What are the social dynamics behind the rise and resilience of today’s authoritarian regimes? This paper seeks to answer this question by focusing on the longest lasting elected autocracy of our era, the AKP (Justice and Development Party) regime in Turkey. Building on the authoritarian neoliberalism literature’s criticism of the scholarship on competitive authoritarianism, I point out the seeds of authoritarianism in the pro-market reforms of the 1980s–2000s. However, both literatures fail to address the popular embrace of authoritarianism. In critical (...) engagement with analyses of fascism, I develop the concept ‘democratic autocracy’: a parliamentarised, individualised, personalistic, and relatively more market-oriented, twenty-first century version of fascism. The democratic autocracy in Turkey organises and mobilises the people through parties, youth and aid associations, paramilitary organisations, and unions. However, both unresolved economic crises and democratic autocracy’s sociopolitical dynamics set limits to its resilience, as well as to the sustainability of its parliamentarism. (shrink)

Bireyleşim, varlıkları bireysel kılan ve onların diğer bireylerden ayrımını sağlayan ilkenin ne olduğunu sorun eder. Birey, güncel bir kavram olmasına rağmen orta çağ filozoflarından bu yana bireysel varlıkların bireyliği anlamında kullanılmış olup bireyleşim, özdeşlik sorunu ile iç içe tartışılmıştır. Bu makalede Aristoteles’in bireyleşim sorununa yaklaşımını incelerken öncellikle genel kabul gören madde teorisini tartışacağız. Maddenin bireyleşim ilkesi olarak savunulması, onun bölünebilirliği ya da özdeşliği ile açıklanabilir. Fakat bölünebilirliğin kendisi bireyleşimi olanaksız kılıyor ve Aristotes’in fikirleri ile çelişki gösteriyor. Maddenin özdeşliği, kendisi yeterince (...) açık olmadığı için bir içeriğe ihtiyaç duyuyor; burada Leibniz’in ayırt edilemezlerin özdeşliği ilkesini tartışmaya dahil ederek bu içeriği maddenin paylaşılamazlığı olarak belirleyeceğiz. Fakat Theseus gemisi örneği üzerinden işaret edeceğimiz oluş sorunu ile karşılaşmaktayız. Diğer taraftan Aristoteles’in bireyleşim ilkesini form olarak görmek, bireysel formları savunmak anlamına geliyor; bireysel formlardan ne kastedildiği açık olmadığı için burada ilinekler üzerinden bireyleşimi sunacağız. Fakat Leibniz ve Aristoteles bu konuda uzlaşması olanaksız görünür ve Aristoteles için ilineklerle bireyleşim kabul edilemez; töze ilişkin olmayan ilineklerle bireyleşim, şeylerin doğası itibariyle bireysel olmadığı anlamına gelir. Ardından konum ile bireyleşim fikrini Aristoteles üzerinden işaret ederek konum anlamında maddenin bireyleşim ilkesi olduğunu savunacağız. Son olarak konum ile bireyleşmenin saltık uzayı gerektirdiğini belirteceğiz ve Leibniz’in ayırt edilemezlerin özdeşliğinin mantıksal olarak geçersiz kılan Black’ın düşünce deneyine değineceğiz. (shrink)

What lies behind the amalgam of liberalism, elitism, anti-capitalism, and fascistic elements in today’s street politics? This essay analyzes this mixture in light of the shifting class locations of middle strata. Intensified business dominance has not only proletarianized some middle strata but has led to a dry life for even the privileged ones. Middle classes are now taking to the streets to reclaim their specialness. Their exact agendas might not be identical throughout the globe, but a kindred spirit of creativity (...) and aestheticized occupation unites disparate geographies of revolt. Liberal and radical analyses of the wave of revolt miss its most significant characteristics, which only a re-theorization of the new petty bourgeoisie can capture. The essay outlines a research agenda that would explore the multiple dimensions of middle-class formation, as well as the post-capitalist trajectories that might result from further politicization. (shrink)

