This thesis will examine the transformation in the Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East and evaluate the relevance of &ldquo / soft power&rdquo / term for describing Turkey&rsquo / s new activism in the region. Since the establishment of the Turkish Republic, Turkey has aligned itself with the Western world so that this alignment has been the main determinant of its relations with the non-Western world. The Middle East was not an exception in this process. After decades of remaining aloof from the Middle Eastern affairs, Turkey has followed a new foreign policy towards the region, as part of its new foreign policy vision, since the AK Party coming to power in 2002 and has shown a growing willingness to participate in Middle Eastern affairs. Various arguments are developed by different actors, including the one elaborated in this thesis, to explain the new activism of Turkey in the region.

This thesis analyzes the issue of terrorism regarding the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process. The role of two sides on the ongoing violence and terrorism will be discussed comparatively. Focusing on the Peace Process, the thesis will trace whether terrorist activities had an impact on the collapse of the Peace Process and also will demonstrate how a peace process produced an Israeli state more militarized and a Palestinian society more radicalized and religious than ever before.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the impact of European Employment Strategy (EES) on social partnership at national level. Increasing the participation of trade unions, employer organisations and other social partners in policy formulation and implementation is one of the EES objectives. A comparative study has been conducted on Ireland and Greece in order to analyse to what extent this objective has been achieved through EES, which is an Open Method of Coordination. Historical institutionalism provides the theoretical framework for this thesis. The impact of EES is demonstrated at two levels. First level change indicates change in discourse. Second level shows change in social partners

Standard employment definitions have begun to change with the impact of globalization and new concepts such as part-time work, freelance, on-call work, temporary work, fixed-term labour contracts have started to be demanded in the labour market. These new definitions which were determined in order to keep pace with new competitive market environment paved the way of new trends in various countries. Flexicurity is one of these trends which is mostly favoured in European Union agenda. The purpose of this thesis is to study whether flexicurity is suitable for Turkish labour market or not while analyzing structure of it as well as Turkish labour market legislations with perceptions of social partners on flexicurity, which has been started to be argued with the accession process of Turkey to the European Union. The thesis observes that there is no homogenous system of flexicurity for European welfare states and if Turkey is analyzed in this framework it takes place in the Mediterranean Welfare Systems of flexicurity paradigm. Some policy recommendations necessary to make flexicurity suitable for Turkish labour market are also given in order to contribute to the conclusion part.

The objective of this study is to examine lean production and its effects on general working conditions and occupational health and safety. Lean production is considered either as a humane way of production with positive effects on workers or to have negative consequences for workers&#039 / and their job quality. This study investigates the increasing workload of the workers as a result of the unlimited performance demands of lean production as the first hypothesis. Secondly, there is the question of whether lean production provides a reduction in the number of occupational accidents because of the fact that occupational accidents are seen as waste, thus eliminated at all costs. The last hypothesis which will be assessed is that the number of occupational diseases increases after the implementation of lean production. To that end, a case study was carried out in an automotive plant by a qualitative research method using tools of observation, document analysis, in depth interview and structured interview. As a conclusion, the implementation of lean production in a plant in automotive industry has resulted in the reduction of the occupational accidents and improvement of ergonomic conditions even though the main incentive for these improvements is to reduce the wastes and costs and to increase the profitability and competitiveness. Based on the interviews, workers do not consider that their workload is increased after the implementation of lean production. Besides, workers feel work autonomy and job satisfaction. They also claim that they do not feel job stress in contrast to the literature.

Development and enhancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is following a high level trend promising many opportunities to the economy, environment and society. Utilizing ICTs to enable improvements in the field of energy efficiency is becoming a very hot topic across the globe in this context. In this study both the enabling role of the ICTs for ensuring energy efficiency and the carbon footprint of ICTs considering also the rebound effects was analyzed as a case study for Turkish consumer electronics sector. Desktop research and in depth interviews with representatives of the sector, aimed at assessing current situation and trends in the field, provided a basis for a qualitative analysis. In our assessment main focus was put on the enabling role of ICT in achieving energy efficiency gains and / thus, we intend to explore whether utilization of ICTs can help improving energy efficiency in consumer electronics sector in Turkey. Results of the analysis showed that there is a limited inclusion of ICT directly enabling energy efficiency in the sector. Moreover, there is a lack of awareness on the concept of ICT for energy efficiency concept in the sector. Discussion of the results was followed by policy recommendations for the enabling role of ICTs for achieving energy efficiency targets in Turkey. We argue that, by increasing the awareness on the topics, utilizing the potential strength of R&amp / D capacities of the firms and deployment of links between the sector and global context on the ICT for energy efficiency, ICT can help improving energy efficiency in Turkish consumer electronics sector.

