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This note is based on hitherto untapped visual resources (photographs, presentation albums, and scrapbook) on post-World War I Russian refugees in Istanbul that belong to the Anna Mitchell Papers, which were gifted to the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University in 1967. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do nonstate organizations carry out their programs in political contexts hostile to civil society activity? This paper examines the case of refugee-supporting organizations in Turkey, which hosts over 3.6 million Syrians under a temporary protection regime. While the Turkish state has taken a central role in refugee reception, nonstate organizations have played a sizeable role in refugee support. Analyzing interviews with key personnel across 23 organizations in Istanbul, the paper finds that organizational capacity and organizational identity together explain variations in CSO-state relations. While high-capacity organizations that adopt a variety of "rights-based" and "needs-based" identities will cooperate with state institutions, lower-capacity organizations use comparable signifiers to justify selective engagement or avoidance of state institutions. The paper argues that analyzing how organizations negotiate their identities can help explain variations in CSO-state relations in restrictive contexts without relying on a priori assumptions about CSO alignment with or opposition to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-related issues feature prominently on the EU's agenda and in policies such as the Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025 which identifies gender equality as a core principle of the EU. Within the broader convergence discourse which examines whether candidate countries are converging with the EU, prompted by Turkey's withdrawal from the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention and the Sofagate incident, this paper conducts a gender-centric convergence analysis in the case Turkey. To this end, it uses five gender-focused indices compiled by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. The empirical results from the convergence tests do not provide evidence supporting convergence in terms of these five gender-related indices. The findings of the present study concur with the existing relevant literature and should be viewed in the broader context of Turkey's democratic backsliding and de-Europeanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the life stories of three unaccompanied asylum seeking youth residing at a state care shelter in Istanbul in 2015 and 2016. Through its intervention, the research follows an engaged anthropological approach to reveal the hidden aspects of the youth's emotional and intellectual worlds. The in-depth life stories shared here illuminate Homi Bhabha's Third Space Theory (1994) and are amplified by a methodological approach we call affective multimodalities. As we seek to understand the various ways the youths navigate survival and learning to be freed from institutional categories, we explore a few concepts of Third Space Theory: extraterrestrial territories, paradoxical worlds, afterliferebirth, and a displaced angle of vision. Through the practice of a collaborative radio show and photography elicitations, the youth were asked to share their dreams as they were encouraged to realize their potentials. During this co-creative approach, one of the youth even became a co-author of this paper. The ethnographic insights produced through this approach allows us to explore the third space theory with a poetical reflection through words and images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We now live in an age of unhidden gender wars where direct violence occurs within online and offline spaces. These online spaces on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram become venues for attacks on gender and woman's rights, as well as its intersection with race and ethnicity. Such online hate expressions and networked harassments channelled towards women provide clues for us, social scientists, to understand the underlying dynamics/nature of misogyny. In this paper, by studying the online misogynistic narratives developed around the Istanbul Convention as a counter movement, I aim to highpoint the conservative and polarizing discourses that frames gender-based violence as acceptable in Turkey. More specifically I show how Twitter can be used as a platform for anti-feminist and misogynistic groups, aiming violence and hostility directly at women and their rights. As these tweets illustrate, the right-wing populist and anti-gender discourses and conservative and authoritarian politics, are being implemented on many fronts and social media is one of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of forced repatriation, this study investigates the conditions under which Syrian refugees face the spectacle of detention and deportation in Türkiye. As the largest group of Temporary Protection holders within a single country (currently 3.7 million), this case provides a unique lens to examine how asylum policies' increased emphasis on the temporariness of protection and the eventual return leads to the production of illegality , and consequently of the deportable refugee. Based on qualitative data collected between September and December 2019 in Istanbul, Türkiye, this paper argues that the escalating fear of deportability is built on three pillars: (1) exploitation in the informal labour market, (2) quotidian police surveillance and factory raids, and (3) discrimination in public life. The study contributes to the discussion of temporality and deportability in refugee studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Journal of Surra Man Raa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the inflation spillovers across regions of Turkey by employing the Diebold and Yilmaz (Int J Forecast, 28:57–66, 2012) spillover index using the monthly aggregate and 12 subgroups of consumer prices over the period 2005–2021. The results mainly suggest a high degree of inflation spillovers regardless of the type of consumer prices. However, the direction and magnitude of inflation spillovers differ among regions. Istanbul, the most significant metropolitan province, and western regions are the main transmitter of inflation. Conversely, Turkey's eastern and southeastern regions receive more inflation shocks than they contribute, reflecting the level of regional socioeconomic development disparities that matter for price variability. Thus, it makes sense to monitor the westerns and, precisely, Istanbul's inflation to predict future prices in the country. We suggest region-based price management policies to reduce the heterogeneity of inflation spillovers between regions, as some regions are more prone to inflation shocks than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the settings of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, this paper traces the relationship between state power, agency and media. On 15 July 2016, reports emerged through social networking sites and other mainstream media of armoured military tanks blocking the entrances