This thesis analyzes the role and power of symbols in the identity formation of community members. With regards to different sociological traditions it discusses the concepts of symbol, identity and community in three chapters and makes analyses via employing three specific samples i.e., of dressing, Cross and language mainly from the view point of semiology and symbolic interactionism in the following chapter by integrating the three concepts elaborated separately to indicate and emphasize the role and power of symbols in the identity formation of community members. In the conclusive chapter it presents an overall remark of the whole study by emphasizing the effect and influence of the concepts of symbol, identity and community on each other. The thesis argues that consciously or not everyone convey their messages through the use of symbols. Therefore, from dressing to managed speech and interaction everyone come on the stage fully equipped and loaded with these symbols, which would in the last analysis be definitive in determining the borderlines of this symbolic world within their specific community which is nothing but a pool of symbols.

This dissertation intends to undertake an analysis of one of the most deeply-rooted dichotomies in Turkey&rsquo / s political and cultural history, -the Islamist-Kemalist divide- through a cultural, interdisciplinary and gender-conscious approach. Both the Kemalist and the Islamist identities situate themselves vis-&agrave / -vis the Other, as if they were mutually exclusive entities. However, when and if these formulations are approached as culturally shaped discursive practices, it is also revealed that they operate with and within similarities, continuities and hybridities. Intellectuals on both sides derive their metaphors from a common cultural and rhetorical pool. The cultural analysis of seemingly opposite ideological positions in Turkish political transformation through the gender lens in general and masculinities in particular identifies the various sites of social power that exist in Turkish society today. The study pays particular attention to conceptualizations of masculinity and femininity accompanying Turkey&rsquo / s modernization. The relative newness of the subject matter, the interdisciplinary approach it necessitates, and the recentness of the theoretical literature and methodological applications, as well as the paucity of empirical work in the context of Turkey employing these parameters necessarily draws the limits of this work as well as showing for the multidisciplinary, &ldquo / unorthodox&rdquo / character of the approach. The study contends that such a cultural analysis of Turkish political transformation through the lens of gender in general and masculinities in particular might create a new epistemological terrain, one that goes beyond the current epistemologies mired in ontological dualities.

Before Turkey starts lamentation about her residents&rsquo / poor state of health due to lack of regular physical activity, the fitness facilities should be recognized as means of exercise and recreational activities for all. Yet the lack of studies regarding the status of the health and fitness industry of Turkey such as the credentials of education and certification of the fitness professionals surges the fitness industry into the unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of the health and fitness industry in Turkey. In order to investigate the current status of the health and fitness industry in Turkey, a pilot study was conducted to adopt the &ldquo / Survey of the Health and Fitness Industry&rdquo / developed by Dean Mantia (2000). Participants (N=167) were queried in the areas of business operations, professional development, growth opportunities and consumer influences. Using SPSS frequency counts and percentile rankings were used to analyze and compare responses of the three sub-groups (18 % managers, 62 % instructors, 20 % consumers) that were surveyed. The findings of the study demonstrates that although the industry seems to be in a rapid growth phase, there are problems that would not allow the future success of the industry. The consumers overestimate the credentials of the fitness professionals, and at the same time quickly withdraw if their goals are not met. The industry lacks standardization, and regulations are not adequate to save it from abuse. Although the Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation emerged as the major certification body, it holds less than half (38 %) of the industry, and lacks trust and respect by the fitness professionals due to illegalities. The industry is driven by fad and fashion and the role of the media, and marketing practices seems to be underrated despite their educational value to make the consumers take responsibility of their own health and well being. Future growth of the industry requires investigation of the fitness professionals at all levels and in all provinces of Turkey. In order to develop standardization for the licencing of the health and fitness centers, and certification of the fitness professionals within the industry, it is recommended that the federation should act in a joint effort with the other federations, academia, and the leading international certifying organizations to meet the needs of the fitness industry towards a continuous development and growth.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the structure and the effectiveness of the investment incentive system in Turkey. The theoretical definition and the economic and social targets of incentives, and the direction, problems and the effectiveness of the investment incentive system are investigated. This study finds that the most prominent target of investment incentives is to alleviate the unemployment problem in Turkey. The regional investment incentives seem to be successful in the western part of the country to some extent. The investment incentive system does not seem to be successful in directing the investment to underdeveloped regions of the country. The investment incentive system has no strong effects on directing the sectoral distribution of investments.

This study examines the dominant representations of gecekondu in the mainstream print media and the changes in these representations in a historical context from the end of 1940s, when gecekondu made its first remarkable appearance, to the late &amp / #8216 / 90s&amp / #8217 / . How gecekondu phenomenon, which, in its historical development, has become institutionalized as one of the basic housing supply forms in the cities &amp / #8211 / or &amp / #8216 / gecekondu question&amp / #8217 / as defined in the academic discourse and media &amp / #8211 / is represented and in which contexts it is handled and presented in the print media texts are examined by a textual analysis of the news and articles broadcasted in the mainstream newspapers. The changes in the dominant media representations of gecekondu are illustrated with a documentary approach. The urbanization experience of Turkey is evaluated in terms of the gecekonduzation in order to locate different representations of gecekondu and the turning points in the way of approach of the media to this phenomenon in their historical and social context.

