ABSTRACTS (İngilizce özetler)

The purpose of this paper is to map two critical concepts, namely, liberalism and freedom within Slavoj Žižek’s works. In so doing, the essential characteristics of these two concepts in Žižek’s thought and the problem of through which methodical choices Žižek himself evaluates the concepts mentioned will be discussed. Within the scope of the paper, through an interpretative-textual perspective that is primarily and predominantly based on Žižek’s own works, the interrelatedness between liberalism and freedom will be traced. The central argument of this paper is that Žižek’s critique of liberalism has to do with a perception of life-style mostly characterized through everday life practices and in this sense, for Žižek, the discourse of freedom in circulation refers to an artificial or a pseudo understanding of liberty. This paper also argues that Žižek’s approach to the problem of liberalism and freedom is highly related to his understanding of “the political” and there are some remarkable ambiguities in his critique of liberalism and approach to the concept of freedom.

Keywords: Ideology, the political, liberalism, freedom, totalitarianism, capitalism, globalization

 

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Togetherness of Turkish society is based on multiple factors that are sourced by its political history and keep their reality for today as well. These factors, effective since the establishment process of Turkish Republic, include some facts, events and formations that have bureaucratic, legal and administrative formality and also some developments and practices that have social, economic and mental meanings. However, when analyzed in the context of Arendt’s conceptualizations, it will be seen that each of these factors itself and also their synthesis are characterized by apolitic and anti-politic in Arendtian terms. In this respect, the thesis of the article is that Turkish society, with its official government and its mass, provides its togetherness on the base of apolitics and anti-politics that appear within certain phenomena and mentality as well. Only being a mass that have internalized apolitics and anti-politics, Turkish society keeps its togetherness; it keeps its inactive position.

Keywords: Arendt, apolitics, anti-politics, form of philosophical thinking, truths of the state, lack of judging, lynch polity

 

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The reception of Lukács’ work in academic circles has predominantly been limited to his early writings. This article instead sheds light on his endeavors during the last years of his life to develop a materialist ontology. It does so not only to remind us of this late work, which has been overlooked, or at best underestimated in its importance, but more importantly because his propositions provide an ontological ground for conceptualizing current social phenomena by social science. Lukács presents the labor as the model and the foundational source of ‘social being’ and, consequently, as the totality of all of human history. The first part of the article discusses this approach through the conceptual framework of teleology and causality, which correspond in Lukács’ philosophy to the categories of freedom and necessity. Lukács’ ‘labor model,’ so to speak is not reducible to the narrow sense of material reproduction. Rather, it shows that history is produced by social relations and practices which are relations and practices of labor. His ontological model thus opens up conceptual ground for a non-subject-centered and non-teleological historical perspective. The second part of the article discusses the relation between the new social forms produced and objectified by labor practices in daily life and social scientific practices that produce these forms as analytic objects. The article ends with Lukács’ materialist views on the discipline of sociology springing from his ontological search that is still of contemporary relevance.

Keywords: Lukács, new ontology, labor model, freedom and necessity, new social forms and social scientific practices, discipline of sociology

 

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In this article, the potential role of China in the world as a rising global power is discussed in light of the Chinese Revolution and China’s new status as a main actor. In this framework the discussion emphasizes the “postsocialist” character of China and is constructed upon the assertion that Mao Zedung’s thought constitutes the infrastructure of this concept. The claim that the Revolution is a history of experimentation is put forward and is based on the revolutionary hermeneutics of “contradiction” defined as “universal, particular and irreconcilable” by Mao. On the other hand, in resistance to traditional hierarchies, seemingly insignificant contradictions are not overlooked and they are also ascribed separate dynamics.

However, the definition of the “principle aspect” of contradiction deems practice to be the “principle aspect” of the contradiction between theory and practice and prioritizes economic infrastructure and therefore production and class struggle. At this point it is noted that the conception of the “reform and opening” processes after 1978 within the framework of “development” and the rapid advancement of productive powers created social contradictions. At the same time, the possible “postsocialist” identity of the continuing existence of the faith in “social and political transformation” against “developmentalism,” and the possibility of its being defined as a method to overcome these contradictions is questioned. It is anticipated that such a legitimization can appear in the form of a secular utopianism and through a synthesis of the past and the future China can become a new alternative.