to the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges in Istanbul. Appearing via FaceTime on CNN Türk, President Erdoğan called people onto the streets to confront the occupying forces. Following the foiled coup attempt, officials praised the public for using communication technology to topple the coup plotters. I juxtapose the different settings where the coup unfolded to argue these events are symbolic phenomena, underscoring how the imaginary of 'national unity' is mediated to (re)affirm state power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to move beyond the limited research emphasis on traditional South-North scholarship accessibility. We discuss and analyze how through South-South connections and scholarship opportunities African students rationalize accessibility to scholarships in Turkey. Building on qualitative data collected through interviews, focus groups and discussions with African students in Istanbul, Turkey, this paper finds that the activities as well as the meaning making of African students towards existing Turkish educational and scholarship opportunities, remain essential in understanding the dynamics of African students and accessibility to Turkish scholarships. In their quest for scarce scholarship opportunities, students employ the internet for exchanging information with fellow students; compare opportunities within and beyond Africa while, simultaneously, interacting with formal and informal networks that facilitate scholarship opportunities. Accessibility to Turkish scholarships therefore depends not only on Turkish state funds and its availability, but also on what the students and their networks and community relations are doing separately or together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the 'social conflict' theory to analyse the challenges to combatting violence against women in Turkey. It argues that these obstacles that are grounded in unequal social power relations are structured in the political landscape where decisions over who gets what are made. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s 'male biased' political decisions such as withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe's Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) reflect the current conditions of the balance of societal interests in the political order. Turkish women's struggle for equality requires a shift in existing conditions of power in favour of pro-gender equality forces that would enable the representation of their preferences and interests in the political landscape, which is always tilted towards certain groups and their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gated communities have received significant attention in academic debates. Despite this, there is a lack of studies on differentiation and tensions between them. This paper analyses differentiation between gated communities by adopting the theory of “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press]. It uses the data collected from fieldwork in two gated communities in Istanbul, Turkey, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with residents. First, the paper contributes to Lamont's “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] by showing that morality is not independent from socio-economic context, but indicates the legitimate values of a given social context. This is shown in residents’ use of moral boundaries such as a law-abiding lifestyle, legitimate sources of capital accumulation and the existence of warmer relations with each other. Second, the paper contributes to the study of gated communities by demonstrating that they can be regarded as spatial manifestations of the division within the upper classes which results from competition for deserved status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the precarisation of journalistic work by looking at the case of Syrian exiled journalists in Turkey, whose professional and personal lifeworlds are underpinned by multiple layers of precarity. The article builds on data collected during a 3-month-long period of participant observations at the newsroom of Enab Baladi, a Syrian news outlet based in Istanbul, Turkey. It develops a relational notion of precarity through insights from the growing body of work on precarity in the journalistic field, as well as research on precarity and migration. It proposes a multidimensional understanding of the 'precarious newsroom' that takes into account the people, organisation and place, as a way to map how different layers of precarity, and responses to them, are articulated, experienced and negotiated. Our research underlines the complex anatomy of the precarious newsroom as a paradoxical place and an amalgamation of precarity and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alevi-Sunni relations in Turkey are the result of a relational process constructed from contributions of each side rather than each groups' perceptions of the other. Boundaries between Alevis and Sunnis in Turkey have been constructed relationally with the contributions of many complicated socio-political factors. This article aims to answer the question of what the symbolic boundaries between the two groups are, seeking to understand how Sunnis perceive Alevis. This aim will cast light on the nature of the two groups' relations, help us recognize forms of Alevism and Sunnism specific to Turkey, and advance existing literature on the issue. This paper's findings are based on ninety semi-structured and two focus group interviews with Sunnis living in Istanbul. Results show that the concept of 'two-dimensional symbolic boundary,' which runs along dimensions of not-knowing and not-accepting, is the answer to the question of how Sunnis perceive Alevis. The main components of these dimensions are perceptions, which seem to relate to the interpretations of group norms and values. This study, as a group-based analysis, reveals that perceived group norms – whether religious, cultural, social, or political – determine the perceptions of Sunnis towards Alevis and create dimensions of the boundary between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should we understand the relationship between artistic practice and religious devotion? This paper answers that question through a close engagement with the archive of the artist, teacher, doctor, and writer Ahmet Süheyl Ünver (b. 1898–d. 1986). Working from notebooks and archival files produced about Eyüp, Istanbul's most important Muslim district, I offer the concept of 'conjunctions of Islam' to develop two linked arguments. First, Ünver's work challenges essentialist invocations of 'Turkish' or 'Islamic' art. Instead, his work shows us how these terms are historically and geographically specific, embedded within networks of people, places, objects, and histories. Second, Ünver also shows us how definitions of Muslim identity trace geographies other than the territorial nation. Indebted to discussions of relational place-making and topology, my use of conjunction helps us see the making of an urban Muslim self in a new way. In doing so, this article extends recent cultural geographic discussions about skill and creativity, provides a new perspective on the geographies