Contemporary Turkey – serie

Control over education has been a keenly contested area since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey. Central to this contest has been the question of whose values would be passed down to future generations, with the inculcation of gender segregation in primary schools a key marker in ongoing cultural battles over Turkey's secularist founding principles and the growing dominance of Islamist political movements.This book offers an in-depth analysis of gender inequality in action in the Turkish schooling system by examining changes in education provision and culture in the years since 2012. Based on two school ethnographies conducted in an AKP-dominated district of Istanbul where the author worked as a teacher and researcher, it examines neoliberal education policies and their co-option by the AKP and other Islamist movements to promote their own agendas, while also considering the effects of the struggle between rival Islamist groups. Grounding its theoretical approach with empirical evidence of ideology in action, it provides an important analysis of the way in which boys and girls are socialized in Turkey's public schooling system.

Control over education has been a keenly contested area since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey. Central to this contest has been the question of whose values would be passed down to future generations, with the inculcation of gender segregation in primary schools a key marker in ongoing cultural battles over Turkey's secularist founding principles and the growing dominance of Islamist political movements. This book offers an in-depth analysis of gender inequality in action in the Turkish schooling system by examining changes in education provision and culture in the years since 2012. Based on two school ethnographies conducted in an AKP-dominated district of Istanbul where the author worked as a teacher and researcher, it examines neoliberal education policies and their co-option by the AKP and other Islamist movements to promote their own agendas, while also considering the effects of the struggle between rival Islamist groups. Grounding its theoretical approach with empirical evidence of ideology in action, it provides an important analysis of the way in which boys and girls are socialized in Turkey's public schooling system.

Control over education has been a keenly contested area since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey. Central to this contest has been the question of whose values would be passed down to future generations, with the inculcation of gender segregation in primary schools a key marker in ongoing cultural battles over Turkey's secularist founding principles and the growing dominance of Islamist political movements. This book offers an in-depth analysis of gender inequality in action in the Turkish schooling system by examining changes in education provision and culture in the years since 2012. Based on two school ethnographies conducted in an AKP-dominated district of Istanbul where the author worked as a teacher and researcher, it examines neoliberal education policies and their co-option by the AKP and other Islamist movements to promote their own agendas, while also considering the effects of the struggle between rival Islamist groups. Grounding its theoretical approach with empirical evidence of ideology in action, it provides an important analysis of the way in which boys and girls are socialized in Turkey's public schooling system.

Control over education has been a keenly contested area since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey. Central to this contest has been the question of whose values would be passed down to future generations, with the inculcation of gender segregation in primary schools a key marker in ongoing cultural battles over Turkey's secularist founding principles and the growing dominance of Islamist political movements.This book offers an in-depth analysis of gender inequality in action in the Turkish schooling system by examining changes in education provision and culture in the years since 2012. Based on two school ethnographies conducted in an AKP-dominated district of Istanbul where the author worked as a teacher and researcher, it examines neoliberal education policies and their co-option by the AKP and other Islamist movements to promote their own agendas, while also considering the effects of the struggle between rival Islamist groups. Grounding its theoretical approach with empirical evidence of ideology in action, it provides an important analysis of the way in which boys and girls are socialized in Turkey's public schooling system.

How has the supposedly liberalizing project of police reform in Turkey become central to the increasingly authoritarian regime of Erdogan's AKP Party? Engaging political theory and a gender studies perspective, this book traces the implementation of security sector reform in Turkey, showing how various agents, including Islamist policy-makers, Turkish police and the women's movement in Turkey have contributed to and resisted growing police powers. A critical study which also employs case studies, this is a timely intervention on the ‘authoritarian turn’ in Turkey and contributes to a growing number of studies of neoliberalism and security in the context of liberal internationalism.Produced in association with the British Institute at Ankara

This book examines the Kurdish movement in the context of total social movement theory. First tracing its origins as a conventionally nationalist movement, Elsa Sen draws upon Alain Touraine’s concept of a total social movement to argue that from 2000 to 2015 the Kurds in Turkey pursued a policy of engaging in a peace process, channeling energy into civil society activism and electoral campaigns, and promoting an inclusive understanding of national identity for all the components of Turkish society – not just the Kurds – in a hypothetically fully functioning democracy. Both theoretically informed and drawing upon empirical research in the form of interviews with Kurdish and Turkish activists, non-activists and political representatives, the book provides a new perspective on contemporary Kurdish politics as oscillating between nationalist and social movement paradigms, with the recent decline of the latter due to the resumption of military action by the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party after 2015.

