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The aim of this study is to investigate the association between the media and the public network agendas concerning Syrian refugees in Türkiye, as an exemplar of a polarized media system within the context of a competitive authoritarian regime to gain insight into the cognitive effects of media in such a context internationally. Large-scale media and nationally representative mind-mapping survey data analysis show that the media's network agenda is only significantly transferred to the pro-government individuals, while no significant effect was found on pro-opposition individuals from any media outlet regardless of their political stances. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected the education system at all levels around the world. Coping with the essentialities of online teaching and learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to give insights into the interpretation of online teaching during the lockdown in Turkey. We applied an 'opinions regarding online education' survey (n = 1,007) to examine students' attitudes towards online education. The participants were students having online classes due to COVID-19 lockdown at different universities in Turkey. Results showed that COVID-19 quarantine has influenced the academic performance of most participants to fluctuating degrees. Yet, most participants believed that online classes could not replace actual classes (n = 725; 72.0%), while only 10.1% of them believed online classes could replace face-to-face classes. Besides, students regularly attending the online classes have positive online education attitudes higher than those of the students who sometimes or never attend the lessons. Thus, this study presents a general illustration of ongoing online education activities during the lockdown and subsequently gives recommendations for future digital learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on journalists' professional behaviors during the 2013 Gezi Protests in Turkey, this article offers a theoretical framework for understanding the transformation of inertia into contentious action. Accordingly, the emotion of shame triggers contention when it is experienced with a contingent event that generates hope for change. In Turkey, journalists working in the mainstream media extensively practiced self-censorship before the 2013 Gezi Protests and felt ashamed of themselves. This feeling became a trigger for joining public protests, resigning and/or producing non-compliant news stories when Gezi offered them an opportunity for social change. This argument builds on the sociology of emotions and events, and is inductively derived from 20 in-depth interviews conducted with journalists. The article presents the social context in which shame arises and the place of this emotion in generating contention. Through this research, the Gezi Protests assert their continuing relevance for understanding the relationship between repression and contention, especially in countries hit by the current wave of authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship on state–civil society dynamics in neoauthoritarian contexts demonstrates that the space for civil society is rapidly shrinking worldwide. Faced with legal, administrative, and extralegal measures that restrict operations and resources, civil society actors are forced to choose between marginalization or co-optation. This article examines the ruling party–Islamic civil society symbiosis in Turkey and identifies mutual constitution as an alternative model of the state–civil society relationship in hybrid regimes. Defined as utilitarian reciprocity between the ruling authority and civil society actors where both parties expand and consolidate their respective domains, the mutually constitutive relationship between the AKP government and Islamic civil society actors has facilitated the consolidation of neoauthoritarianism. Drawing attention to the recent rise of conservative civil society actors worldwide, the article urges the civil society and neoauthoritarianism research program to shift its focus to non-state actors that endorse non-democratic socio-political agendas and function as co-constitutors of illiberal regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children are important actors in the urban areas of Turkey since they make up the largest demographic group. Therefore, the reasons behind their being regarded as 'passive' should be re-examined, in view of the fact that they live and work in, and create and recreate the city. The purpose of this study is to elaborate the children's right to the city concept from two different points of view using liberal and radical approaches within the theoretical framework provided by Marcuse in the right to the city discourse. The reason for choosing Marcuse is that at some points, his arguments meet with both a liberal and radical understanding of the right to the city. Therefore, these two approaches will be compared regarding children's right to the city in Turkey in light of related literature. In the last part of the study, children's right to the city will be discussed from these two perspectives with the particular case of street children derived from findings in the literature. It is revealed that while there are significant developments in Turkey at local and international level in terms of children's right to the city and street children, there is still a need for a strengths-based perspective which positions children as active agents making decisions about their own lives and formation of urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students have a long history of protesting the introduction or rise of tuition fees. However, political parties do not often endorse their demands. Even the centre-left, which is known for its redistributive policies, does not necessarily ally itself with the student opposition to fees. In this article, the author focuses on the impact of social movement–organised labour alliances on the opposition of political parties to government policy. The author argues that such alliances have a unique impact on centre-left parties, especially in relation to non-labour issues. Two examples of this alliance are presented, emerging from the quite different political contexts of Germany and Turkey. In Germany, student movements failed to block the introduction of tuition fees in 2006. However, in 2008–2011, after students established a deeper alliance with organised labour, tuition fees were scrapped. In Turkey, student movements had been protesting tuition fees for a quarter of a century before an alliance with labour gained the support of social democrats in 2011. These case studies suggest that labour–movement alliances are effective in shifting social democratic politics in higher education policy because of labour's experience and know-how in alliance building with centre-left parties and the student mobilisation's potential to make tuition fees an electoral issue cross-cutting party allegiances. This finding suggests that scholars need to take the degree of engagement in opposition alliances into account, in addition to union density, in order to more accurately measure the political power of organised labour. This point has implications for analysing a variety of policy outcomes in policy areas exposed to permanent austerity measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the narratives of professionals from Turkey working in transnational corporations to contribute to discussions of new middle classes and global stratification focusing on emerging forms of cultural capital in the domain of the transnational business field. Analyzing respondents’ narratives about their careers, it argues that as these professionals try to differentiate themselves within the neoliberal market, transnational corporations structure the access to