Organizational Unit: Humanities and Social Sciences
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ArticlePublication Metadata only Militant minority at work: a successful case of unionisation of garment workers in Istanbul(Taylor & Francis, 2023-01-02) Birelma, Alpkan; Humanities and Social Sciences; BİRELMA, AlpkanThis article explores a successful unionisation struggle among garment workers in Istanbul. In the last four decades, Turkey has become a global showcase of authoritarian anti-labour neoliberalism and one of the world’s top garment and textile exporters. The latter has come at the cost of worker exploitation and precarity. Such conditions led a group of knitting workers to unionise at the beginning of the 2010s. After five years of struggle, they signed a collective bargaining agreement covering nearly 400 workers. This very rare success rested on two key factors: the efforts of a militant minority and transnational labour solidarity.ArticlePublication Metadata only Cultivating membership abroad: Analyzing German pre-integration courses for Turkish marriage migrants(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan BethAddressing research on migration governance, this article examines German pre-integration courses offered to Turkish marriage migrants in Istanbul. The courses were implemented in response to growing concern about the perceived poor integration of Muslim migrants and a high number of forced marriages. I argue that these courses are a micro form of biopolitical governance. Specifically, they are an attempt to generate internalized ways of being and knowing that are desired by the state, which I call 'membership cultivation.' As such, the courses are not precisely aimed at restricting migration as in other pre-integration measures, nor are they mainly reinforcing symbolic boundaries and teaching liberalism as in post-migration German civic integration courses. Rather, the courses attempt to re-make migrants with regards to morality, culture and gender. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, this research examines the disciplinary mechanisms targeting migrants' transformation to enhance our understanding of the biopolitics of pre-integration governance.ArticlePublication Metadata only Embracing vulnerability in writing migrant lives(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Sayer, R.; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan BethIn this paper, an anthropologist and a life writer examine the implications of an ethical and political practice of vulnerability with regards to writing migrant lives. Drawing on research with migrants in Turkey and Australia, we argue that it is useful to use vulnerable methodologies, vulnerable relationships and vulnerable writing.ArticlePublication Metadata only Legal pluralism and the Shari'a: a comparison of Greece and Turkey(Wiley, 2014-08) Turner, B. S.; Arslan, Berna Zengin; Humanities and Social Sciences; ARSLAN, BernaThe creation of a national and unified legal system was an important aspect of the rise of the modern state and national citizenship. However, this interpretation of legal rationalization has been challenged by sociologists of law such as Eugene Ehrlich (1862–1922) who claimed that this juridical theory of state-centred law masked the presence of customary laws outside this formal system. In critical theories of the law, legal pluralism is proposed against the idea of legal sovereignty or legal centralism. In this article we explore the implications of the growth of the Shari'a as an example of legal pluralism. We take Turkey and Greece as two interesting but different examples of legal pluralism and consider the implications of these case studies for debates about liberalism, multiculturalism and citizenship in multi-faith societies.ArticlePublication Metadata only From competitive to multidirectional memory: a literary tool for comparison(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Günay-Erkol, Çimen; Sert, Deniz Şenol; International Relations; Humanities and Social Sciences; ERKOL, Çimen Günay; SERT, DenizRecent research shows that Turkish society is very polarized and that different identities and ideological perspectives are in constant struggle with each other. In a multicultural society such as Turkey’s, the question of how to think about the relationship between different social groups’ histories of victimization becomes crucial. Following Michael Rothberg’s conceptualization of multi-directional memory – beyond competitive memory, this article presents an archive for comparative work through a data set of novels on the military coups in Turkey. The major argument here is that while these novels are promoting the idea of competitive memory as a zero-sum game, if it is looked at more closely, there are traces of multi-directionality, of ongoing negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing. Doing so, it is argued, would help to reframe justice in the society, where different victimizations are not competing with each other, but start to talk to each other. This article is an attempt to create a literary tool of comparison on different stories of victimization as a first step towards transitional justice in a polarized society.ArticlePublication Metadata only Gender of trauma in İstanbul İstanbul(Taylor & Francis, 2020-09-01) Günay-Erkol, Çimen; Humanities and Social Sciences; ERKOL, Çimen GünayBurhan Sönmez’s İstanbul İstanbul (2016) is a powerful addition to contemporary prison novels in Turkey. The novel revolves around prisoners who experience systematic torture and are unable to escape the grim destruction that surrounds them. The discussions in the novel around Islamic faith, free will, solitude and captivity produce self-reflexive stories of memory and forgetting, in which gender also comes to the fore as an important center of gravity. In this grand scheme of brutality and torture, the only female prisoner, Zinê Sevda, is limited to sign language, and she facilitates men’s transformative recognition of their trauma through her ghostly presence. In this article, I explore how Zinê Sevda’s silent witnessing transforms men into overseers of themselves and comment on the