 September pogrom (1955), the deportation of Greek (1964), and the military operation in Cyprus (1974). Most of the Greeks and Jews were forcibly or voluntarily migrated to Greece and Israel. Specifically, the events of 6-7 September directly damaged Kuzguncuk's non-Muslims because looters attacked several non-Muslim houses and shops. Unfor-tunately, recent statistics reveal that the current non-Muslim popula-tion of Kuzguncuk is only 1 percent of the total population of the village. Kuzguncuk lost its multicultural characteristic though Muslim Kuzgun-cuk residents hold up the multiethnic characteristic of the village in their nostalgic discourses. The general objective of this research is to unpack the historical facts of the Turkish Republic's homogenization and Turkification practices via an analysis of the case of Kuzguncuk. In other words, this study is a memory work of one of the well-known villages of Istanbul.