transnational forms of social and cultural capital, including a cosmopolitan self-narrative, and work as a means of institutionalizing distinction at the global level. As such, this article contributes to discussions on emerging cultural capitals as well as cosmopolitanism as cultural capital and emphasizes the transnationalization of class distinction strategies of the new middle classes in Turkey as it situates these strategies within a stratified neoliberal global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the meaning and potential associated with capturing reality through an analysis of the case and experience of the Karahaber (Black News) collective, a video activist group in Turkey that was particularly active in the 2005–2007 period. Operating under the slogan ‘From the image of the action to the action of the image’, video activists participated in and documented many street demonstrations with non-professional video cameras, producing more than 175 videos that were shared on their website. The article focuses on three specific video films produced by Karahaber that compelled its members to make a specific appraisal of their own participation and political engagement in the demonstrations: two of them documenting the hunger strike, referred to locally rather as a death fast, in protest against the F-type (cell-type) prisons, and one focusing on the attacks against transgender people by nationalist groups in Ankara. Finally, the article reflects on the relationship between reality and representation, and its role in ‘being an activist camera’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attention of social movement studies has so far tended to focus on visible phases of movements, neglecting latent ones. This study argues that invisible mobilizations may be critical in preparing the groundwork of public mobilizations, particularly in authoritarian contexts. Using a process-oriented constructivist account of mobilization which incorporates insights from resistance studies, this article analyzes the Kurdish case in Turkey in the authoritarian 1940s and semi-authoritarian 1950s. Based on in-depth interviews, memoirs, newspaper reports, and official documents, it is demonstrated that a latent Kurdish dissent emerged in this period through the constitution of a sense of shared grievance and common identity both in hidden ways within the submerged networks of Kurdish students and professionals, and in public and visible, yet disguised, ways. Incubating the movement out of the gaze of the authorities within the authoritarian context, this latent dissent formed the groundwork of public acts of defiance and mobilization which emerged towards the end of the 1950s as the political changes encouraged Kurdish dissenters to publicly declare their opposition, and expanded in the more liberal context of the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current debates in sociology are questioning not only the secularization thesis, that religion is inevitably declining under conditions of modernity, but also the notion of the secular and its relation to religion. Beginning with a brief look at six representative scholars who have been prominent in this debate, this interpretative essay seeks to contribute to it on the basis of a distinction between a ‘Westphalian’ and a ‘post-Westphalian’ way of understanding and structuring religion and the secular, above all in the form of the state. The argument is illustrated with three examples, India, Turkey and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the information society developments in Turkey. Utilizing analytical insights of Foucault’s governmentality to move beyond state-centric approaches and to focus on the practical, productive and imperfect operations of power, it identifies four main actors of governance through which the rationalities and practices of information society are developed and disseminated: the Justice and Development Party, the European Union, global development organizations and information society experts. The article demonstrates that despite their different and sometimes competing backgrounds and projections, each actor promoted neoliberal governmentality and maintained that Turkey’s information society strategy should be regarded as an opportunity for further liberalizing the economy and mobilizing citizens of Turkey with digital and entrepreneurial skills. While Turkey’s information society strategy has certain technical inefficiencies and limitations in its reach, it clearly demonstrates the political ambitions of integrating Turkey into global capitalism, and the contemporary governmental phase in Turkish modernity in which local and global actors have started playing important roles. Such decentralization of governance does not mean that authoritarianism in Turkey has ended. In fact, neoliberal rationalities have intersected with the existing authoritarian ones to produce globalized yet compliant citizens who are under digital surveillance. The case of Turkey demonstrates that rather than being a linear process, governmentality advances through complex local and global articulations and may coexist with authoritarianism and surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Emile Durkheim’s sociology was used by the Turkish state elite in the early 20th century, no comprehensive literature delineating its influence on Turkish politics exists. This article attempts to fill this lacuna by analysing how Ziya Gökalp, the founding father of Turkish sociology and a prominent politician of the early 20th century, adapted Durkheimian sociology to explain and respond to the sociopolitical problems of the period. It relies on a comparative reading of the works of Gökalp and Durkheim, along with related academic literature. The present study proposes that: (1) Gökalp’s culture–civilization distinction is the foundation of his attempt to provide a basis for social unity in Turkey; and (2) Durkheim’s theoretical claims regarding magic and religion in particular, and his view on the relationship between social constraints and individual agencies in general, are intrinsic to the culture–civilization duality. This article concludes that the sociology of Ziya Gökalp is less original than has been suggested in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey is undertaking comprehensive reforms in its healthcare sector which bring about a major transformation in the boundaries between the public and private sectors. As in many transition and late-developing countries reforms seek to universalize coverage, increase efficiency and improve quality of healthcare services. The Turkish case is interesting as it draws attention to the balance that is being struck between two major components of the reforms, namely marketization and universalism. Expansion of coverage and improvements in equity are taking place alongside state-induced market and managerial reforms. This article assesses the extent of marketization and argues that while market elements have been limited to the provision dimension, in the long run they may lead to some erosion in universalism. The Turkish case serves as an example of transformations in developing countries where market reforms have to be accompanied by a strong and active state for universalism to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study on the internalization of small business sector through formation of alliances with foreign capital in Turkey. It notes that Turkish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) partner with foreign capital to expand their production capacity and access to world markets. Multivariate multinomial logit models are used to identify the size-specific, sector specific and management-specific factors in alliance motivation. It is inferred that alliance motivation is partly a result of multidimensional decision-making process on behalf of SMEs.

