Governing contingencies by proxy: a governmentality approach on social supports in Istanbul under mutual uncertainty

Abstract

Contingencies comprise immediate possibilities and aleatory interactions in the form of calculated responses to mutual uncertainties. While contingencies are critically important to governmental policies, yet they have been rarely considered in social analysis. The aim of this study is to analyze how the Covid-19 pandemic as a crisis has been governed both against and through contingencies by investigating the social support measures initiated by the Turkish government and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM). We gathered empirical data qualitatively from 12 in-depth interviews with the officers of local government and NGOs, supplemented by official documents. We found that contingencies are produced and become residual through configurational interdependencies, such as competition between the central and local government, unemployment, inadequate support, standardization, path dependency, and lack of diversification in need assessment. This study revealed that governmental practices are governed through contingent possibilities and interactions under mutual uncertainty and the politics of crisis management and conflict between local and central authority changed social support mechanisms.