This book examines the Kurdish movement in the context of total social movement theory. First tracing its origins as a conventionally nationalist movement, Elsa Sen draws upon Alain Touraine's concept of a total social movement to argue that from 2000 to 2015 the Kurds in Turkey pursued a policy of engaging in a peace process, channeling energy into civil society activism and electoral campaigns, and promoting an inclusive understanding of national identity for all the components of Turkish society – not just the Kurds – in a hypothetically fully functioning democracy. Both theoretically informed and drawing upon empirical research in the form of interviews with Kurdish and Turkish activists, non-activists and political representatives, the book provides a new perspective on contemporary Kurdish politics as oscillating between nationalist and social movement paradigms, with the recent decline of the latter due to the resumption of military action by the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party after 2015.

This book examines the Kurdish movement in the context of total social movement theory. First tracing its origins as a conventionally nationalist movement, Elsa Sen draws upon Alain Touraine's concept of a total social movement to argue that from 2000 to 2015 the Kurds in Turkey pursued a policy of engaging in a peace process, channeling energy into civil society activism and electoral campaigns, and promoting an inclusive understanding of national identity for all the components of Turkish society – not just the Kurds – in a hypothetically fully functioning democracy. Both theoretically informed and drawing upon empirical research in the form of interviews with Kurdish and Turkish activists, non-activists and political representatives, the book provides a new perspective on contemporary Kurdish politics as oscillating between nationalist and social movement paradigms, with the recent decline of the latter due to the resumption of military action by the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party after 2015.

This book examines the Kurdish movement in the context of total social movement theory. First tracing its origins as a conventionally nationalist movement, Elsa Sen draws upon Alain Touraine’s concept of a total social movement to argue that from 2000 to 2015 the Kurds in Turkey pursued a policy of engaging in a peace process, channeling energy into civil society activism and electoral campaigns, and promoting an inclusive understanding of national identity for all the components of Turkish society – not just the Kurds – in a hypothetically fully functioning democracy. Both theoretically informed and drawing upon empirical research in the form of interviews with Kurdish and Turkish activists, non-activists and political representatives, the book provides a new perspective on contemporary Kurdish politics as oscillating between nationalist and social movement paradigms, with the recent decline of the latter due to the resumption of military action by the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party after 2015.

What remains and becomes Armenian in a historically informed moment of increased mobility? Taking an anthropological approach with ethnographic data collected from Turkey and Armenia over the course of almost 10 years, this book focuses on themes of migration, human movement, community-making and the conditions that facilitate mobility and place-making.Looking at case studies ranging from bus and taxi drivers travelling between Armenia and Turkey to undocumented migrants deported from Turkey and now living in Armenian cities and Armenian residents of Istanbul, the author provides a vivid description of contemporary non-Muslim life in Turkey through the lives of Armenian Turkish citizens and undocumented migrants from Armenia, as well as Greek, Jewish and Kurdish communities.The author provides both a critical account of how historical and more contemporary forms of violence and structural discrimination have targeted Armenians in the country, and also focuses on the re-articulations and the appropriation of a sense of belonging by these and other minority communities.

What remains and becomes Armenian in a historically informed moment of increased mobility? Taking an anthropological approach with ethnographic data collected from Turkey and Armenia over the course of almost 10 years, this book focuses on themes of migration, human movement, community-making and the conditions that facilitate mobility and place-making. Looking at case studies ranging from bus and taxi drivers travelling between Armenia and Turkey to undocumented migrants deported from Turkey and now living in Armenian cities and Armenian residents of Istanbul, the author provides a vivid description of contemporary non-Muslim life in Turkey through the lives of Armenian Turkish citizens and undocumented migrants from Armenia, as well as Greek, Jewish and Kurdish communities. The author provides both a critical account of how historical and more contemporary forms of violence and structural discrimination have targeted Armenians in the country, and also focuses on the re-articulations and the appropriation of a sense of belonging by these and other minority communities.

