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Publication Open Access Beyond the Westphalian rainbow: a dissident theory of supranational systems(Taylor _ Francis, 2018) Department of International Relations; Ruacan, İpek Zeynep; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and EconomicsBeyond the Westphalian rainbow: a dissident theory of supranational systems. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article focuses on the work of Adam Watson from the English School of International Relations for two purposes. The first is to highlight the potential it contains for transcending the prejudices imposed upon international relations theory by the anarchy assumption and by the reification of independent statehood. The second and the more specific purpose is to understand the formation of legitimate supranational systems once these prejudices are removed. Watson approaches supranationalism as an extant condition in international society rather than as a deviation from a normal condition of anarchy or independent statehood, and proposes a culturalist and a moralistic framework in which supranational systems can be legitimized. As a case study to determine which framework is more valid, I analysed the convention on the future of Europe and concluded that the moralistic serves better for understanding how the European Union is legitimized. Once juxtaposed with Neo-Weberian historical sociology's insights into the state, Watson's moralistic framework can offer a foundational theory for reconsidering legitimate supranational systems and open up new research agendas in international relations theory.
Publication Metadata only Born in the USA: citizenship acquisition and transnational mothering in Turkey(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2017) Balta, Evren; Department of International Relations; Olcay, Özlem Altan; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 104197This article explores the practice of giving birth in the U.S. for the purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for the newborn children, among upper and upper-middle class mothers who otherwise are permanently located in Turkey. Focusing on their motivations, anxieties and practices, we situate our analysis with respect to discussions of intensive mothering, transnational motherhood and multi-layered meanings of citizenship. We suggest that the motivations women have for traveling to and staying in the U.S. in the later stages of their pregnancy reveal a new terrain of intensive mothering, tied to locally specific perceptions of future unpredictability and restrictions on individual choice. This particular discourse of intensive mothering involves the promotion of individualistic-decision-making and individualized efforts to control macro-processes, and reveals how citizenship acquisition for the children reproduces and disguises inequalities at the transnational level. Yet, this is also an intensely emotional process, not only indicative of the pressures on mothers, but also women's multilayered conflicts of belonging and identity across spaces and scales of citizenship.Publication Metadata only Brand Turkey: liminal identity and its limits(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm, Rahime; Department of International Relations; Rumelili, Bahar; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 51356Since the 2000s, Turkish policymakers and private sector interests have combined representations of Turkey as both Western and Eastern with a branding approach to identity in foreign policy, trade and investment promotion, and cultural sector activities. This article analyses how the commodification of its liminal identity as a dual identity allowed Turkey to invoke different aspects of its identity in the West and the East in ways that catered to both audiences and enabled the pursuit of different political and economic objectives. However, the article also notes how this branding strategy was limited by the national identity debates and dominant geopolitical discourses that continued to situate the West and East as mutually exclusive and binary opposite identity markers. Overall, the case of Turkey underscores the complex relationship between branding, identity, and discourse, which has thus far received scant attention in the literature.Publication Open Access Class and passports: transnational strategies of distinction in Turkey(Sage, 2016) Balta, Evren; Department of International Relations; Olcay, Özlem Altan; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and EconomicsThis article analyses the process whereby members of new classes in Turkey mobilize their resources so that their children receive US citizenship at birth. Following the actors' self-perceptions and motivations, we argue that US citizenship acquisition is a new capital accumulation strategy, aimed to forestall against risks in intergenerational transmission of class privileges. With this article, we aim to contribute to cultural class studies in the following ways: we suggest that the unpredictable nature of classification struggles becomes more evident in contexts where transition to neoliberalism is accompanied by dramatic political shifts. We situate the desire for US citizenship within class anxieties in Turkey, informed by historical meanings attached to the binary of the West' versus the East'. Finally, we break down the boundaries between different country-cases by drawing on citizenship as capital, rather than as a backdrop that actors share. We explain the new ways in which class distinction strategies are transnationalized in the contemporary period.Publication Metadata only From nation-building to globalization: an account of the past and present in recent urban studies in Turkey(Wiley, 2004) N/A; Department of International Relations; İçduygu, Ahmet; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 207882N/APublication Open Access Institutionalizing authoritarian urbanism and the centralization of urban decision-making(Routledge, 2021) Ergenç, Ceren; Department of International Relations; Yüksekkaya, Özge; Department of International Relations; Graduate School of Social Sciences and HumanitiesThe changes in the global neoliberal order leading up to the 2008 financial crisis shaped individual countries' political-administrative transformations. One of the most important trends in politics since then has been the (re)centralization of scalar politics. Urban financialization, which was proposed as a solution for the economic contraction in the post-crisis era, required fast and centralized decision-making without leaving much room for citizen participation and local variation. Turkey is a case in point for this global trend. Amid such rapid urban growth, we identify two