This article discusses the environmental activism of the Aukuras and Romuva movements in Lithuania, and of several organizations opposed to a dam project in the Tunceli region of Turkey. Since the late 1980s, these movements have combined celebration of cultural traditions and identities with environmental protests, lobbying and education projects. Implicit in thesemovements is a response to criticisms that environmentalism has become overly bureaucratized and perhaps hegemonic, and a challenge to theories that view global environmentalism as a homogeneous movement. The author argues that although these movements are similarly shaped by globalizing forces - including economic liberalization, migration and international institutions - globalization has, paradoxically perhaps, given rise to social movements blending traditional, local identities with global concerns such as the environment. These movements suggest that environmental activism in developing nations subject to forces of globalization may bear little resemblance to past movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the changing formofwhite and black racial categories in North America. It argues that this transformation is being shaped by several, relatively distinct tendencies; including anti-immigrant sentiments, anti-black racism and the identity politics of racialized populations. The discussion focuses on two aspects of this transformation. First, the identity politics of Afro-Caribbean populations is used to illustrate how immigrant experiences contest and complicate the process of black racialization; second, the racialization of Latino populations is used to illustrate how normative definitions of whiteness are being redefined. The conclusion uses these examples to discuss the need for explanations of racial stratification that can account for multiple nodes of inclusion and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study described in this article has three objectives. The first is to describe female entrepreneurship as a construct based on entrepreneurial personality characteristics, the properties of sociocultural entrepreneurship and gender roles. The second objective is to demonstrate the differences between migrant and non-migrant female entrepreneurship in terms of the aforementioned variables as components of the construct in addition to push and pull factors and social capital. Finally, the third objective is to predict high and low levels of social capital among female entrepreneurs according to the variables present in the realm of female entrepreneurship. The research was conducted among 304 female entrepreneurs in Mersin, Turkey. The data are analysed using correlational analysis, ANOVA and logistic regression analysis. The most striking finding is the higher social capital predicted by migrant status resulting from stronger personal contacts and the sociocultural properties of their respective communities. Additionally, age, professional training and work experience were also tied to higher social capital of entrepreneurs. In contrast, non-migrant status, entrepreneurial personality characteristics and pull factors predicted lower social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study of intergenerational management succession of family-owned businesses (FOBs) in Turkey. It looks into the dynamics of the succession process for FOBs that have taken the succession decision and have selected their successors. The examination of the major characteristics of the FOB succession process including the views of predecessors on the succession process, successor selection criteria, and the post-succession period are discussed. It implies that the study has enabled generalization of the key findings on the succession process in Turkish FOBs. Also, it details its service to enhance the importance of succession issues in the governance framework.

Recent data on fertility rates indicate tremendous differences between Palestine and Turkey: whereas the total fertility rate has decreased remarkably over the last few decades in Turkey, a rather stable, high fertility rate cart be observed for Palestine. This study applies a reconceptualization of the value of children approach to explain this difference. Analyses were performed using a sample of 249 Palestinian and 622 Turkish mothers from the 2002 international Value of Children study. In a first step, it is revealed that in Palestine children are more important for parents' comfort and social esteem than in Turkey, while only slight country differences are found with respect to children's affection value. This is in line with the study's hypotheses. However, in a second step, the country-specific value of children is proved to be of only very limited predictive power with regard to the birth of children of different parity, which contradicts the expectations. A more detailed analysis suggests that it is rational to follow cultural routines with respect to children in Palestine but not in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores why and how Alevism, a religious creed and tradition that had been kept esoteric and transmitted only orally at secret rituals, has emerged in public spheres within Turkey and the European diaspora since the late 1980s. It draws attention to two major actors, transnational Alevi networks and the state actively inducing and shaping the transformation of Alevism from secret to public culture in national and transnational public spheres. Networks, social and political opportunity structures, and communicative praxis are used to analyse this process. By taking transnational networks into account this article goes beyond traditional network analysis. Networks are articulators of new spaces to host culture and identity formation processes. Social actions are not just about networks and opportunity structures but also about the construction of meaning. The article investigates the communicative praxes of dissenting and consenting actors shaping Alevism in the arena of national and transnational publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]