What remains and becomes Armenian in a historically informed moment of increased mobility? Taking an anthropological approach with ethnographic data collected from Turkey and Armenia over the course of almost 10 years, this book focuses on themes of migration, human movement, community-making and the conditions that facilitate mobility and place-making. Looking at case studies ranging from bus and taxi drivers travelling between Armenia and Turkey to undocumented migrants deported from Turkey and now living in Armenian cities and Armenian residents of Istanbul, the author provides a vivid description of contemporary non-Muslim life in Turkey through the lives of Armenian Turkish citizens and undocumented migrants from Armenia, as well as Greek, Jewish and Kurdish communities. The author provides both a critical account of how historical and more contemporary forms of violence and structural discrimination have targeted Armenians in the country, and also focuses on the re-articulations and the appropriation of a sense of belonging by these and other minority communities.

What remains and becomes Armenian in a historically informed moment of increased mobility? Taking an anthropological approach with ethnographic data collected from Turkey and Armenia over the course of almost 10 years, this book focuses on themes of migration, human movement, community-making and the conditions that facilitate mobility and place-making.Looking at case studies ranging from bus and taxi drivers travelling between Armenia and Turkey to undocumented migrants deported from Turkey and now living in Armenian cities and Armenian residents of Istanbul, the author provides a vivid description of contemporary non-Muslim life in Turkey through the lives of Armenian Turkish citizens and undocumented migrants from Armenia, as well as Greek, Jewish and Kurdish communities.The author provides both a critical account of how historical and more contemporary forms of violence and structural discrimination have targeted Armenians in the country, and also focuses on the re-articulations and the appropriation of a sense of belonging by these and other minority communities.

Challenging existing political analyses of the state of emergency in Turkey, this volume argues that such states are not merely predetermined by policy and legislation but are produced, regulated, distributed and contested through the built environment in both embodied and symbolic ways.Contributors use empirical critical-spatial research carried out in Turkey over the past decade, exploring heritage, displacement and catastrophes. Contributing to the broader literature on the related concepts of exception, risk, crisis and uncertainty, the book discusses the ways in which these phenomena shape and are shaped by the built environment, and provides context-specific empirical substance to it by focusing on contemporary Turkey. In so doing, it offers nuanced insight into the debate around emergency as well as into recent urban-architectural affairs in Turkey.

This book examines the period of political violence in Turkey between 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980. It sets out a close analysis of the tactics used by the various protagonists in the conflict, showing how they took over public institutions, the first of which was the police. This book challenges the myth of a ‘strong’ Turkish state viewed as authoritative and autonomous from society, instead reflecting a state that was unable to contain the political mobilisation actually taking place. In the book, Benjamin Gourisse analyses the structure, mobilisation, and strategies of antagonistic radical political groups caught up in this dynamic of violence, including the far-left organisations and the Nationalist Movement, comprising the Nationalist Movement Party and its satellite organisations. Gourisse demonstrates that from 1975 to 1980, the state was never “out of play”. Quite the contrary, in fact, for its institutions, together with the practices, beliefs, and representations of their members and users, were central to the processes constituting the crisis.

This book examines the period of political violence in Turkey between 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980. It sets out a close analysis of the tactics used by the various protagonists in the conflict, showing how they took over public institutions, the first of which was the police. This book challenges the myth of a 'strong' Turkish state viewed as authoritative and autonomous from society, instead reflecting a state that was unable to contain the political mobilisation actually taking place. In the book, Benjamin Gourisse analyses the structure, mobilisation, and strategies of antagonistic radical political groups caught up in this dynamic of violence, including the far-left organisations and the Nationalist Movement, comprising the Nationalist Movement Party and its satellite organisations. Gourisse demonstrates that from 1975 to 1980, the state was never “out of play”. Quite the contrary, in fact, for its institutions, together with the practices, beliefs, and representations of their members and users, were central to the processes constituting the crisis.

This book examines the period of political violence in Turkey between 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980. It sets out a close analysis of the tactics used by the various protagonists in the conflict, showing how they took over public institutions, the first of which was the police. This book challenges the myth of a 'strong' Turkish state viewed as authoritative and autonomous from society, instead reflecting a state that was unable to contain the political mobilisation actually taking place. In the book, Benjamin Gourisse analyses the structure, mobilisation, and strategies of antagonistic radical political groups caught up in this dynamic of violence, including the far-left organisations and the Nationalist Movement, comprising the Nationalist Movement Party and its satellite organisations. Gourisse demonstrates that from 1975 to 1980, the state was never “out of play”. Quite the contrary, in fact, for its institutions, together with the practices, beliefs, and representations of their members and users, were central to the processes constituting the crisis.

