Turkey experienced conflict-induced internal displacement due to the political and social unrest, in the late 1980s and during the 1990s, in East and South East Anatolia regions. The unplanned and involuntary nature of migration led internally displaced persons (IDPs), and in particular forced many Kurdish migrants&rsquo / children to poverty. Within this framework, this study aims to explore how internally displaced families&rsquo / high school attending children experience poverty in two cities, Izmir and Diyarbakir. In this thesis, it is argued that the motive behind child poverty among internally displaced children is an overlapping process of forced migration and consequences of neo-liberal economic policies in Turkey. Although high school education is not compulsory in Turkey, these displaced students prefer to attend high schools instead of working (or besides working) to contribute household budget despite the fact that they are from poor families. In particular, the research aims to understand internally displaced children&rsquo / s expectations from high school and the barriers to their education. Based on the assumption that education, in today&rsquo / s economic structure, is the only way for displaced children to achieve upward social mobility, the main research question of this study is that whether high school education would enable these children once caught in poverty in Diyarbakir and Izmir to achieve social upward mobility. All in all, but, it is claimed that although these children seem far from improving their lives through attending high school, social and economic inequalities from the beginning of their lives are barrier to their futher educational achievement and developing their human capital, and hence hinders their social upward mobility.

The main aim of this thesis is to present an ethnographic study of the Nusayri community in the Karaduvar district of Mersin to examine how it negotiates maintaining religious teachings and practices secret in the process of interacting with other communities and reproducing Nusayri belief. In addition to ethnographic field research in Karaduvar, two virtual communities that Nusayris frequent were studied to examine the negotiations on the revelation of Nusayri esoteric knowledge and secret ritual practices. The ethnographic data were collected during two months of fieldwork in Karaduvar and twelve months of online study of two virtual communities. Research findings show that although the intentional concealing of Nusayri religious knowledge and ritual practices have historically played an important role in the survival of the Nusayri community and belief, partial revelation of secrets are becoming more common and acceptable. Both the internal dynamics of the Nusayri community and the socio-political context in Turkey have contributed to this process. The result of the continuous negotiations among Nusayri sheikhs and followers is that while social secrecy is increasingly revealed, esoteric secrecy is maintained to a large extent. The dosclosure of secrecy is particularly supported by younger generations, university graduates, Nusayri intelligentsia, and those Nusayris who live outside of their hometown.

This study intends to discuss the problematical relation between Europe and Muslim immigrants in the light of the issues of secularism, religion and racism. Over the three decades, there has been a large body of literature in both theoretical and empirical fields about the peculiar European identity, the implications of secularism for European society and its distance from religion particularly in public sphere. Besides, 1980 onwards, the focus of the theories of racism shifted from biological explanations to culturally designated accounts. European manner of production of knowledge about race has started to concentrate on the incompatible cultural character of Muslim immigrants. Simultaneously, multicultural discourse has been put forward as an evidence for anti-racist and tolerant approach towards these guest citizens. By taking into consideration these theoretical analyses about Europe, the main goal of this study is to point out how specific discursive sphere is produced-reproduced and the representations of Muslim immigrants are shaped by certain Eurocentric definitions and recurrent notions. This attempt contains two interrelated theoretical layers. On the one hand, it is aimed to uncover the stereotyped and racist representations of Muslim immigrants in both public and political discussions. On the other hand, the inherent contradictions of Europe as both sovereign political subjectivity and hegemonic discursive sphere are highlighted.

The aim of this study is to draw attention to the fact that daily practices which tend to be overlooked due to their taken for grantedness actually signify power coming into existence here and now as well as that everyday problems bring along accordingly ordinary coping ways. In this respect, resistance in everyday life means a refusal that does not identify itself as political and organized, and who intends to make do with the rule by finding immediate and effective solutions to negative effects power generates rather than overtly challenging it. In order to render visible this type of resistance, to understand how it is experienced and perceived, the implementation of smoking ban in enclosed areas was covered in entertainment venues. Participant observations and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in Nevizade Street that is located in Beyoglu district of Istanbul and consists of meyhanes as well as beerhouses. Although customers resist based on pleasure principle, managers in order not to go bankrupt and employees not to fall out of work, it is concluded that what is thwarted here is not public health that the related law aims to protect but rather the troubles that the implementation of the law brings about.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study of women&rsquo / s political participation in local government in District Hyderabad, Pakistan from a feminist perspective. There is a longstanding patriarchal trend of elite women&rsquo / s selective political participation in Pakistan. But recently introduced local government system with increased quota (33%) for women brought a large mass of non-elite women in local politics. This research explores the social dynamics behind this changing pattern through semi-structured interviews with 53 elected women local councilors in the district. It argues that there is a dialectical relationship between patriarchy and women&rsquo / s political participation. It shows how patriarchal structures have reconfigured to enhance their interest by bringing non-elite women into politics for their power interest. The women, who entered politics, do not challenge the patriarchal structures / rather they use them as resources to facilitate their entry and survival in politics. This process has rendered somewhat of a compatible co-existence between these two antagonistic forces. Patriarchy has gained more modernized outlook while still retaining male domination. The non-elite women, although still controlled by and submissive to male domination, have gained ever broader legitimate space for their autonomous action. The research contributes to the debates concerning patriarchal transformation, arguing that certain features of patriarchy, when responding to accommodate new socio-political developments, gives rise to its own contradictions, thus potentially creating the conditions for overall societal change.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze Armenian ethnic identity construction, the dynamics influencing this process, and varying boundaries of this identity in Yesilk&ouml / y, which is one of the regions of Istanbul where Armenians prefer to live. The primordial as well as constructed aspects of Armenian identity in Turkey and the influence of objective and subjective definitions of Armenian collective identity constitutes the main themes of this thesis. From that perspective, homeland, history, myths, collective remembering, religion, language, rituals, the sense of being a member of a minority group, and perception of citizenship play a crucial role. Besides, relationalism, interaction with others, daily life practices, and relations with the nation-state appear as the other crucial elements of this identity construction process. Armenian identity in Turkey is multi-layered, situational and fluid. Together with the elements which provide the rigidity of identity such as religion, there are other loyalties such as ethnicity, traditions and language which give rise to plural and flexible identities. Armenian communities outside the national boundaries also serve for the self- positioning of the Armenians in Turkey.

