This study attempts to understand the relational formation of masculine identites and masculine spaces in the construction and production of masculinities by looking at the notion of &ldquo / bachelor&rdquo / and the socio-spatial reflections of &ldquo / bachelorship&rdquo / , a particular case of manliness in Turkish context, in the case of &ldquo / bachelor rooms&rdquo / in S&uuml / leymaniye district in Emin&ouml / n&uuml / , Istanbul from the perspective of feminist geography. Neighborhoods gendered with bachelor rooms situated near the commercial heart of the big cities as a sociological and historical phenomenon in Turkish urban context have been christalized reflections of segregated heterosexual gender structure of the society being these neighborhoods the performative spaces of masculinities for centuries. This study also tries to relate the bachelor rooms with traditional single male migration from rural to urban. These neighborhoods provide space for the performance of different masculinities and they function for young provincial men as a kind of &ldquo / rite of passage&rdquo / for various kinds of social transitions. The knowledge of migration, of masculinities, and of space related to these transitions is accumulated in the homo-social spaces of the district and constantly recirculated through migrant bachelors among the local traditional masculinities. Masculinities of not only the immigrants from rural, but of urban space, including space bounded masculinities specific to the district have been categorized from the perspective of hegemonic masculinity concept and concluded that the construction of hegemonic type of masculinity with contestations and discourses through performances, representations and the power relations influences the transformation of space and are influenced by these spaces of masculinities.

This thesis analyzes the factors and conduct of the transformation of NATO and its likely effects on the globe. The implications of politics of the US, the EU on global security as well as enlarged threat perception will be investigated as the three main drivers of NATO transformation. The way transformation carried out will be synthesized into political and military areas. Political transformation here will be studied under three fold categorization of functional, geographical and institutional areas. The thesis will conclude with future tendencies of and within NATO.

The main aim in this study is to criticize the prevalent method of approach of the mainstream economics to women&rsquo / s problems. The mainstream approach to women&rsquo / s problems is to emphasize exclusively the significance of education, and participation in work-force, and which defines issues of equality/inequality in terms of economic advantages and externalities. Ensuring gender equality has historically never been the mainspring agenda of governments / and the problems of women have mainly been considered in terms of bringing women into the public sphere. This document examines the situation of women in the Turkish labor market, to see to what extent education helps women exceed their roles of the conventional sexual division of labor in the labor market. The limits of the effect of higher educational degree on the improvement of women&rsquo / s position within the market mechanism are discussed. We found that despite its importance, education on its own is inadequate to secure gender equality in both private and public sphere.

This thesis analyzes how gender and sexual identities are discursively constructed through Churchill&rsquo / s Cloud Nine, Kureishi&rsquo / s My Beautiful Laundrette and Stoppard&rsquo / s The Invention of Love / it traces how the dominant discourse reduces the riddle of human sexuality to the binary frame / it also discusses that the bi-polar organization of sexuality does not suppress, but reproduces sexual dissidence. A male-female pair is envisaged by the prevailing discourse / Butler&rsquo / s ideas of performativity and drag performance will be employed to indicate that gender and sexuality are not inborn, but culturally and historically determined, and to explore how deviant sexualities undermine the double columns of the masculine and the feminine, the homosexual and the heterosexual. An investigation into the homosexual/heterosexual split will demonstrate how power shifts between the points of the binary frame rather than being monopolized by the dominant discourse. The regulating discourse polarizes homosexuality and heterosexuality / it deploys the binary frame to overvalue the heterosexual and to disparage the homosexual / the established order seeks to fortify its authority through the binary thought. Yet, the binary logic is internally unstable / binary oppositions constantly threaten to collapse and fuse into one another / therefore, due to the inherent indeterminacy of the binary logic, homosexuality is not annihilated, but rejuvenated by heterosexuality / thus, power flows among the dominant and counter discourses. Queer theory, drawing on post-structuralism, subverts the binary frame, and glorifies the proliferation of sexual identities and practices beyond the dualistic understanding.

This dissertation examines the gendered discourses in the novels of the writers of different sexes/genders, Robert Heinlein&rsquo / s Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula Le Guin&rsquo / s The Left Hand of Darkness, Joanna Russ&rsquo / The Female Man and Samuel Delany`s Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia. This study investigates how writers linguistically construct their characters as gendered/sexed beings as an effect of certain identity politics, ideologies and power structures. In order to do so, critical discourse analysis is applied to the passages chosen from different parts of the novels under consideration. Moreover, Butler&rsquo / s performativity theory of gender and Foucault&rsquo / s theory of discourse/power/knowledge and his conceptualization of subjectivity are employed in the discursive analyses of the novels. The argument of the study is that there is a close relationship between discourse, ideology and the constitution/representation of gender/sex as contingent on a particular socio-cultural and historical context. This study is based on Butler`s assertion that gender is a doing, a performance, and it is a cultural and ideological construct. Thus, the study shows that writers&rsquo / linguistic choices for the constructions and descriptions of their characters are not ideologically or politically innocent but imbued with socio-cultural and ideological meanings.