Keywords: Postsocialism, globalization, contradiction, China, Mao, Marxism, sinicization

 

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Urban immigrant neighborhoods and their welfare mechanisms are places where citizenship is constituted in a complex articulation of host country’s policies on immigrant incorporation and immigrant’s strategies to negotiate their identity and maintain their concrete social processes of everyday life. The paradigm constructing immigrant women as a “problem category” and forming welfare policies in this framework is also constitutive in the relationship between state (and also market) and immigrant women. One of the prominent dimensions of this relationship is motherhood. The close relationship between mothers and welfare institutions begin from pregnancy period, proceeding with parental programs for schooling. Considering integration of ethnic/immigrant women, motherhood discourse is an important component of hegemonic agenda in Dutch “multicultural” context. Reinforcing public images, the representations on immigrant mothers reproduce ethnic/racial differences between communities through female body and constitute a discourse reverberated in policy level and institutional structures of Dutch society. This study aims to discuss the contradictions, restrictions and the resources of motherhood in terms of citizenship. Focusing on mothering experiences of Turkish immigrant women in their daily life settings in Amsterdam, I aim to examine how the motherhood discourse related with ethnic and class relations contains the regulation and governance of “different” mothers and how immigrant women negotiate with this discourse in welfare sector. Using methodological suggestions of women’s standpoint theories and based on a fieldwork placing Turkish immigrant mothers’ “experiences” in welfare sector in immigrant neighborhoods, I examine the larger socio-economic and political processes in which their experiences are embedded.

Keywords: Standpoint theory, motherhood/mothering, intersectionality, welfare sector, Turkish immigrant women, the Netherlands, Dutch integration policies

 

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This study focuses on the current environmental conflict over the prospect of gold mining at Mount Ida through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and a survey. The aim of the fieldwork is first to unveil the languages of valuation used by different social actors in supporting or opposing gold mining in the conflict, and second, to identify the factors that determine these languages. Highlighting the languages used in the conflict makes us conclude that the emerging disagreements are difficult to be controlled and solved via solely “technical” measures or bargaining over the amount of “monetary” compensation. The analysis indicates that, in addition to material stakes, values and perceptions also play an important role in the conflict. Therefore, a decision on gold mining at Mount Ida without ensuring the participation of those groups that are affected as well as without taking into account those above-mentioned inequalities and differences is likely to be illegitimate.

Keywords: Environmental conflicts, languages of valuation, gold mining, environmentalism of the poor

 

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By analyzing the Association of the School of Civil Service (Mülkiye) Graduates, this essay focuses on the issue of professional organization of Ottoman-Turkish civil officials in the Second Constitutional Era. The essay tries to discuss how this specific associational experience exposed the paradox between the deep-rooted traditional perception of the civil official as “a servant, representative and also – when needed – savior of the state” and the professional civil official getting organized on behalf of his own profession to promote his professional personal rights within the Ottoman context. The Association’s organic relations and tensions with the Committee of Union and Progress government, as well as the activities of its members, are among the major points that are dealt with. Concerning the perceptions of civil officials and their organizational experience, the essay also attempts to open a discussion about possible breaks and continuities between the Second Constitutional Era and Republican Turkey.

Keywords: Second Constitutional Era, associations, Ottoman civil officials, professional organization of civil officials, The Association of the School of Civil Service (Mülkiye) Graduates, civil officials and politics

 

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The Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations agreed at Lausanne (1923) was a world-historical event as it marked the first forceful removal of minorities under the auspices of an international organization (League of Nations). Despite the predicaments and suffering it inflicted upon the people, the Exchange was attributed a success story for having resolved inter-state conflict and consolidating the nation-state by providing its ethnic-religious homogenization. Since the occurrence of the event, this success paradigm has been incorporated into the academic discourse and political rhetoric and publicly acclaimed especially in the 1930s and 1990s when ethnic nationalism was at its heyday. The present study examines two major texts that fabricated the meta-narrative of the Exchange as a successful undertaking. In light of the recent critical scholarship, it shows that the meta-narrative of the Exchange is unfounded in terms of its facts, assumptions and conclusions.

Keywords: Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations, Lausanne, historiography, Ladas, Pentzopoulos