of Islam, and enriches our ability to explain how complex forms of the past are articulated in contemporary Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides are one of the devastating geohazards that cause extensive socio-economic and environmental damages on local, regional, and global scales. Previous studies based on digital media sources have attracted attention to the high fatal landslide rate in Turkey, at a continental or global scale; however, the preparation of a comprehensive and long-term database for Turkey has been neglected until today. To examine this data gap, we present a new database of fatal landslide events resulting in fatalities from 1929 to 2019, which has been compiled using Turkish national and local printed and digital media reports, academic papers, disaster, and city annual reports. The fatal database of Turkey (FATALDOT) shows that, in total, 1343 people were killed in 389 fatal landslide events. The spatiotemporal distribution of the fatal landslides highlighted increasing trends with reference to two distinct hotspot zones throughout the Eastern Black Sea and Marmara Region, mostly around Istanbul megacity. Our results show that there has been a significant uniformity between the number of fatalities and fatal landslides triggered by anthropogenic and natural factors over the past decade, indicating an increasing dominance of human activities in fatality rates. Our findings also, for the first time, remarked the potential signatures of the economic crisis and political steadiness on fatal landslide trends. Nevertheless, we conclude that the increasing rate of anthropogenic disturbances in urban and mountainous areas, together with regional variances in topography and climatic setting, is essential in governing the pattern of fatal landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written in recent years on Muslim art practices in which there is an overt mobilizing urge to use music/art as a tool for communicating a moral-religious message, or a deliberate intention to transform individual subjects into better Muslims. But what of other forms of Muslim music-making that not only lack such a mission, but which are actually at odds with the project of art as piety mobilization or as missionary apologetics? Taking a vibrant artistic community of practice in contemporary Istanbul as its case study, this article analyzes how this practice of art relates to current debates in anthropology around Islam, piety, and music production. The paper argues that participation in this project of musical Islam fosters in practitioners an explorative way of knowing both music and Islam – a way of knowing one through the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the social function of historical public space in Turkey that has been transformed with rise of modernism. Before that, it functioned as a suburban recreational area. The increasing demand for urban lands has been led to its transformation and its function as an urban component. The historical pattern of urban space can be conserved to protect and strengthen social interactions as the key issue of urban social sustainability. With a focus on the urban design through literature review, the aim is to identify the role of social interactions on social sustainability of historical urban street in Turkey. A field survey study was conducted to observe and in-depth interviews to locally evaluate the socio-spatial design principles in Bagdat street, as a research case. Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) and Cognitive Spatial Map (CSM) were used to investigate the spatial experiences of the respondents. Results indicated that the historical continuity of socio-spatial activities through the time in respect to the socio-cultural values and user satisfaction has led to enhance the sense of belongings for citizens. As a conclusion, all data were integrated to propose a socio-spatial framework for designing and developing of Turkish public street, to enhance the urban social sustainability in future communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate and define the competitive positioning of banks including state-owned, domestic and foreign banks operating in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim is to check the competitive marketplace and to identify the major quality attributes, which bankers themselves and their customers used in determining the overall perception of a given bank and services offered. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation was held in Istanbul, Turkey. In total, 30 banks were included in the research, which includes state-owned, local and foreign-owned banks. A total of 1,530 questionnaires were submitted, answers collected and analyzed. Reliability test and frequency analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings – From the banks' customers' point of view, determinants relating to functional quality or how the customers wish to receive banking services became evident. It also became clear that customers of banks are not fully receiving what they want or need and their expectations, especially on the most important attributes of quality, are not being met. Research limitations/implications – The survey showed how the banks were selected and including their employees in relation to the other competitors' banks in the Turkish banking industry. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates an integrated technology, use of staff talent and streamlined operations that respond to customer needs and encourage customers to use the whole range of banking products/services rather than only a few as the end game. The results were used by bank staff later on to reengineer and redesign creatively their positioning strategy and the future direction for creating more effective quality strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses quantile regression methods where a hedonic equation is estimated for each quantile of the conditional distribution of housing prices. The survey data are used to investigate the relationship between house prices and housing characteristics in Istanbul. This data set includes some housing characteristics of the dwellings like numbers of room, bathroom, heating system, location of house etc. In the results of this paper show some similarities and differences from earlier studies on housing prices. We find that age, cable tv, security, heating system, garage, kitchen area, increasing numbers of room and bathroom increase the house prices. Our findings also show that side variable which is a special factor for Istanbul real estate market has negative effect on the prices. It is clear that the factors of housing prices can change because of the properties of country, region or city. The results of this study may give some important interpretations for developing real estate market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Women's Library and Information Centre Foundation (WLICF) in Istanbul is a non-profit institution founded in 1990. It is a library of women's artistic and literary works, but it also keeps collections of periodicals, manuscripts, personal documents, audio and video material, rare works and other sources related