Based on a series of interviews with blue-collar women and their husbands in Istanbul, Turkey, this article examines the negotiation of family work in households in which the wives are major providers. The relationships between provider status, women's expectations, and the actual configuration of family work are complexly mediated by cultural constructions, perception of women as providers, marital dynamics, and extended family relationships. Three different discourses characterize family work. Woman's evaluation of her husband as “responsible” or “irresponsible” informs the construction (...) of the male role in the household. Conflict is heightened when men default on both domestic and economic grounds. This study makes a contribution toward a comparative understanding of negotiation of family work by providing an analysis of how structural conditions and cultural ideology interact to construct a gendered division of family work in the household in the context of continuities and discontinuities in sociocultural patterns. (shrink)

The Islamist movement in Turkey bases its mobilization strategy on transforming everyday practices. Public challenges against the state do not form a central part of its repertoire. New Social Movement theory provides some tools for analyzing such an unconventional strategic choice. However, as Islamist mobilization also seeks to reshape the state in the long run, New Social Movement theory (with its focus on culture and society and its relative neglect of the state) needs to be complemented by more institutional analyses. (...) A hegemonic account of mobilization, which incorporates tools from theories of everyday life and identity-formation, as well as from state-centered approaches, is offered as a way to grasp the complexity of Islamism. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to investigate how different liberal theories can be applied in order to explain and assess honour suicide cases in the Batman area of Turkey. In the first section of the study, the general framework of these theories and their viewpoints regarding gender inequality in a multicultural world will be analyzed. The second section will explain socio-economic facts about Turkey, its Southeastern region and the Batman area. The last section will outline how these theories are (...) inadequate in explaining and solving the Honour-Suicide problem in Batman and why an alternative approach must be taken in order to assess this case. (shrink)

Death is an undeniable fact of life. Whether it is a bad or feared thing is an important discussion that can be brought back to the ancient Greek philosophers. This article is primarily concerned with the discussion on what grounds Epicurus's thesis "death, is nothing to us; since when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist," and to what extent satisfactory results are reached. Later, it tries to investigate how Lucretius, (...) who is regarded as the successor of Epicurus, derives the result of meaningless of fear of death from the symmetrical relationship between prenatal and post-mortem non-existences. Finally, it refers to the modern asymmetric approaches which argue that, contrary to Lucretius's claim, the relationship between these two periods of non-existence is not symmetrical, because there are serious differences between the later birth and the later death of people, given their deprivations. This article argues that death has a mystery that raises the anxiety that comes from the nature of death; however, it defends the idea that it makes a significant contribution to the meaning of life. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to develop a religion-science relationship attitude scale prepared to determine the approaches of the students studying at the faculties of theology/Islamic sciences towards the religion-science relationship. The relationship between religion and science constitutes one of the most important intersection points of religion, science and philosophy. In the modern period, the debates on the questioning of this relationship have reached quite advanced dimensions with the influence of different elements. In recent years, one of the environments (...) in which this situation has intensified in our country is theology/Islamic sciences faculties. Especially for the students of these faculties, it is important to deal with the issue from different dimensions. However, the studies are mainly carried out in the theoretical dimension and it can be said that the quantitative dimensions are inadequate. In this respect, the article is the first example in the field. Ian G. Barbour's quartet typology, which is one of the most comprehensive studies on the religion-science relationship was used as a basis in the formation of the scale questions. Especially conflict, separation and reconciliation approaches in this typology have been decisive. Three different study groups were formed and a total of 594 students studying at Atatürk University Faculty of Theology were studied. In the development of the scale, exploratory sequential pattern model from mixed method research was used and there are four steps. In the first step, the items were written by the researchers and corrections were made by taking the opinions of the field experts. In the second step, an application was made for item analysis; in the third step, an application was made for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and in the fourth and final step, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. According to the findings obtained from the study, a scale consisting of two sub-dimensions called conflict/separation and dialogue/consensus was developed. The reliability of the scale was analyzed with the internal consistency (cronbach alpha) method, and the cronbach alpha values for each sub-dimension were calculated as.90 for the conflict sub-dimension and.77 for the dialogue consensus sub-dimension. These results indicate that each sub-dimension of the scale is reliable. (shrink)

