This study aims at understanding how Internet being a particular technology, integrates into daily practices in a small town. By doing this, it follows a theoretically informed ethnography based research concluding that the relationship between technology and society cannot be grasped by analysing both as separate entities. Hence, it attempts to develop a theoretical and methodological framework that is constantly aware of problems raised by dualistic assumptions analysing technology-society or human-nonhuman as separate entities one impinging upon other. It is this awareness that led the study to apply Bourdieu&rsquo / s concept of habitus and Latour&rsquo / s concept of actant into its field of inquiry. These two notions promote an understanding that takes into account the contingency of practices and provides researchers with the analytical means to comprehend technologies within the contexts of their &ldquo / use&rdquo / . It is also denoted by the findings of the study that a particular &lsquo / technology&rsquo / does not create a &lsquo / social impact&rsquo / but as itself being social, it allows this already occurring practice to find an avenue for its expression.

This thesis analyzes class experiences of workers under flexible and precarious conditions of global neoliberal capitalism and tries to answer to what extent these conditions erode their capacities to develop antagonistic class consciousness and collective struggles. Specifically, based on a fieldwork consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 24 workers living in slums of Istanbul, it deals with cultural analysis of working and daily-life experiences of workers involved in the global production of garments. Three categories of analysis are used: experiences of shame, time and necessity, which respectively suggest that, under conditions of precarity and flexibility, the workers, 1. perceive their class positions as personal and feel themselves inadequate, leading to questioning of self-worth, injuries in the self and individual - but not collective - emancipation attempts to escape from the injuring effects of class / 2. have lost not only their control over their present time through extremely long and irregular working hours / but also are ripped of their capacity to plan/organize their future / 3. live under the burden of continuous and persistent concern over necessities, which results in deep-seated sense of deprivation, impoverishment of life experiences, lack of meaning in this life, killing of hopes and consequentially experience of powerlessness. Yet, despite all these alienating experiences, there are also inchoate seeds of revolt and an alternative worldview, which confirms that class struggle exists even &ndash / and indeed (!) &ndash / in most severe conditions of alienation and will be decisive on the emancipatory dialectics of alienation / nonalienation and making / unmaking of class.

First of all, this study deals with the religiosity in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity / and investigates whether there is a relationship between the self-monitoring and these types. The important point here is that non-religious individuals were studied under this scope, as well. Another building block of the study is the relationship between religiosity and political participation forms. Just as religiosity, political participation was reviewed from a multi-dimensional point of view and conventional, unconventional and post-modern participation were investigated both in terms of non-religious, intrinsic and extrinsic religious individuals. Likewise, the relationship between political participation and self-monitoring was analyzed, as well. The important point for the study here is that no other study of a similar nature has been found neither in the national nor international literature, and that, therefore, the study will contribute to both in this sense. A questionnaire was conducted on 872 university students. Numerous analyses were conducted in this study in order to reveal the relationship among these concepts. As a result of the study, it was found that the intrinsic religiosity is associated with low-self-monitoring while the extrinsic religiosity is associated with high-self-monitoring. In addition, it was determined that self-monitoring is positively influential on the political participation. In parallel to the relationship of the self-monitoring with the religiosity, it was found out that the extrinsic religious perform more participation in every form of political participation than the intrinsic religious.

This Dissertation analyzes the conditions, problems and potential of rural women&rsquo / s empowerment through a sample of rural women&rsquo / s organizations (two women&rsquo / s cooperative, seven rural development cooperative and one village women associaton) with interpreting DAWN iniative and GAD approach with a socialist feminist perspective. In this study, it is stated that the agricultural sector policies and rural development policy were constructed in relation with the conditions of underdevelopment and thus, in relation with the agreements with IMF, WTO and IPARD Programme of EU which enforced the decreasing of agricultural sector subsidies. It is notable that these policies are formulated with an aim of increasing the influence and significance of capitalist relations in agricultural sector and rural areas without taking precautions for the survival of small sized farming households in rural areas. Despite these general influences of underdevelopment to Turkish Agricultural Sector and patriarchal gender assumptions, these women&rsquo / s organizations could be successful to some extent empowering their members with the recognized dimensions of empowerment such as / psychological, economical, social, organizational and political. All these dimensions are interrelated with each other. In this study, it was observed that while economic empowerment and psychological empowerment is the base of all other dimensions of empowerment, social empowerment and organizational empowerment are the most dynamic processes of empowerment and political empowerment is hardest dimension or outcome to achieve.

