Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Mine Eder
10 theses · Boğaziçi University
Kürt hareketini yeniden düşünmek: Diyarbakır mahalle meclislerinin işlevi
Through the neighborhood assemblies founded by the municipalities in Diyarbakır, this thesis analyzes the function of the participatory politics by comparing the participatory politics model in Diyarbakır with the participatory governance models in Porto Alegre and Kerala. Based on the judicial violence of the Turkish state against the Kurds after 2009 and the attempts of the Kurdish political movement for the implementation of participatory politics at a local level since 2005, this thesis argues how the Kurds have been pushed out of legal order and rendered silenced by the Turkish judiciary, and how the Kurdish movement used the neighborhood assemblies to enable the Kurds to have the representation of their own voice. The case studies of the thesis are accordingly composed of the KCK trial and the neighborhood assemblies in Diyarbakır. By exploring the process of the KCK trial, it argues that the Turkish judiciary as an institution of the sovereign power, through Schmitt, Agamben, Jakobs and Benjamin, decides the state of exception and makes "friend-enemy distinction" among its citizens concerning the security of the political and judicial order of the state. By observing the process of the decision-making processes from neighborhood to municipal level and, it asserts that the Democratic Autonomy is a practice of freedom of the Kurds and other subaltern communities, who were pushed out of legal order and mobilized outside the borders of that legal order, and the local assemblies founded by the Kurdish movement as the instruments of bottom-up democracy emerged as a space of struggle that were constituted by and constitutive of a community of struggle.
Transnational remittances and irregularity: Remitting practices of post-Soviet labor migrants in Istanbul
This thesis examines migrants' remitting practices, which constitute a much neglected issue in the literature, with the case of Post-Soviet irregular labor migrants in Istanbul based on the data collected through semi-structured interviews with the migrants and discussions with other actors involved in the remitting processes. The thesis sets off from that these migrants invent new informal remitting practices to send money to kin left behind as there are limitations on the possibilities of transferring remittances just like many other daily constraints they have to face due to their legal status in the country and that these practices are not only determined by transnationality and irregularity but also offer a new alternative micro field for the examination of them. By taking the relationship between irregularity and informality as not an automatic one, it scrutinizes the emergence of these informal practices at the juncture of transnationality and irregularity and evaluates them as an informal and also an integral part of the massive migration industry. In addition, regarding the attempts of states and international organizations at attracting the informal remittances of irregular migrants to formal channels, the thesis underlines that as both irregularity and informality emerge under the limitations on the everyday lives of migrants an effective solution for the issue of channelling informal remittances to formal channels would be the abolishment of all limitations on migrants by regularizing their status.
The politics of everyday life in Malatya: Class, identity and space
This thesis offers a space-centered analysis of Kurdish question by examining the social exclusion of Kurdish migrants in Malatya, concentrating on both the political economy and everyday life. The case of Malatya is a particular story in the sense that there is a transformation of social exclusion to an inclusion story and Kurdish identity is redefined in terms of class in the everyday life. Thus, this research basically explores how class, identity and spatial relations intertwined in the everyday life by focusing on the everyday relations between Kurdish migrants and local people in Malatya. This thesis suggests the concept of social exclusion in order to define the "new poverty" and specifically the poverty of Kurdish migrants in Turkey; however, invites the reader to rethink the concept of social exclusion by adopting a critical approach to the concept. It is argued that social exclusion is not only caused by the entire exclusion of the poor from the economy but their inclusion to the labor market as low-paid workers without insurance. Social exclusion is analyzed within the theoretical framework of everyday life. The case of Malatya offers a particular incorporation story of Kurdish migrants. This thesis argues that both the embourgeouisement story and non-ghettoized characteristics of the city have ensured the transformation of social exclusion to an inclusion story. However, this is also an outcome of everyday resistance of Kurdish migrants to the social exclusion process by forming solidarity among the members of family. Therefore, this thesis claims that in order to observe those various patterns of Kurdish question, a space-centered analysis is necessary.
The Institution of work - dorms in Turkey
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the contemporary situation of the prison-labor in Turkey through adopting a political economic perspective. The significance and the new role that prison-labor gained regarding the transformation occurred in the Turkish penal system in the 21st century constitutes the main point of research. In this regard, the Institution of Work-dorms that is established in 1997 is analyzed throughout the thesis along with the historical aspects of the penal regime in Turkey. Through the analysis of legislation, archival material, official documents, and reports, I study the manifestations of neoliberal regulation, especially the forms of new public management, in the penal field by means of the advancement of the prison-labor. As I explore the link between the work and punishment, I argue that the neoliberal implementations of the rehabilitative model in the penal regime after 2004 cause the subordination of a social aim into an economic aim, while the involvement of the private sector within the system underscores the aspects of new public management. Since the studies conducted on the Turkish penal system mostly involved the issue of political prisoners, the aim of this study is to contribute to the social sciences literature through providing a political economic analysis of the state-punishment relations, while shedding a light on the aspects of the contemporary political economy of Turkey through the analysis of the penal field.
Rethinking the political economy of contemporary water struggles in Turkey from a comparative perspective: Space, structures and agency
This dissertation examines role of political economy in contemporary agrarian mobilizations. By focusing on recent water struggles in Turkey against the run-of-the-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.
