This dissertation compares nation-building practices of post-Soviet Uzbekistan and post-Ottoman Turkey. In both cases the legitimacy principle of collapsed imperial polities which was largely based on universal ideologies or on the dynastic and religious principles, had to be replaced by the nationality principle. The politics of nation-building thus served first and foremost to reinstitute the legitimacy. The dissertation analyzes three aspects of nation-building / ideology, history and language. The general argument in the dissertation is that the policies of nation-building are among the ingredients of constructing a novel legitimation base for the elites. For this purpose Uzbekistan and Turkey constituted perfect cases to analyze the nation-building practices such as rewriting histories, creating and molding languages, religious policies in order to clarify the relationship between the nation-building and the construction of an overall legitimation principle. Secondly Uzbekistan in 1920s and 1920s and then after 1991, Turkey in the first fifteen years after the declaration of the republic used nation-building policies primarily to satisfy the political needs of the ruling elites.

The overall purpose of this thesis can be put as the search for the prospects of the establishment of a renewable energy paradigm in a conventional example of an oil-rich state. The sample actor of the oil paradigm is chosen as the United Arab Emirates, as it represents the overall character of the Arab Gulf region, as well as being an appropriate example of what is termed as the &lsquo / rentier state&rsquo / . Within this framework, firstly it is aimed to shed light on the negative impacts of the oil paradigm in terms of economic problems, social imbalances, and environmental consequences. Secondly, it is sought to answer the question of what has been done for the incorporation of a renewable energy policies into various aspects of Emirati governance, ever since the country&rsquo / s independence in 1971. Thirdly, the causal relationship between the country&rsquo / s renewable energy policies and certain positive outcomes will be highlighted. This thesis would be informative to show whether United Arab Emirates could be a model for other rentier states of the region and beyond, towards the embracing of renewable energy paradigm in the face of depleting oil resources.

The main purpose of this study is to explore individual and organizational level factors which influence the formation of knowledge and technology transfer links between universities and firms. To this end, three sets of data are collected and analyzed. The first one includes bibliometric data of nanotechnology publications, which are authored by scientists affiliated with Turkish universities. The second one is collected through a questionnaire survey from university-scientists dealing with nanoscale research. The third one is from firms doing nanotechnology R&amp / D through in-depth interviews with high level managers. The analysis of bibliometric data provides an insight to the main actors and characteristics of the nanoscale research in Turkey. This data is also used to identify the population of nano-scientists at Turkish universities. From May 2010 to May 2011, 181 questionnaires were collected from targeted nano-scientists / and 21 firms were interviewed. The collected data was used to investigate the impact of individual and organizational level factors on the proclivity of nanoscientists to engage in knowledge and technology transfer to industry by estimating binary probit models. The results suggest that nano-scientists with relations to industry are those who (i) have high number of patents/patent applications / (ii) do more applied research / (iii) have access to public funds (iv) are well connected to Turkish NST academia / (v) are working in universities which are not the most active ones in nanoscale research / but have nano-equipped laboratories / and support nano-scientists in their relations with industry / and finally (vi) are motivated by commercialization of their research outcomes. On the other hand, qualitative analysis of our data collected through in-depth interviews conducted with firms suggests that social capital and human capital of firms&rsquo / nanotechnology professionals play the key role in knowledge and technology transfer from universities. However, absorptive capacity and business culture are the most important firm level factors which influence university-industry relations. Finally, in the last section of this thesis we discuss some managerial and science, technology and innovation policy implications of the research.

The transformation of urban space is determined by the social and economic relations in every mode of production. Under the condition of capitalist accumulation, the transformation of squatter areas is a significant debate. Therefore, the transformation of squatter areas should be analyzed in respect to the rent and the rent distribution by considering structure and agency relationship. In order to understand the rent distribution, political interest groups and capitalist power holders should be scrutinized. In other words, this thesis has focused the transformation of squatter areas in the capitalist production relations. Urban space is the most significant field in which the neoliberal policies are embedded. In the squatter areas, various urban transformation processes have realized post 1980. Two basic legal regulations constitute the frame of these transformation models. These are Law Numbered 2981 which entails the improvement plans and the 73th article of Law Numbered 5393 which facilitates the urban renewal projects. The basic motivation of the thesis is to indicate the differences between the development rights given to squatter owners in the transformed areas in accordance with these laws. After the discussion of urban transformation in terms of rent and property concepts, different transformation areas implemented in Ankara-Mamak District are analyzed comparatively. Then, difference of the development rights of squatter owners in urban renewal projects is indicated by considering the transformation process in Ilker Neighborhood.

The success of a Hospital Information System (HIS) is related to the software, its users, and the fit between the system and the hospital&rsquo / s operations. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the Hospital Information System used by a private hospital, and streamline the system to better fit the requirements of the hospital. The modules of the HIS, the processes, the requirements of external parties, the attitudes of users as well as the control mechanisms and the forms are analyzed through observations, interviews and document inspections. The results of the study indicate that only a small proportion of problems are noticed by managers, and inaccuracies occur when users provide inputs to the system. Moreover, the HIS yields additional clerical work. Lack of standardization and partial automation are among the main reasons for inefficiencies. Improvements in the software design are proposed as a means for streamlining the existing system.