The early marriage as a patriarchal cultural fact is not a retrospective solved up, ended issue but a problem lasting with all its tragedy. The early marriage which is the subject of this study is a form of actualisation of child abuse within the family, in the prison of privacy. This abuse may only be expressed within the repertoire of femaleness. Regarding this language, which is functionalized with destiny, fortune, luck, sin, immoral, the comprehension of what it means to be child-bride, how the patriarchy institutionalize the early marriage which we may call as legitimate child abuse was tried. If marriage occurs between persons either one of them or both of them is under 18 is called early marriage.Although child marriages are no legitimacy in the sense of jurisprudence, child marriage is still occurring as a cultural practice. This study based on some presumption such as everybody who is under the age of 18 is accepted as a child. Marriage is an important issue for feminism. Although there are different feminst perspectives, all of them are critical towards marriage. For instance / according to radical feminists&rsquo / theoreticians&rsquo / marriage is a systematic way of oppressing women hence being a child likely to intensified adverse consequences of marriage. The main concerns of this study how their child status affects their marriage experiences. In this frame work early marriaged studied based on a field research conducted on 19 women in Van province .In order to get diversity in Van, four districts were chosen. The scopes that women&rsquo / s marriage experiences are questioned are the following women&rsquo / s domestic labor, women participating in social life, violence against women, sexuality, motherhood and childcare. In order to get more insight about the issue 8 representatives of non governmental organizations and 10 public officials who interested in women issue are met.

This thesis examines the recent phenomenon of Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / s tattoos through a twofold theoretical framework of body politics and secularism. Firstly, it examines the growing interest on the body in social sciences, which has focused on the body as a site of both docility and subversivity. Additionally, the body has been rediscovered as a fetish object through which selfhood and subjectivity are continually reconstructed and contested. These developments were simultaneously conditioned by and manifested themselves in an understanding of &lsquo / the body as a project&rsquo / . Secondly, the study explores Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / s continued legacy in Turkish politics and for the nation-people. 73 years after his death, Atat&uuml / rk still remains the utmost personification of the secular Turkish nation state. An effort is made to demonstrate how &lsquo / the secular&rsquo / , representing the normative nation-identity, and &lsquo / the religious&rsquo / , representing its Other, have been made in Turkish history. In light of these theories, Atat&uuml / rk tattoo almost seems like an oxymoron: &lsquo / tattoo&rsquo / carrying controversial and rebellious, and &lsquo / Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / statist and conformist undertones. The main ambition of this thesis is to explore this contradiction through an analysis of whether the Atat&uuml / rk tattoo is a spontaneous (body) politics on the side of &lsquo / the people&rsquo / or whether it is a symptom of Kemalism&rsquo / s current position in society and politics. Finally, to better understand the subject, field research has been conducted with tattoo artists and people with the Atat&uuml / rk tattoo, in 3 cities, through the summer and fall of 2010.

This study aims to ask what meaning the current users of Taksim Republican Square (TRS) in Istanbul attach to it, besides an understanding of the socio

This thesis aims to examine the representation of Turkey by the Italian newspapers in order to determine: a) if it is a stereotyped and ill-informed representation of Turkey, in parallel to the low level knowledge of the Italian public on Turkey / b) if there is a convergence among political agenda on Turkey and the media on Turkey / c) whether Islam is being inserted to the construction of Turkish perception by the Italian media. According to the Transatlantic Trends Surveys of the past years, it appears that the Italians have a confused image and limited knowledge of Turkey and its membership to the EU. On the political level, the government official position is supportive of Turkish membership into the EU. At the political party level, the opinions on this matter are diverse, principally depending on the political positions of the parties. This thesis argues that Turkey being Muslim-majority country, the perception of Islam plays an important role in shaping Turkish image in the Italians