to women's life and reality from the Ottoman times until today. The library owns more than 14.000 books, 48 private archives, more than 469 periodicals, a lot of artistic works, paintings, sculptures made by women etc. This institution organized several symposiums and workshops, a lot of public conferences and readings, and prepared dozens of round tables and exhibitions. Among these activities, the Library published several books and works on a variety of projects concerning digitalization of old periodicals and sources. This paper presents the library itself, but also gives an overview of two phenomena that allow an essential understanding of the specifics of its activities in modern Turkey. One is the institution of waqf, the most convincing expression of solidarity and the mutual assistance of the population without which it is impossible to imagine urban life in the Ottoman Empire. In that way -- as a result of private initiative and investment of private capital, the Women's Library in Istanbul was established. The second phenomenon covered is the phenomenon of women, their position and role in society and especially their attitude towards books. The Women's Library, with its increasingly rich collection, is a kind of witness to the history and position of Turkish women and their creative spirit, a companion of their ups and downs, struggles and hopes, contradictions in which they are still torn between still deeply rooted traditional patriarchal values and the freedom they have won. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claiming spaces as homes indexes hierarchies. I focus on the home/away (deplasman) binary in football (soccer) where through the case of Turkey, I show how affective football fandom layers the normative charge of home versus deplasman. Home attachments and away antagonisms are formed and solidified as fans connect emotionally to stadiums and to neighbourhoods. This carries over to the national scale when (footballing) home is conceptualized as homeland. The emotionality and power-laden implications of the home/away binary leads to (the acceptance of) social exclusion but this acceptance is challenged through the very spaces of football. I refer to migrant experiences in Istanbul and to the cases of stereotypically nationalist Trabzonspor and Kurdish Amedspor to offer a novel way to conceptualize exclusion vis-à-vis the emotionality of home/away. This article is based on over a decade of ethnographic research on football in Turkey including men's professional football, women's football, and migrant footballers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Turkish mothers' perspectives on sibling relationships are described and analyzed on the basis of 15 qualitative interviews. It is surprising that sibling relationships have received little attention in cultural psychological or sociological research for decades, while other social relationships—such as parent–child relationships, (marital) partner relationships, peer relationships, or hierarchical relationships (e.g., superior–subordinate)—were often studied. The two main goals of the present study are first, to examine Turkish mothers' ethnotheories of sibling relationships between their own offspring and second, to analyze these parental ethnotheories through the lenses of the cultural psychological and sociological concepts of collectivism/individualism and interdependent/independent self-concepts. The interview data for this empirical study was derived from a larger project which focuses on parental ethnotheories more broadly. Problem-centered interview method was used. Eleven of the interviews took place via a digital platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while four of the interviews were conducted face-to-face just before pandemic's onset. The Turkish mothers interviewed were from Istanbul and Sinop, a small Turkish city on the coast of the Black Sea. The data was interpreted using the documentary method and relational hermeneutical analysis. The article examines and discusses three topics of sibling relationships, namely hierarchical/equal sibling roles based on birth order, solidarity/sharing, and conflict. We show that all of the mothers interviewed place a high value on connectedness between siblings. With regard to the hierarchical or egalitarian distribution of roles, some of the interviewees differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What constitutes the wealth of the poor and how is it accumulated? The objective of this paper is to appraise the assets that the poor might have in the specific context of Turkey where the official statistics might underestimate them. This question is of crucial importance because of its contrast with the accumulation of wealth that occurred following the financialization of the economy in this country and market-oriented policies. Based on interviews with minimum wage earners about the wealth of their households we identified major categories of wealth prevalent among low-income groups that might have been invisible to the official statistical radars and how they are accumulated. Our sample of low-income groups and their wealth means having a house, a car and ability to pay for the schooling of older children. Our results indicate that lower-income groups accumulated wealth mainly by debt which makes them vulnerable to any financial crises and negatively influences their living conditions. Furthermore, we argue that accumulating wealth through debt reproduces social inequality and high interest debt of many low-income families leads to wealth (dis)accumulation since they own less of their material wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of earthquake disasters in Istanbul, Turkey, arguing that urban assemblage theory offers a useful framework for thinking about disaster as an urban phenomenon. It examines the effects of the 1999 Marmara earthquake disaster and the anticipation of future earthquakes on Istanbul's built environment and urban politics, tracing how the city's fragile buildings become a source of personal anxiety and political critique, how debates about responsibility and blame reveal divergent understandings of nature and society, and how earthquake risk is mobilized to both justify and challenge controversial urban transformation projects. The paper argues that disasters prompt explicit engagements with the sociomaterial assemblages that make up the city, and ethnographic attention to these entanglements can reveal how those assemblages become legible as matters of political concern. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In metropolitan areas, rising house prices make it more difficult for low- and middle-income people to access affordable housing. However, the availability of affordable rental housing in metropolitan areas serves the survival and social sustainability of all social groups in urban areas. Despite the critical importance of rental housing affordability at the metropolitan level, studies on this issue, especially spatial studies, are limited. This article spatially analyzes housing affordability for low- and middle-income households in Istanbul, a city experiencing a neoliberal housing policy. The methodology of the study is based on an analysis of rental housing affordability in the metropolitan area of Istanbul by taking into account the polycentric structure of Istanbul, the central grading (center, subcenters, and periphery), and regular and irregular housing subregions. The findings of the article demonstrate that low- and middle-income households in Istanbul have no access to affordable rental housing in the city center and limited access to the subcenters. Furthermore, low- and middle-income households have access mainly to irregular housing areas within the city. The findings imply that without social policies, they will be excluded from central or regular housing areas. This points to the critical role of social policies in neoliberal housing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which debates about urban policy became a space for members of the literate Turkish public to negotiate the boundary between state and society during a period of dramatic social transformation in the 1930s. Inspired by circulating urbanist discourses, Turkish reformers reimagined society from street level up by passing a series of laws which empowered municipalities and abolished the neighborhood muhtar and council of elders, the basic units of local administration since 1829. Eleven years later, however, these offices were reconstituted and absorbed into municipal bureaucracy where they became the focus of heated party politics and struggles across Turkey. The debates which brought about this transformation, I argue, were ultimately about how far into daily life the authority of the government should extend and in what ways Turkey was able to adopt international standards of urbanism in a time of economic and political uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 1999 Marmara earthquakes, urban regeneration has gained particular importance in redevelopment of housing areas particularly in historical districts of Istanbul. Local governments, upon new roles and responsibilities regarding postdisaster conditions as well as the changing global trends, called for innovative planning approaches which involve the community. In this respect, some questions are raised in the planning agenda: While performing the new roles, what kind of institutional changes should local governments experience? How should local community be involved in this process? The paper considers the conditions of spatial and community change in realizing urban regeneration as a collaborative action through the case study of Matra—Regeneration of Istanbul Metropolitan Area (Matra REGIMA) project which highlights the fundamental capacity building requirement for both local government practitioners and the community in order to achieve the necessary actions. Consequently, this study highlights the strengths and limitations of the capacity building program applied in Zeytinburnu toward implications for future collaborative actions within urban regeneration schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a multi-criteria bidding evaluation model based on Istanbul 2010 PR selection problem to strike a balance among conflicting criteria and to aggregate opinions held by a group of decision makers. Design/methodology/approach - In the study, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology was used to settle the conflict properly. The evaluation criteria were transformed into a hierarchical form and their relative weights were calculated and synthesized for the final ranking of the bidders. Then a linear interpolation-based spreadsheet model was combined with findings of the AHP to fairly select best bidders. Findings - The paper demonstrates that the hierarchical structure of the AHP methodology can successfully resolve the conflict among evaluation criteria and measure relative importance of the criteria by taking into account the preference of the decision makers. Moreover, a linear interpolation methodology can evaluate quoted bid prices fairly and can help to make the best decision. Originality/value - In all areas of business management, there is a great need for fair bid evaluation systems. The method presented in the paper will help future studies in designing more intriguing systems and resolving conflicts in the area of bid evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research problematizes the contested nature of the global norm diffusion by focusing on intra-group rivalries and fragmentations shaping local responses (often reactionary and resistant) to global norms. Such an examination is important primarily to account for what leads to shifts in the local reception of norms over time. This study empirically explores local fragmentation, rivalry and change in response nexus in the example of the reception of the global gender equality norms in Turkey by the conservative normative bloc. It reveals that the conservative bloc is not a monolithic normative order and that there are two main competing receptions of the gender equality norm within the group in Turkey. With a firm emphasis on Turkey's first initiating and later withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, the study elaborates how the institutionalized conservative response to gender equality has shifted from a compromising acceptance to a rejection over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's urbanizing world, home of 28 megacities, there is a growing need for tools to assess urban policies and support the design and implementation of effective development strategies. Unsustainable practices of urbanization bring major implications for land and environment, and cause a dramatic increase of urban vulnerability to natural hazards. In Istanbul megacity, disaster risk reduction represents a challenging issue for urban managers. In this paper, we show the relevance of the space-borne Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) technique as a tool for supporting risk management, and thus contributing to achieve the urban sustainability. To this aim, we use a dataset of high resolution SAR images collected by the TerraSAR-X satellite that have been processed through the advanced (multi-temporal) Small BAseline Subset (SBAS)-DInSAR technique, thus producing spatially-dense deformation velocity maps and associated time-series. Results allow to depict an up-to-date picture of surface deformations occurring in Istanbul, and thus to identify urban areas subject to potential risk. The joint analysis of remotely sensed measurements and ancillary data (geological and urban development information) provides an opportunity for city planners and land professionals to discuss on the mutual relationship between urban development policies and natural/man-made hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I follow two urban experts, a Turkish construction site manager and a Kurdish foreman, working in Taksim 360, one of Istanbul's first state-led urban transformation projects still in construction since 2006. Homing in on the protracted landscape of construction, I am concerned with how urban experts in Taksim 360, who do not entirely concur with the seemingly determined trajectory of urban transformation in Tarlabaşı, put inevitability to work. I ask: what makes urban experts stay with a