Turkey and many countries, the school has closed, or partially or completely due to covid 19 pandemic. Schools remained closed until a certain time in Turkey. Afterwards, its opening has been postponed until certain dates. In the second half of 2019-2020 and in the first and second half of 2020-2021, students were mostly deprived of face-to-face education. This study, which aims to describe the problems experienced by RE teachers in the learning-teaching process during the epidemic period, was designed according to (...) a case study, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group consists of 8 RE teachers, four of them male and four female. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview form. The data were subjected to content analysis, and NVIVO 12 program was used. RE teachers experienced problems regarding technique, absenteeism, pre-lesson preparation, learning environment, teaching methods, motivation, communication, time and measurement-evaluation. Although these negative situations have occurred, it can be said that teachers are willing to use the gains in distance education with normalization and aim to take learning out of the classroom in this way. It can be suggested to researchers to study the concepts of classroom privacy and digital world ethics within the framework of education. Improving the technology use competencies of RE teachers can also be suggested to the relevant institutions. (shrink)

Şia anlayışında dördüncü imam olarak kabul edilen Ali b. Huseyn Zeynulabidîn’in yazdığı iddia edilen es-Sahifetu’s-Seccadiyye isimli dua konulu eser, Şia âleminde Kur’an-ı Kerîm ve Hz. Ali’ye atf edilen Nehcu’l-Belağa kitabından sonra gelen üçüncü önemli kitaptır. Toplam 54 dua metninden oluşan bu eser, sadece bir dua kitabı olarak ele alınmamış aynı zamanda ahlak, akide, fıkıh, sosyoloji, psikoloji ve edebiyat alanlarına da kaynaklık etmiştir. Eser üzerine onlarca şerh, haşiye, makale, akademik araştırmalar yapılmış ve eser, Türkçe, İngilizce, Farsça, Urduca gibi birçok dile çevrilmiştir. (...) Bu çalışmalar, eser etrafında önemli bir literatür oluşturmuştur. Biz bu çalışmamızda Tabakatu E‘lâmi’ş-Şî‘a, A‘yânu’ş-Şî‘a ve ansiklopedik tarzda yazılmış olan ez-Zerî‘a ilâ Tesânîfi'ş-Şî‘a isimli kaynak eserlerden aynı zamanda Mektebetu’l-Melik Fehd, Mektebetu’l-İskenderiye ve Mektebetu Mısrı’l-‘Âmme gibi yüzbinlerce kitabı içeren kütüphanelerden yararlanarak es-Sahîfetu’s-Seccâdiyye üzerine özellikle Arapça yapılmış çalışmaları incelemeye aldık ve eser etrafında gelişen literatürü tespit etmeyi amaçladık. (shrink)

Okuma etkinliği hem ana dilde hem de yabancı bir dil öğrenmede önemli bir yer tutar. Bireyler okuma aracılığıyla başka görüş, düşünce ve kültürel unsurları öğrenir, onlarla etkileşimde bulunurlar. Bireylerin yabancı dil öğreniminde, yabancı dilde okuma becerilerini geliştirmek amacıyla bazı uygulamalar önerilir. Bunlardan biri, basitleştirilmiş kitaplardır. Bu çalışma, yabancı dil öğreniminde okuma becerisinin arttırılması için yapılan basitleştirilmiş okuma kitaplarının kullanımıyla ilgili önemli unsurları belirtmeyi ve bu tür kitapların kullanımına eleştirel bir bakış sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu çalışma, öncelikle basitleştirilmiş kitapların kullanımını tarihsel açıdan (...) ele almış, faydaları hakkında destekleyici ve karşıt görüşleri derlemiş, son olarak da basitleştirilmiş kitaplardan yapısal örnekler ile dil öğrenimi açısından sorgulama yapmıştır. Basitleştirilmiş kitaplar aracılığıyla, öğrencinin okuma becerisi ve yabancı dil öğrenmesinin gelişmesi düşünülse de, bu tür kitapların yabancı dil öğreniminde kullanımına temkinli bir şekilde yaklaşmak, kitapları seçerken içerik olarak dil edinimi ve kültürel duruş olup olmadığını gözden geçirmek gereklidir. Buna ek olarak, yabancı dil öğreniminde yapısal ve bağlamsal olarak bir kazanım olup olmadığı sorgulanmalıdır. Sonuç olarak, basitleştirilmiş olan edebi eserler yerine orijinallerin ve her seviyeye uygun farklı edebi metin türlerinin yabancı dilde okuma becerisini geliştirmede kullanılması önerilmektedir. (shrink)