This thesis aims to analyze the gender dynamics in the Alevi belief and the &lsquo / Cem&rsquo / rituals by focusing on the gap and tension between the discourse of equality and practices of the rituals. Within the framework of a theoretical approach which underlines the evolution of monotheistic religions along a patriarchal line of development and the resultant subordination of women particularly in the rituals, the approach and the discourse of the Alevi belief on women is overviewed. In this study, &lsquo / cem&rsquo / ceremonies of the selected Alevi communities in Istanbul and Isparta are analyzed empirically. It is contended that while there are significant differences in terms of gender dynamics and women&rsquo / s position between the observed cems, in general the gender equality principle of the belief is not fully realized. It is contended that the gender issue and women&rsquo / s position vis-a-vis men constitute a major site of the constitution of the Alevi identity in the Turkish society. However, although patriarchal practices and premises have permeated the ritual dynamics of the Alevis, they are also subject to ongoing negotiations, legitimizations and interpretations by male and female actors of the community.

The aim of the current study is to examine the potential parenting factors and mediating mechanisms that lead to ego-depletion within the framework of Self-Determination Theory. Previous research has suggested that whereas behaviourally controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting contributes to the development of autonomous motivation, psychologically controlling parenting leads to introjected motivation for self-regulation. Moreover, recent studies have shown that as compared to introjected regulation, autonomous regulation depletes less ego-resource. Thus, it was expected that parental psychological control positively, but behavioural control negatively, affects ego-depletion via controlled regulation style. In the first study, university students (N = 179) completed three groups of measures assessing parenting behaviours, motivation type of self-regulation, and state self-control capacity. The results of SEM analysis partially supported the proposed mediational model. Whereas both maternal and paternal psychological control indirectly predicted self-control capacity corresponding higher levels of ego depletion via controlled regulation, parental behavioural control did not have direct or indirect effect on self-control capacity. In the second study, the same hypotheses were tested experimentally on a group of participants (N = 91) from the first study by exposing them either an upsetting or a funny video condition that requires emotional control. Results revelaled that perceived high levels of maternal psychological control and low levels of paternal behavioural control make individuals more vulnerable to ego-depletion under emotional control. Furthermore, those with high introjected motivation for emotion-control were relatively resistant to ego-depletion. Findings were discussed considering the practice effect of self-control, implications of diverging parenting behaviours and cultural factors.

The period from 1930 to 1946 constitutes one of the most important episodes of the history of Turkish Republic. It is the period in which the new regime was consolidated through a series of radical secularizing reforms, which aimed at weakening the role of religion in politics and society and confining it to the private sphere. In this period, the Kemalist regime tried to replace an identity based on religion by one based on the Turkish nation. It has generally been argued that the transition to multi-party regime and the subsequent coming to power of the Democratic Party in 1950 constitutes a serious break with the previous period by opening a greater space for religion in society. This thesis will try to study the construction of Turkish national identity through a comparison of the high school textbooks of the 1930 &ndash / 1950 period and 1950 &ndash / 1960 era.

The main purpose of the study was to obtain an estimate of Upon-Release Future Expectations of prisoners, and to examine the associations between these expectations and prisoners&rsquo / psychological problems. In addition, the effect of being parent, and of time left before release on Upon-Release Future Expectations of prisoners and their psychological problems were aimed to be examined. For these purposes, firstly, Upon-Release Future Expectations Scale was developed, and its reliability was investigated. Positive-Negative Affect Scale, Beck Depression Scale, the Trait Form of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Hopelessness Scale were used to test its criterion-related validity. Then, in order to reveal the associations between the variables, two sets of regression analyses were conducted. In the first regression analysis, age, gender, time left before release, parental status (i.e., being a parent or not), and scores of Rosenbaum&rsquo / s Learned Resourcefulness Scale and Basic Personality Traits Inventory were used as independent variables, and revealed factors of Upon-Release Future Expectations (i.e., Future Conditions, Perceived Risks, and Confidence in Coping) were entered as dependent variables. In the second regression analysis, besides the independent variables of the first analysis, factors of Upon-Release Future Expectations were used as independent variables, and depression, trait anxiety, and hopelessness scores were entered as dependent variables. The results did not reveal a main effect for time left before release and parental status. Both the significant associations and the insignificant associations between the dependent and the independent variables were discussed. The study was conducted with 96 female and 84 male prisoners.