project that might not materialize? The answer lies in what I call "counterfactual future-thinking": a way of articulating the future in relation to what might have happened—an articulation that comes particularly handy when the gap between inevitable visions and everyday experiences of urban projects seems irreconcilable. Counterfactual future-thinking allows urban experts to navigate the tensions between suspension and inevitability. It offers a way to urban experts to bridge their quotidian experiences of urban projects with their future visions, which become hazier in their attainability. I argue that counterfactuals emanating from protraction are lenses through which we can understand what inevitability actually does, rather than dismiss it as a farse disconnected from urban expertise on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 31 May 2013, violent police intervention against the activists at Gezi Park, Istanbul, resisting against the unlawful demolition of trees at the park, led to a popular uprising throughout Turkey. It was unexpected and unprecedented. The resistances were, and still are, multifaceted and multilayered. Taken as an episode of contention, it is hard to argue that this has come to an end, and the falling leaf can hardly be blamed on the tree. This paper is an attempt to understand this episode, borrowing from the DOC (dynamics of contention) program, emphasizing the importance of space in the Lefebvrian sense, with respect to the changing socio-spatial order of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multicenter development course of Istanbul based upon urban travel patterns in the city. The spatial distribution of population and employment between 1970 and 2000 illustrated a decentralizing trend in the urban structure. Hierarchical clustering analysis was used to determine relatively homogenous groups of interactions and to explain the interaction patterns among the districts. The results of the study supported the multicenter development at the lower level on both continents (Asia and Europe), and at the upper level between the continents. Determination of efficient locations of new subcenters was suggested for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an empirical study conducted within the SME sector in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. The findings from this study enabled the creation of a behavioural and operational typology of competitive intelligence practice, one developed from the work of S. Wright, D.W. Pickton and J. Callow (2002. Competitive intelligence in UK firms: A typology. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 20, 349–360). Using responses to questions which indicated a type of behaviour or operational stance towards the various strands of CI practice under review it has been possible to identify areas where improvements could be made to reach an ideal situation which could garner significant competitive advantage for the SMEs surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Leishmania is an intracellular parasite, which is transmitted by the bite of infected female Phlebotominae sand flies. Turkey is a crossroad between Europe and Asia that makes it important in terms of epidemiology. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate Leishmania infection among non-autochthonous patients admitted to Health Sciences University, Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training hospital between 2014−2018. Slides were prepared by sampling the edge of the lesions for each patient. Microscopical examination was performed after staining procedures. After microscopical examination slides were washed and DNA extraction was performed. ITS-1 real-time PCR was performed to identify the species of the causative agents. Demographic data were recorded for each patient. Also number, type and location of the lesions were recorded. Totally 13 patients were included in this. Majority (12/13) of them were found to be infected with L. tropica , while one patient was infected with L. infantum. Two of the lesions were wet type and 11 of them were dry type lesions. Several papers were published recently about leishmaniasis in Turkey but to best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting refugee leishmaniasis in İstanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin (1924-2018), a renowned Turkish orientalist and historian of science, was the founder and long-term director of the Institute of the History of the Arab-Islamic Sciences at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany since 1982. With respect to medical sciences, he outlined the historical development of medical literature in Islamic civilizations by introducing the works and contributions of many medical authors of the Islamic Golden Age. Among them, the third (1970) and fourth (1971) volumes of his voluminous work Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (History of Arabic Writings), a systematically organized bio-bibliographical reference on the history of science and technology in the Islamic world, are of particular importance. He also established Frankfurt's (1983) and Istanbul's (2008) Museum for the History of Science and Technology in Islam, bringing together nearly 800 ingenious replicas of historical scientific instruments and medical tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the process of taking action to mitigate damage and prepare for an earthquake at the individual level. Its specific aim was to identify the factors that promote or inhibit individuals in this process. The study was conducted in Istanbul, Turkey—where an earthquake is expected soon—in May and June 2006 using qualitative methods. Within our conceptual framework, three different patterns emerged among the study subjects. Outcome expectancy, helplessness, a low socioeconomic level, a culture of negligence, a lack of trust, onset time/poor predictability, and normalisation bias inhibit individuals in this process, while location, direct personal experience, a higher education level, and social interaction promote them. Drawing on these findings, the paper details key points for better disaster communication, including whom to mobilise to reach target populations, such as individuals with direct earthquake experience and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Ara Güler's photographs of Istanbul, this paper explores the relationship between nostalgia and photography in the city. Most of Güler's best known photographs were taken in the 1950s and 1960s while he was working as a photojournalist for the print press. The re-coding of a selection of his black and white images since the 1990s as art photography and in the pursuit of recalling 'Old Istanbul' as a cosmopolitan city presents a revealing case. Güler's recruitment as a photojournalist in the 1950s was a result of the expansion and modernisation of the city's print press, which itself was a response to dramatic transformations in the city, such as massive rural-to-urban migration and urban renewal and expansion. Güler's pictures from this era are typically of the urban poor and working classes. Focusing on two journalistic narratives co-produced by Güler - one in 1959 for the illustrated