Study of migration policies and practices in Türkiye: Reflecting on membership and sovereignty through law
Migration is a complex phenomenon necessitating the integration of various perspectives, assumptions, and levels of analysis. This dissertation explores the functioning, complexities, and repercussions of migration and the asylum domain by merging law and politics at the intersection of a country case. It takes the Turkish state, a massively targeted country by migratory flows throughout its history, as its center of analysis. It focuses first on the stated goals behind the Turkish legal framework with a historical legal analysis, second on their implementation by the state officials in charge equipped with the use of discretion, and third, on the repercussions of these laws and their implementation on the lives of the undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, resulting in legal violence. To this end, I analyze parliamentary minutes, in-depth interviews with police officers and migrants, newspaper articles, and secondary resources. By studying Turkish migration and asylum policies and practices until 2013, I contend that neither the state objectives of protecting national security, social cohesion, and economic efficiency are fulfilled nor the protection of individual rights of the migrants and asylum seekers. The unchanging result of the Turkish migration and asylum system is the perpetuation of a soft-on-the-outside, hard-on-the-inside approach reproducing a malaise of migration non-management, creating endlessly shadow individuals enduring legal violence.
Civil society participation and weak institutions: The case of urban expansion in Istanbul
Istanbul has experienced a multifaceted transformation between 2009 and 2019 with the introduction of various urban mega projects. During this period, the urban expansion through the northern parts of the city has accelerated with the introduction of three mega projects, i.e., the 3rd Bridge and the North Marmara Highway projects, the 3rd Airport project, and the Canal Istanbul project. This led to tensions between the state and the civil society over the top-down decision-making processes, the possible environmental costs of the projects, and the fate of the Northern Forests in Istanbul. Analyzing the period between 2009 and 2019, this thesis seeks answer to the question how the participatory prospects of environmental civil society organizations (CSOs) in the environmental governance of Istanbul has changed and what are implications of this change on the rise of the informal environmental movement organizations (EMOs) in the city. This thesis utilizes the data conducted from semi-structured interviews with the members of CSOs and extended document research. Based on this data, this thesis concluded that the civil society actors have experienced unprecedented difficulties in trying to reach the decision-making processes in the case of this three mega projects because of the increasing weaknesses of formal participatory institutions. The institutional gridlocks they encountered have changed their capacities and strategies as well as encouraged the pursuit of political participation through more contentious forms of mobilization.
The status of Palestine in the United Nations and its implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Palestinian application for UN membership in 2011 started the debates over the nature of statehood and reactivated the initiatives in different bodies of the UN. This dissertation focuses on the role of the UN in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlights the legal and political aspects of statehood by applying the theoretical discussions to the Palestinian case. The political process of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on the developments at different levels, namely the ground level, the UN level, and interactions between these levels including the negotiations so this mechanism can be defined as a complex two-level game for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Whereas the unilateral actions of Israel and the power imbalance in favor of Israel create an important advantage for the Israeli actors at the ground level, the legitimizing role of the anti-Israeli resolutions for the Palestinian claims and the high amount of support for the Palestinians in the international arena provide some assets for the Palestinian actors. The ground level witnessed a struggle over sovereignty while the UN level created a struggle over international legitimacy. Five General Assembly votes and three Security Council votes in terms of the policies and voting behaviors of the prominent actors and representative cases were analyzed in this dissertation. As a result, the UN process strengthened the hands of the Palestinians and contributed to the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, it should be accomplished with the support of the external actors and favorable regional context for a comprehensive solution.
Constitutional courts during political upheavals: The case of the Turkish Constitutional Court
Constitutional courts operate at the intersection of law and politics. Their task is to defend the normative superiority of the constitution by reviewing the constitutionality of laws. In doing so, they engage with other political institutions such as political parties, legislatures and executives. In times of political upheaval, the nature of the relationship between constitutional courts and other governmental organs is contested. This provides an ideal situation to observe the political dynamics of constitutional judicial review. This study aims to understand how constitutional courts fare during political upheavals by examining the Turkish Constitutional Court over an extended period of time. The Turkish Constitutional Court is a crucial case because Turkey has undergone episodic political upheavals where constitutional norms have been contested by different governmental institutions. The methodology of this study can be described as constitutional ethnography, which involves a close examination of the socio-political context that underlies legal institutions and relations. To this end, I examined politically salient court cases, interviewed judges, reviewed newspaper articles; I also used various secondary sources. My research has determined that the Turkish Constitutional Court has adopted one of three strategies during episodes of political crises: judicial activism, deference and avoidance. Furthermore, I contend that the court strategy depends on the degree of fragmentation of political power, the profiles of sitting justices, and extra-judicial alliances that the court can leverage against challengers.
The comparative political economy of pharmaceutical intellectual property rights in Mexico and Turkey
Since the late twentieth century, the protection of intellectual property has become integral to a free and fair international economic order. The ensuing global harmonization process in intellectual property that aimed to ensure the continuity of international economic activity has turned knowledge and information into globally protected private property. However, despite this overarching process of global convergence, countries differently navigated the course to this new global order in which intellectual property turned into private property. This thesis seeks to answer why and how countries respond differently to commonly experienced global changes by examining the experiences of Mexico and Turkey in the area of pharmaceutical patents. Asking why Mexico and Turkey's similar behaviors regarding pharmaceutical patents in the 1990s gradually diverged during the 2000s, this study examines these experiences in their historical unfolding. By relying on the existing literature in the case of Mexico and examining parliamentary minutes, newspaper articles, and reports published by various other domestic actors in the case of Turkey, this thesis explains the policymaking processes in pharmaceutical intellectual property as an outcome of shifting coalitional alignments in each country. This thesis contributes to many critical analytical themes in the literature on political economy by demonstrating how, despite intense pressures for global convergence, global rules are still negotiated domestically to produce domestic policy change.