parallel processes that weaken the local institutions and localized development in Turkey: the shifting of decision-making powers from municipalities to central state organs, especially with regard to the real estate industry; and the shifting of decision-making powers from the elected members of the city councils to the mayors themselves. We attempt to demonstrate the (re)centralization of urban decision-making process in Turkey by looking at the decisions and the processes within which those decisions were taken at Ankara Metropolitan Municipality City Council between 2014 and 2016. We argue that the rise of neoliberal authoritarianism is reinforced by the centralization of urban decision-making processes.Publication Metadata only Migrants’ uncertainties versus the state’s ınsecurities: transit migration in Turkey(Amsterdam Univ Press, 2014) N/A; Department of International Relations; N/A; İçduygu, Ahmet; Sert, Deniz; Faculty Member; Teaching Faculty; Department of International Relations; Migration Research Program at Koç University (MIReKoç) / Göç Araştırmaları Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (MIReKoç); College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; N/A; 207882; 25879N/APublication Open Access Partisan and apportionment bias in creating a predominant party system(Elsevier, 2019) Department of International Relations; Department of Business Administration; Çarkoğlu, Ali; Aksen, Deniz; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; Department of Business Administration; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 125588; 40308Moving beyond the analytical characteristics of apportionment methods or election systems, this article focuses on their outcomes in practice. We illustrate how apportionment and partisan biases working with a high threshold created an electoral environment conducive to the establishment of a predominant party system. We use the historical example of the Turkish experience. We trace the historical development of disproportionality for the entire multi-party elections for the 1950-2015 period. Focusing on the five most recent elections of this period since 2002, we demonstrate how the biases introduced by the apportionment method in use and the 10% threshold have advantaged the leading Justice and Development Party (Adalet ye Kalkinma Partisi, AKP). Our study suggests that a partisan bias favoring AKP still continues to exist at a lower level even after correcting the apportionment and the threshold biases. We underline how these biases form the foundation for a conservative over-representation and emphasize the path-dependent dynamics that keep challengers to the AKP away from the electoral scene, effectively helping to continue its hegemonic position in the system.Publication Metadata only Political activism between journey and settlement: irregular migrant mobilisation in Morocco(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2016) Department of International Relations; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 238439Research on irregular migrants' political mobilisation focuses particularly on Western countries, conceptualised as final destinations for migrants, and documents how irregular migrants claim rights despite high risks involved. Based on a qualitative research in Morocco, the article explores the conditions under which individual journeys, allegedly to Europe, give rise to political activism by irregular migrants. Thus, it contributes to the literature on irregular migrants' political mobilisation as well as on clandestine journeys. Morocco, identified with "transit migration" at the periphery of the EU, has been subjected to the externalisation of EU migration policies since the early 1990s. Taking a critical approach to the concept of "transit country", the article highlights the implications of the term on migrants' lived experiences of the journey and of settlement, which have encouraged a pro-regularisation movement in Morocco. Facing violent practices, sub-Saharan migrants established informal associations and forged alliances with emerging local and transnational civil society actors. The framing of migrants' demands in relation to the Moroccan democratisation process, African identity, and the Moroccan emigration experience reinforced such alliances and their demands of regularisation. As a partial response to emerging critiques, the Moroccan government announced a new migratory approach and a regularisation campaign implemented throughout 2014. The analysis of migrant mobilisation in Morocco thus provides an important case to trace processes enabling irregular migrants to gain political voice, even in contexts where irregular migration is highly criminalised and stigmatised.Publication Metadata only Rethinking transit migration in Turkey: reality and re-presentation in the creation of a migratory phenomenon(Wiley, 2012) N/A; Department of International Relations; Department of Sociology; İçduygu, Ahmet; Yükseker, Hatice Deniz; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; Department of Sociology; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 207882; N/ADiscussions of transit migration in Europe and its peripheries are not simply descriptions of an existing reality, but to some extent also a part of the process of constructing that reality in such a way that discursive practices enable policy statements to conceptualise and talk about this phenomenon. The main goal of this paper is to explore this process through the politicisation of transit migration in Europe, with a particular focus on Turkey. The essay first documents the irregular and transit migration experience of Turkey in the last thirty years with the help of several data sets. It particularly emphasises that there is a reality of transit migration in Turkey, but that there also exists other forms of irregular labour migration. The paper focuses on transit migration in Europe in the next section. It draws attention to the rather ironic fact that, while most European countries have adopted a range of restrictive control systems against incoming migrant flows, especially in the wake of September 11, their economies have been able to absorb thousands of irregular migrants. An important consequence of the economisation and securitisation of the European international migratory regime has been the politicisation of transit migration, precipitating an obsession with transit migration on the peripheries of the continent. Drawing on the insights from this discussion on politicisation of transit migration, in the following section, the paper examines the way in which transit migration in Turkey has been approached in Europe in the context of the country's accession negotiation process with the European Union