This dissertation analyzes the context and discourse the Kurdish ethno-nationalism have emerged in modern Turkey. In a critical survey of a selected Kurdish nationalist theories, it tries to analyze the historical and contextual trajectory the nationalist discourse have assumed vis-&agrave / -vis Turkish modernity. A particular emphasis is given on how and on what basis Kurdish nationalism has questioned the formation and the sources of the legitimacy of the Turkish state and its role in the making of Turkish modernity. Kurdish nationalism, in doing so, defined and instrumentally utilized ethnicity, along with other aspects of cohesion such as Islam, socialism and traditional tribal solidarity since the 1920s. This study argues that modern Kurdish nationalist movement emerged by divorcing itself from the Turkish left in the 1960s. It proliferated in the 1970s and spiraled down to separatist violence in the 1980s. Violence has dominated and synchronized Kurdish nationalist discourse in the 1990s. It sought for international recognition and independent sovereignty by targeting the legitimacy of the Turkish state. The Kurdish nationalist movement moved along, in discourse and practice, around the issues related to the Turkish state, which has evolved with the changing and diversified context of international rights.

The present thesis intends to determine how the ethno-religious Alevi communities in Turkey survive and what are the main sources and factors helping them to sustain their group borders, especially as from the mid-1980s when these communities had started to reveal their identity clearly. It is important to state that the Kemalist regime was challenged by an obligatory change process on both economic and political grounds after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Because of the rising of political Islam and the Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement, the modernist Kemalist regime and the Jacobin laicism have been subjected to criticism. In this tense period, one of the most important legitimation tools used by the state was the Alevi population, known by its dominant secular, modernist and Kemalist identity. For this reason, it can be proposed that in this era the occurrence of the Alevi identity&amp / #8217 / s revelation might have been supported or guarded by the Kemalist regime or state institutions. But another claim for the Alevi awakening is that the Alevi population had tried to define their identity against and/or parallel to the rising of Kurdish nationalism and the political Islamic movement. In sum, in this thesis I intend to clarify how the Alevi community constructs and/or protects its ethno-religious borders in these circumstances according to ethnicity theories.

This study analyzes the current situation women&rsquo / s NGOs in Ankara in terms of the organizational structure and networks. A total of 28 interviews were realized with active women&rsquo / s NGOs located in Ankara on identification of not only organizational structure such as age, type, focus, target group, ICT infrastructure but also communication and collaboration pattern. Both descriptive analysis and network analysis were performed. The main concern is whether women&rsquo / s NGOs collaborate with each other? Results demonstrate that women&rsquo / s NGOs in Ankara mostly use informal linkages based on friendship but do not work with each other in the same projects or campaign. Main reasons behind reluctance to collaborate with the women&rsquo / s NGOs are loss of autonomy, performing the same activities, lack of trust, and ideological differences.

This thesis will examine the emergence of Albanian national identity. It will analyze this process in two different phases. The first phase includes the period after the League of Prizren until the independence. The second phase starts after the independence. This thesis will try to understand this process by focusing on the intellectual activity of the Albanian intellectuals and mainly on the intellectual thoughts of three Albanian figures: Semsettin Sami, Ismail Kemal, and Fan S. Noli. These intellectuals formulated their ideas on the basis of both the process of modernization and the international context. As such, they enabled the transition from a mere ethnic Albanian identity to an Albanian national identity. The main components of the Albanian national identity analyzed in this thesis are language, territory, and myth.

The aim of the current thesis was to explore the possible link between System Justification Theory (SJT) and Terror Management Theory (TMT) in gender context and from the perspective of intergroup relations in a sample of Turkish university students. Having recently attracted research attention, the relation between the two theories is based on the effect of mortality salience (MS) on the tendency to justify the existing system. Accordingly, three research questions were investigated to see whether (1) ambivalent sexism toward women (hostile and benevolent sexism / HS and BS, respectively) and gender-group favoritism (on both explicit and implicit measures / expGF and impGF, respectively) were related to gender-specific system justification (GSJ), and whether (2) gender and (3) MS moderated the relation of GSJ to ambivalent sexism and gender-group favoritism. Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that (1) GSJ would predict HS, BS, expGF, and impGF, and that these predictions would be stronger (2) among women than among men and (3) when mortality is made salient as compared to when it is not. The hypotheses were tested with 185 participants (86 men, 99 women) who completed a questionnaire package including the demographic information form, GSJ Scale, MS manipulation, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and a scale measuring expGF along with a computer-administered task for impGF. The results revealed that higher levels of GSJ predicted higher levels of benevolent and hostile attitudes toward women as well as higher levels of explicit ingroup favoritism and lower levels of favoritism toward women. Only GSJ &ndash / HS and GSJ &ndash / expGF relationships were moderated by gender. The moderating role of MS was not observed in any of the four relationships. However, GSJ scores were found to be unevenly distributed across MS conditions, thereby, casting doubt on the reliability of the results concerning the moderating role of MS. The findings, as well as the contributions and limitations of the study, were discussed.