journal Hayat, and the other in 1969 for the daily Akşam - this paper asks why and how only images from the latter circulate today. It argues that contemporary urban discourses influence how we interpret these old photographs now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of two types of Turkish early childhood education programs: private and public preschools.1 Three public and three private preschools in a district of Istanbul were randomly selected. The quality of preschools was assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale developed by Harms et al. The preschools were visited by the researcher and were observed for a nine-hour school day. Observations indicate that activities such as daily routines, parent-teacher interactions, personal and professional needs are more appropriately handled by private preschool teachers than public preschool teachers. Shortcomings exist in both types of preschools in their physical class arrangements, authoritarian teacher child interactions, poor teacher-student ratio, and emphasis on structured and paper-pencil activities. Results suggest the need for Turkish preschool programs to be more child and family centered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the strategic planning-performance relationship by drawing on data from a sample of Turkish firms. Design/methodology/approach — The sample frame for the study was derived from the database of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry's 500 largest Turkish manufacturing companies and the database of companies quoted on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Based on a postal survey, 135 usable questionnaires were returned. Using LISREL causal modeling the moderating effects of a set of contingency factors on the relationship between formal strategic planning and firm performance were investigated. Findings — The findings show that there is a good deal of support for the study's hypotheses. A strong and positive relationship was formed between formal strategic planning and firm performance, which tends to confirm the arguments of the prescriptive strategic management literature. The test results also verify the moderating roles of environmental turbulence, organization structure and firm size on the strategic planning-performance link. Research limitations/implications — Strategic planning and its key dimensions represent a subtle and complex activity, and that to obtain rich data on such phenomena may be best accomplished through research methods that employ qualitative data gathering techniques. Incorporation of qualitative performance measures, in addition to financial measures would enrich our understanding of the planning-performance relationship. Practical implications — After almost a decade of relative neglect perhaps this research issue will again begin to attract the kind of attention that it deserves. Although strategy is often considered to be a universal practice, it is better thought of as many different crafts, varying according to its different contexts. So, the impact of various contexts on the planning-performance relationship should be taken into account. Originality/value — Prior studies that have examined strategic planning-performance relationship have tended to focus on firms from industrialized countries. This is one of the first studies that has explicitly modeled and empirically tested the relationship in an emerging country context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the consumption culture of individuals, the economic problems experienced and the increase in environmental awareness cause significant increases in the sales of refurbished products, especially technological devices. While the growth of the refurbished product market contributes to consumers having these products at more economical prices, it also contributes to the reduction of the production costs of the enterprises and, from an environmental point of view, to the prevention of possible waste and damages that may arise during the production of new products. Therefore, it would not be wrong to argue that the sales of refurbished products will increase gradually and to predict that the refurbished product market will grow by diversifying. The present study investigates the effect of perceived risk dimensions of young consumers living in Turkey on their intention to purchase refurbished products. The reason why the Z generation was chosen in the study is to learn the buying habits of new or renewed products in technological products and to examine their attitudes towards refurbished products as a generation born and grown up in technology. Another reason for the selection of the Z generation in the research is that the Z generation, which constitutes an important part of society in Turkey, directs technological trends. It is thought that the findings of the research will make significant contributions to the marketing decisions of the companies producing technology for the Z generation, lawmakers and researchers. The research was carried out between January and March 2022 with 415 participants living in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, determined by the convenience sampling method. In this research, regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The research was carried out with 415 participants. As a result of the research, it was determined that social risk has a low positive and significant effect on the effect of perceived risk dimensions of Generation Z consumers on the purchase intention of the refurbished product, performance risk has a low negative significant effect, psychological risk has a good positive and significant effect, time risk has a low positive significant effect, and physical risk has a low negative and significant effect. These results show that the psychological risk perception of Z generation consumers is important in their renewed product preferences. For this reason, companies should be careful to offer products that meet the expectations of consumers for refurbished products and not disappoint Z generation consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This extract from two interviews that took place in 2021 and 2023 with Nevhiz Tanyeli at her home in Şişli, İstanbul centers on a dialogue over her paintings, the possible interpretations of which the interviewers had discussed beforehand, informed by Bülent Küçük's research on remembrances of Turkey during the events of 1968. Tanyeli offered both tea and counterinterpretations in her unique and witty style, with the interviewers both taken aback and learning something new. Her stories' poetic sensibilities weave the violent historicity of witnessed events with personal memories of the living and the dead. Her paintings constitute a diary that combines the personal with the political, the dreamlike with the factual, and the associative with the nightmarish and repetitive real of the past. Her paintings, while they belong to certain dates, characters, and places, thus remain open for others' imaginations to interpret. As a living participant and witness of '68, her creative will yet speaks to us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of encounter has long been central to a