This thesis aims at discussing the nature of relations between Russia and China and the Northeast Asian security during the post-Soviet era. The research question is whether Russia and Northeast Asian countries still pursue ideological policies after post-Cold War era. In this respect, the thesis argues that these countries act pragmatically instead of ideologically in the post-Cold War era. This has resulted in a rapprochement between communist China and post-Soviet Russia in the post-Soviet era. Moreover, ideological differences among any regional states do not constitute the basis of regional conflicts. It is rather North Korea&rsquo / s nuclear program that has become the main regional security threat. The thesis is composed of six chapters. After the introductionary chapter, the second chapter examines Russian-Chinese bilateral relations. The following three chapters discuss Russian-Chinese relations concerning the roles of Japan, South Korea and North Korea respectively in the Northeast Asian security. The last chapter is the conclusion.

Starting with the 1970s, cities have found themselves in a trouble which is caused by economic changes, technological improvements and local-global power shifts. Under the impact of these changes, cities have started to act as independent units and try to get a higher their position in the hierarchical system of the globalised world. Therefore, competition started between cities other than states and entreprenurial strategies are developed by local governments and actors for sustaing local economic development. One of the most popular place marketing strategies, mega-events such as EXPO, Olympic Games are considered as a valuable instrument to promote a region as a tourist destination, business location, and an attractive place to live and work. This study investigates an understanding of how to use a mega event as a tool in the place marketing strategy and building up entrepreneurial governance by examining the stakeholder organization of Izmir EXPO 2015 candidacy period. The research analyzes the approaches of different stakeholders of Izmir to EXPO opportunity and the impact of bidding on the stakeholder organization of Izmir. The most important conclusion of the study is that collaborative study of stakeholders can help to build up the entrprenurial city even if the city does not host a mega event.

This study aimed to investigate the differences in parenting stress, coping ways, and family functioning variables of families with a preschool-aged child with autism from Turkey and from the United States (U.S.) and to find out how the factors of parenting stress, coping ways, and social support predict the adaptability of the families in terms of cohesion and flexibility in families of children with autism from Turkey and from the U.S. For this study, only the mothers of a child with autism aged between two and seven years old are included from both cultures. Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA) were conducted for comparing the mothers from both cultures in terms of parentig stress, coping ways, and family functioning variables. According to these analyses, while mothers did not diffenentiate for parenting stress variable, both groups of mothers were found to use different coping ways and to show different family functioning characteristics. Turkish mothers were found to use more problem-focused coping ways than their American counterparts. Moreover, mothers from Turkey were found to report higher flexibility and enmeshment than mothers from the U.S. In order to find out the predictors of family cohesion and flexibility, series of Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted for both groups of mothers separately. These analyses revealed different predictors of family cohesion and flexibility for mothers of children with autism from Turkey and from the U.S. The differences in group comparison and regression analyses were discussed in accordance with the relevant literature.

Present study investigated the role of gender, age, perceived level of impairment, income, social activity level, and perceived social support from family, friend, and significant other in predicting total, family, friend, self, school, and living environment related life satisfaction of visually impaired Turkish adolescents. Participants were consisted of 138 volunteered visually impaired adolescents resides in Ankara. Age of the participants ranged between 11 and 22 with the mean of 14.38 (SD = 2.17). Data was collected via Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, &amp / Farley, 1988) and Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994). Six seperate Multiple Regression Analyses were employed to examine the data. Results of the study indicated that age and perceived family support significantly predicted total life satisfaction of participants. Self related life satisfaction of participants was predicted significantly by perceived level of impairment and income. Friend related life satisfaction was predicted significantly by perceived social support from friend. Family related life satisfaction was predicted by perceived family support and age of the participants. Results of the study are discussed in light of the relevant literature and implications of the results are mentioned. Finally, suggestions for future research are presented.

The history of natural gas in Turkey started in 1970s by the usage of domestic gas in cement factories. However, natural gas began penetrating the energy market in 1980s with the usage of natural gas in Ankara. In the following years, the number of cities using natural gas reached six. Then, a new era started with the enactment of Natural Gas Market Law in 2001 and 53 distribution tenders have been realized by Energy Market Regulatory Authority until 2009. This thesis analyzes the performance of 38 Turkish natural gas distribution companies by using a non-parametric method, Data Envelopment Analysis. The results are used to determine the most proper model specification, to detect the important criteria affecting the efficiency levels and to find the common characteristics of the most inefficient firms. The results show that public firms compared to private firms, non-tender firms compared to tender firms, large firms compared to small firms and firms operating in more developed areas compared to firms operating in underdeveloped areas utilize resources and manage costs more efficiently. However, we can not get a certain conclusion about the comparison of old firms and new firms. Lastly, we try to detect the common characteristics of the most inefficient firms and find that the major problem is low delivery amount.