implications of her sign language. I argue Sönmez’s play with traumatic memory and its resilience is an excellent metaphor for the recurrence of military tutelage in Turkey.ArticlePublication Open Access When local class unionism meets international solidarity: A case of union revitalisation in Turkey(McMaster University, 2018) Birelma, Alpkan; Humanities and Social Sciences; BİRELMA, AlpkanThe article concerns the recent transformation and ensuing successes of a Turkish trade union of road transport workers called Tum Tasima Iscileri Sendikasi (TUMTIS). In the mid-2000s, TUMTIS was mainly organised in small-sized freight companies having around 1 500 members with collective contracts. The strategic choice of a new leadership to concentrate on a large-scale, international firm with the support of Global Unions was the turning point. The ensuing United Parcel Service campaign ended with a collective agreement for nearly 2 700 new members in 2011. The union won its second large-scale organising victory at DHL in 2014. At the time of writing, a third large-scale firm is on the verge of recognition. To scrutinise this case, I use the power resources approach in a critical way. To the approach, I add an examination of the subjectivities of union leaders by drawing on the debates about different types of unionisms, importance of the ideology and motivations. I argue that the agency behind this revitalisation can be only explained by taking both its objectivities and subjectivities into account. While the class unionism embraced by TUMTIS leaders explains the subjective side of the story, associational power from below and its meeting with international solidarity play the key role on the objective side.ArticlePublication Restricted Ayfer Tunç'un modernizmle derdi: faillik ve iktidar(Celal Bayar Üniversitesi, 2017) Günay-Erkol, Çimen; Humanities and Social Sciences; ERKOL, Çimen GünayTürk edebiyatının önde gelen çağdaş yazarlarından biri olan Ayfer Tunç, romanlarında modernizmin açmazlarına vurgu yapmakta ve modernleşen dünyada, toplumdan ve doğadan yabancılaşan insanların çelişkilerine yer vermektedir. Tunç’un edebiyatında, “özgürlük”, “karar alabilme” ve “doğruyu arama” gibi temalar, modernizme ilişkin çeşitli toplumsal ve siyasal sorunlarla birleşerek genişler ve etkinleşir. Kamusal alan, bir ortak dünya yaratma eylemi olarak bu temalar çerçevesinde değerlendirilir. Tunç’un modernizmle hesaplaşma çabası, tıpkı 20. yüzyılın en önemli düşünürlerinden biri olan ve kitle siyaseti üzerine çalışan Hannah Arendt’inki gibi, “faillik”, “iktidar”, “kamusal alan”, “kötülük”, “şiddet” gibi kavramların gözden geçirilmesini de gerektirmektedir. Bu makalede, Tunç ve Arendt bir araya getirilmekte ve modernizmin bazı çıkmazlarını nasıl tartışmaya açtıkları ele alınmaktadır. Arendt’in ünlü “kötüğün sıradanlığı” kavramlaştırması, modernizme getirilen önemli bir eleştiri olarak tarihteki yerini almıştır. Tunç’un 2014’te yayımlanan romanı Dünya Ağrısı, Arendt’in altını çizdiği “kötülüğün sıradanlığı”nı gözler önüne sererken, yazarın 2009’da yayımlanan romanı Bir Deliler Evinin Yalan Yanlış Anlatılan Kısa Tarihi, bu kavramın önüne bir de “deliliğin sıradanlığı”nı eklemektedir. Bu makalede, Tunç’un iki romanından yola çıkılarak, yazarın modernizmde sezdiği ve kendine has bir üslupla edebiyata dönüştürdüğü çıkmazlara yer verilmiş ve bu çıkmazlar Arendt’in kuramsal tartışmaları ışığında ele alınmıştır.ArticlePublication Metadata only Working-class entrepreneurialism: Perceptions, aspirations, and experiences of petty entrepreneurship among male manual workers in Turkey(Cambridge University Press, 2019-11) Birelma, Alpkan; Humanities and Social Sciences; BİRELMA, AlpkanThis article examines working-class entrepreneurialism in Turkey from a comparative perspective. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, the article focuses on the perceptions, aspirations, and entrepreneurial attempts of manual workers employed in formal jobs. It aims to contribute to the understudied literature on working-class entrepreneurialism, which is often overlooked or underestimated by the critical research on labor and the working class. First, the article demonstrates that the level of entrepreneurialism among manual workers is rather high. Alongside revealing the popularity of aspirations for self-employment and the working-class roots of many self-employed individuals, I present an ethnographic account of five workers' transition from wage work to self-employment. Second, the article finds that a colloquial phrase, "el isi" or "a stranger's business," is widely used to refer to wage work. I argue that this phrase perfectly manifests the popular resentment felt toward wage labor in a social milieu where self-employment seems accessible. Finally, by drawing on a review of a scattered set of studies, I claim that entrepreneurialism among working-class men seems to be quite common, especially in peripheral countries.ArticlePublication Metadata only Citizenship ethics: German-Turkish return migrants, belonging, and justice(Sage, 2018-08-01) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan BethThis article examines citizenship for German-Turkish return migrants attending monthly meetings of the Rückkehrer Stammtisch (Returner’s Meetings) in Istanbul. Meeting attendees call themselves “world citizens” and remain deeply concerned about disrespect and inequality they experience as ethnic minorities in Germany and as citizens in Turkey. Drawing on the anthropology of ethics, this research demonstrates the importance of ethical relationships for understanding these migrants’ experience of citizenship. Moving beyond work that views citizenship primarily in terms of state power and legal disciplining, this research demonstrates that citizenship for these migrants is focused heavily on an ethics of care and responsibility developed in the course of personal interactions with fellow citizens. This article also adds ethnographic specificity to the concepts of belonging and justice. It analyzes how ethical relationships established among meeting attendees confer feelings of comfort, intimacy, and a sense of shared humanity that structure migrants’ inclusion in national spaces.