This book examines the period of political violence in Turkey between 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980. It sets out a close analysis of the tactics used by the various protagonists in the conflict, showing how they took over public institutions, the first of which was the police. This book challenges the myth of a ‘strong’ Turkish state viewed as authoritative and autonomous from society, instead reflecting a state that was unable to contain the political mobilisation actually taking place. In the book, Benjamin Gourisse analyses the structure, mobilisation, and strategies of antagonistic radical political groups caught up in this dynamic of violence, including the far-left organisations and the Nationalist Movement, comprising the Nationalist Movement Party and its satellite organisations. Gourisse demonstrates that from 1975 to 1980, the state was never “out of play”. Quite the contrary, in fact, for its institutions, together with the practices, beliefs, and representations of their members and users, were central to the processes constituting the crisis.

While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey’s engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the ‘rise of the Global South’ and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey’s ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military ‘footprint’ and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey’s economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.

While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey's engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the 'rise of the Global South' and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey's ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military 'footprint' and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey's economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.

While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey's engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the 'rise of the Global South' and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey's ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military 'footprint' and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey's economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.

While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey’s engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the ‘rise of the Global South’ and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey’s ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military ‘footprint’ and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey’s economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.

This book explores the role of material entities and processes in shaping political lives in Turkey. The unifying thread of its chapters is to challenge the rendering of the material world as a mere background to or object in politics, revealing the formative role of material entities and processes in political processes of infrastructure construction, knowledge production, and technical expertise in Turkey. Chapters explore the politics of material entities such as roads, canals, oilfields, and mines as well as less elaborated material sites, including military bases, soccer fields, and wetlands. In the context of Turkey’s ongoing politics of ‘modernisation’, these interdisciplinary case studies from the fields of anthropology of infrastructure and extraction, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities, provide important new analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding Turkish politics at local, national, and transnational scales.

This book explores the role of material entities and processes in shaping political lives in Turkey. The unifying thread of its chapters is to challenge the rendering of the material world as a mere background to or object in politics, revealing the formative role of material entities and processes in political processes of infrastructure construction, knowledge production, and technical expertise in Turkey. Chapters explore the politics of material entities such as roads, canals, oilfields, and mines as well as less elaborated material sites, including military bases, soccer fields, and wetlands. In the context of Turkey's ongoing politics of 'modernisation', these interdisciplinary case studies from the fields of anthropology of infrastructure and extraction, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities, provide important new analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding Turkish politics at local, national, and transnational scales.

This book explores the role of material entities and processes in shaping political lives in Turkey. The unifying thread of its chapters is to challenge the rendering of the material world as a mere background to or object in politics, revealing the formative role of material entities and processes in political processes of infrastructure construction, knowledge production, and technical expertise in Turkey. Chapters explore the politics of material entities such as roads, canals, oilfields, and mines as well as less elaborated material sites, including military bases, soccer fields, and wetlands. In the context of Turkey's ongoing politics of 'modernisation', these interdisciplinary case studies from the fields of anthropology of infrastructure and extraction, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities, provide important new analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding Turkish politics at local, national, and transnational scales.

This book explores the role of material entities and processes in shaping political lives in Turkey. The unifying thread of its chapters is to challenge the rendering of the material world as a mere background to or object in politics, revealing the formative role of material entities and processes in political processes of infrastructure construction, knowledge production, and technical expertise in Turkey. Chapters explore the politics of material entities such as roads, canals, oilfields, and mines as well as less elaborated material sites, including military bases, soccer fields, and wetlands. In the context of Turkey’s ongoing politics of ‘modernisation’, these interdisciplinary case studies from the fields of anthropology of infrastructure and extraction, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities, provide important new analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding Turkish politics at local, national, and transnational scales.

Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other. Bayar’s in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers. Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.

Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other. Bayar's in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers. Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.

Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other. Bayar's in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers. Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.