Political parties do not merely reflect social divisions, they actively construct them. While this point has been alluded to in the literature, surprisingly little attempt has been made to systematically elaborate the relationship between parties and the social, which tend to be treated as separate domains contained by the disciplinary division of labor between political science and sociology. This article demonstrates the constructive role of parties in forging critical social blocs in three separate cases, India, Turkey, and the United States, (...) offering a critique of the dominant approach to party politics that tends to underplay the autonomous role of parties in explaining the preferences, social cleavages, or epochal socioeconomic transformations of a given community. Our thesis, drawing on the work of Gramsci, Althusser, and Laclau, is that parties perform crucial articulating functions in the creation and reproduction of social cleavages. Our comparative analysis of the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States, Islamic and secularist parties in Turkey, and the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress parties in India will demonstrate how “political articulation” has naturalized class, ethnic, religious, and racial formations as a basis of social division and hegemony. Our conclusion is that the process of articulation must be brought to the center of political sociology, simultaneously encompassing the study of social movements and structural change, which have constituted the orienting poles of the discipline. (shrink)

Civilization, Modernity, and Critique provides the first comprehensive, cutting edge engagement with the work of one of the most foundational figures in civilizational analysis: Johann P. Arnason. In order to do justice to Arnason's seminal and wide-ranging contributions to sociology, social theory and history, it brings together distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical contexts. Through a critical, interdisciplinary dialogue, it offers an enrichment and expansion of the methodological, theoretical, and applicative scope of civilizational analysis, by addressing (...) some of the most complex and pressing problems of contemporary global society. A unique and timely contribution to the ongoing task of advancing the project of a critical theory of society, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in historical sociology, critical theory and civilizational analysis. (shrink)

The first clinical symptoms focused on the presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 have been respiratory failure, however, accumulating evidence also points to its presentation with neuropsychiatric symptoms, the exact mechanisms of which are not well known. By using a computational methodology, we aimed to explain the molecular paths of COVID-19 associated neuropsychiatric symptoms, based on the mimicry of the human protein interactions with SARS-CoV-2 proteins.Methods: Available 11 of the 29 SARS-CoV-2 proteins’ structures have been extracted from Protein Data Bank. HMI-PRED, (...) a recently developed web server for structural PREDiction of protein-protein interactions between host and any microbial species, was used to find the “interface mimicry” through which the microbial proteins hijack host binding surfaces. Classification of the found interactions was conducted using the PANTHER Classification System.Results: Predicted Human-SARS-CoV-2 protein interactions have been extensively compared with the literature. Based on the analysis of the molecular functions, cellular localizations and pathways related to human proteins, SARS-CoV-2 proteins are found to possibly interact with human proteins linked to synaptic vesicle trafficking, endocytosis, axonal transport, neurotransmission, growth factors, mitochondrial and blood-brain barrier elements, in addition to its peripheral interactions with proteins linked to thrombosis, inflammation and metabolic control.Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2-human protein interactions may lead to the development of delirium, psychosis, seizures, encephalitis, stroke, sensory impairments, peripheral nerve diseases, and autoimmune disorders. Our findings are also supported by the previous in vivo and in vitro studies from other viruses. Further in vivo and in vitro studies using the proteins that are pointed here, could pave new targets both for avoiding and reversing neuropsychiatric presentations. (shrink)