The aim of the present study was to investigate both antecedents and follower outcomes of leader group prototypicality as well as followers&rsquo / social identification with the group in two theoretical models guided by the propositions of social identity theory (SIT / Hogg, 1996) of leadership. The first model suggested that specific leadership styles (i.e., paternalistic, relationship-oriented, and task-oriented) predicted perceived leader group prototypicality and followers&rsquo / social identification depending on certain follower characteristics (i.e., cultural orientations and motivational tendencies). In the second model, proximal and distal follower outcomes of leader group prototypicality and the moderating role of follower social identification in these relationships were investigated. The findings revealed that followers&rsquo / individualism orientation moderated the link between task-oriented leadership and leader group prototypicality whereas both collectivism and individualism moderated the relationship between paternalistic v leadership and leader group prototypicality. The effects of task-oriented leadership on followers&rsquo / identification with the work group was enhanced by followers&rsquo / need for affiliation. Leader group prototypicality was positively associated with job satisfaction through its positive effects on personal attraction towards the leader, and followers&rsquo / leadership effectiveness perceptions and trust as well as its negative effects on social attraction and responsibility attributions for negative leader behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications along with suggestions for future research.

This dissertation analyzes the presidencies of Askar Akaev (1991-2005) and Kurmanbek Bakiev (2005-2010) in Kyrgyzstan by looking at the referendums as well as the parliamentary and presidential elections held in this country in the post-Soviet era, with specific emphasis on the legitimacy of these two leaders as perceived by the Kyrgyz people. Based on the field research conducted in Kyrgyzstan, the study aims to shed some light on how the Kyrgyz people perceive issues of democracy, democratic transition, political leadership and political legitimacy in the post-Soviet era. The dissertation further focuses on how and why even the minimal requirements of democracy such as elections and referendums have been used in this country in order to increase executive power, despite the rhetoric of democratization promoted by the political leaders.

This thesis seeks to analyze the role and importance of establishing control over the world&rsquo / s oil resources in reproduction of the global hegemonic position of the US. It is asserted that dominant position of US dollar in global financial system has an important place in reproduction of US world hegemony and ensuring that oil transactions are made through US dollar has played an important role in maintaining the dominant position of dollar. It is also argued that secure access to cheap energy resources is of utmost importance for advanced industrialized nations of the world in terms of maintaining their economic growth. In this respect, this thesis portrays US policies and strategies to take world&rsquo / s energy resources under its control and thereby maintain the dollar hegemony and making the advanced industrialized nations of Western Europe and East Asia dependent on US goodwill for secure access to energy. Being an important actor in global energy market, competition and cooperation between Russia and US is also taken into consideration. In this thesis, it is assumed that the US world hegemony is achieved through both cooperation and competition among advanced industrialized states.

This thesis examines TOBB within the global and national socioeconomic context in which it operates, focusing on the last decade. Though states are the main governing bodies and important actors, the role of non-state actors (NSAs) is becoming increasingly important as they are able to intervene and influence policy decisions through various activities. They matter in issues regarding globalization and governance. They interact with various other actors, they have a role in governance schemes and they may have the capability to effect acceleration of globalization. In return they are also affected by this process. For this research project TOBB has been chosen as a case study to evaluate the impact of such institutions in this process. Information on TOBB, including its chamber features, its interactions in governance, its special projects, and its view-point (made public through certain declarations and criteria), the economic platforms in which it participates, its contribution to G20 meetings and establishment of C20 all show that TOBB has taken an active stand in this process during the last decade. The context within which TOBB operates is an enabling one, both domestically and internationally. A comparison of TOBB with FICCI, its organizational counterpart in India, further demonstrates that the overall impact of similar institutions, in our case chambers, is larger when the system is taken as a whole. In this thesis it is argued that TOBB &ldquo / matters&rdquo / and is able to intervene and influence decision making processes.

In parallel to developments around the world, regional policy issue has become an important issue in Turkey&rsquo / s agenda. However, political tools such as projects and plans were performed poorly due to the fact that these policy efforts failed to take into account bottom-up institutional setting according to own dynamics of each region. The European integration has made a positive impact on Turkey&rsquo / s highly centralized structure. Turkey displayed a series of changes within the scope of institutional reforms. Firstly, NUTS Classification in accordance with EU&rsquo / s statistical regions was introduced and then, Development Agencies were established by The Law on The Establishment and Duties of Development Agencies, based on NUTS-II regions. Thus, institutionalization at regional level was emerged for the first time in Turkish history as one of the significant movement. Following experiences gained during the institutional establishment efforts, this thesis aims to examine the existing DA&rsquo / s institutional performance in the regional plan activities. Izmir Development Agency (IZKA) was chosen as a case study topic in order to explore how Development Agencies perform regional plan in terms of institutional infrastructure. To achieve this aim, the research was formed into two stages. Firstly / factors, affecting the institutional performance were determined. Secondly / IZKA was assessed over these factors. Qualitative research method through in-depth interviews was conducted in order to assess IZKA&rsquo / s institutional performance in operationalizing Izmir Regional Plan 2010-2013. In addition, documented texts were incorporated as the secondary data.