cosmopolitan ethos in which coming together in urban public space is expected to yield tolerance and pluralism. More recently scholars have reworked this concept to account for not only what is potentially transformative in encounters but also how encounters are conditioned by and productive of relations of power and inequality. Our study contributes to this reworking, and to feminist critiques of space and politics, by centring the spatiality of encounter in the entanglement of neighbours. Drawing on our focus group research (2013–2016) with Alevis and Sunnis in Istanbul and Malatya, we argue that difficult questions of difference, responsibility, and power come to the fore in neighbour relations. While our study underlines how Sunni supremacism and Alevi precarity are constituted in the everyday lives of neighbours, we also find that there is a transformational potential in these encounters that is not fully (re)absorbed into structures of Alevi–Sunni difference. We argue that, across the blurry boundaries of home and neighbourhood spaces, the unbidden intimacies of living in proximity (the drift of smells and sounds, the lines of sight that connect balconies and windows, the presence of neighbours at the thresholds and in the spaces of each other's homes) mean that encounters between neighbours both fuel and trouble the marking out of what is shared and what is separate, what is tolerable and what crosses a line. Our study thereby advances an understanding of the space of encounter, the making of difference, and the political and ethical significance of this entanglement. Our study advances an understanding of the space of encounter, the making of difference, and the political and ethical significance of this entanglement. Drawing on our focus group research (2013–2016) with Alevis and Sunnis in Istanbul and Malatya, we argue that questions of difference, responsibility, and power come to the fore in encounters between neighbours. While our study underlines how Sunni supremacism and Alevi precarity are constituted in the everyday lives of neighbours, we also find that there is a transformational potential in these encounters that is not fully absorbed into structures of Alevi‐Sunni difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of socio-economic and political events on the control and management of aesthetics by analysing Turkey's urban planning process using Istanbul as the case study. The external events were analysed in Istanbul by exploring the historical patterns of Turkey's urban planning and development history. The urban aesthetics concept, characterized by different periods from the late Ottoman era until today, includes the involvement, development, and continuity of different concepts of aesthetics in the planning process. In this study, the path dependence concept has been used as a methodology, which reveals that critical junctures or major changes have happened by changing economic and political conditions at the national and international levels. Five critical junctures were identified. The findings indicate that path dependence and trajectories revealed different institutional structures without any integrity for aesthetic control under planning regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution has been plaguing Dilovası dwellers for more than two decades, and the proximity of large industrial facilities with residential areas has been associated with a strong prevalence of cancer among residents of the neighborhood, sometimes dubbed as "Cancer Valley" in Turkish Media. Following original ethnographic research conducted in 2021, this study exposes the history of the neighborhood: why people moved there, how did it become one of the largest industrial hubs in Turkey, and what sort of transformation did it undergo over the last decades. Additionally, it examines how Dilovası residents experience and understand their toxic environment and its consequences, and how they relate to political and social action against pollution. This research, grounded in environmental justice literature, shows that, as both economic opportunities and environmental conditions started to degrade simultaneously in the 1990s, the more modest households of Dilovası were unable to leave and accepted to endure the pollution in exchange for the promise to secure an industrial job for them or their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions about students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) often center on finding solutions for the difficulties they face in school. However, there is a lack of emphasis on the self-advocacy experiences of these students. Self-advocacy can empower students with SLD to pursue their interests, understand their rights, and effectively address any violations of those rights. Drawing on self-advocacy, which encompasses four domains (knowledge of self, knowledge of rights, communication, and leadership), this study explores the self-advocacy experiences of students with SLD enrolled in vocational high schools in Istanbul, Turkey. Twelve students (50.0% females; Mage = 15.91 years; SD = 1.08; range = 14–18 years) participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that: (i) the students had limited knowledge of their SLD conditions, characteristics, and rights, despite having some self-awareness; (ii) they emphasized the difficulties and negative aspects when describing themselves and their school experiences; (iii) they were able to communicate their needs and preferences to school staff, but they were not frequently understood or responded to; and (iv) they rarely demonstrated leadership behaviors when advocating for others. These findings suggest that students with SLD may lack self-advocacy skills and are not effectively advocating for themselves and others in vocational high schools in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis aims to highlight the risk created by the chemical tankers by comparing their movements in the Turkish straits. This information is based on actual ship movements from south to north and the return voyage, showing the prominence of chemical tankers passing through the straits between 2010 and 2022 and underlining the importance of the Turkish Straits. Istanbul Bosporus transit passages are being regulated by the Montreux Convention, signed 84 years ago. As per the convention, international shipping provided safe and seaworthy ships, has the right of free passage through the Straits in peacetime. Since the convention has been in force, the volume and frequency of the ships have increased almost tenfold, an interesting correlation on average, there were13 passages in a day in 1938; which increased to 65 by1985 and 115 by 2019. The main reason for this increase is said to be the hydrocarbon reserves of the Caspian Region2 . As the number of passages increased enormously, so did the physical risk to shipping and the environmental and biological risk to local species. In order to minimise any possible risks and provide safer and environmentally friendly traffic, Turkish authorities have had to adopt Maritime Traffic Regulations for the Turkish Straits on 15/08/2019 (VTS – Vessel Traffic System). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]