Efforts for promotion of women&rsquo / s entrepreneurship in Turkey have growing ever-more noteworthy in Turkey, in parallel to the other countries&rsquo / experiences. These efforts are ranging from creation of shared workshops by civil society organizations, entrepreneurship trainings, shared sales places to establishment of business incubators. Correspondingly, the actors involved in these activities are getting diverse. Women&rsquo / s organizations, state organizations, private enterprises, chambers and national-international development foundations are developing their own models and strategies for supporting women&rsquo / s entrepreneurship. These efforts are all can be categorized within the framework of development practice and be considered as a new strategy. As a development policy strategy women-focused entrepreneurship support activities are significant when compared with other employment generation aimed development programmes in terms of the number of project and programmes implemented and the multiplicity of the objectives they are acknowledged to serve. These programme and project based efforts targeting development of women&rsquo / s entrepreneurship are stated to have objectives of increasing women&rsquo / s employment and developing their productivity, alleviating women&rsquo / s poverty and contributing to women&rsquo / s social empowerment. In this work, it is argued that according to the objective prioritized over others, it is possible to diagnose three different paradigms guiding the practice of different actors. In this vein, economic efficiency oriented, poverty alleviation oriented and empowerment oriented approaches to women&rsquo / s entrepreneurship support. A similar conceptualization is also offered by Mayoux (2001b). This work explores different approaches to women&rsquo / s entrepreneurship support issue in Turkey using above described categorization and discusses their assumptions and implementation-process-consequences comparatively. The analysis is substantiated upon the data of 17 semi-structured interviews held with the representatives of the organizations widely involved in the area, published and unpublished reports reached and the archival data on the practices of the primary actors in the area.

This study aims to analyze the socio-economic characteristics, living and working conditions, educational profiles and the future expectations of the child workers, who have been living in tents for many years and working as agricultural workers at Karag&ouml / &ccedil / er and Kapik&ouml / y areas of Tuzla Municipality (KarataS District) of Adana Province since the early 90s after having been forced to vacate their villages in Sirnak. Thesis tries to expose the poverty, deprivation and social exclusion experienced by families and children presently living in tents in Karag&ouml / &ccedil / er and Kapik&ouml / y. It is also aimed at exposing the ways in which these people are deprived of their social and political rights as citizens. The main research question of the study is the motives behind the child labour observed in Karag&ouml / &ccedil / er and Kapik&ouml / y. The study has found that the phenomenon of child labour in this area is the direct consequence of poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and denial of citizenship rights that these families had to face as a result of forced migration early in the 90s. Therefore, the study underlines, in conceptual terms, how their unfavourable circumstances lead to deep child poverty and consequently child labour and thesis also tries to bring attention to the children&amp / #8217 / s situation by referring to their families&amp / #8217 / poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and lack of citizenship rights. In this respect, the theory section of the thesis focuses on the relation of child labour and child poverty within the conceptualization of new poverty, internal displacement (forced migration), social exclusion and citizenship rights. One of the main argument of this thesis is that children from Sirnak who work in fields in Tuzla constitutes a different category of child labour. Even though they are paid child workers working in the agricultural sector and they live like migrant seasonal agricultural workers, they are not, since they are settled in the region for a long time. Another important argument of the study is that families of these children after the evacuation of their village did not migrate to urban areas like most of the internally displaced people did but moved to rural areas. In this sense, they are also in disadvantaged condition compared to other internally displaced people since they can not benefit from many social services, which is easy to reach in urban settings. Therefore, this study makes clear that the children and their families examined in this study are the part of the worst form of poverty in Turkey.

This thesis tries to explore the effects of socio-economic status, gender and generation of Turkish migrants living in Berlin on their participation into transnational social fields established between Berlin and Turkey. In addition to this, evaluating transnational approaches used in international migration studies critically and acquiring a critical transnational perspective in the context of global capitalism are also in the interest areas of this study. This study is based on a qualitative field research conducted with 30 Turkish migrants in Berlin in 2006. This study maintains that, as well as global restructuring of global capitalism, new technological advances and nation state policies, migrants&rsquo / socio-economic status, gender and generation differences are vital elements to understand the way and content of transnational social fields in daily life of migrants. This study concludes that, apart from being liberatory, nation- state- based inequalities are reproduced in transnational social fields in macro and micro levels as dependent on migrants&rsquo / socio economic status, gender and generation differences.

This study focuses on the work strategies of 1989 immigrants who had to move from Bulgaria to Turkey and settled in Ankara. During this immigratio wave, nearly 150,000 people immigrated to Turkey and settled permanently. In this study, the operational definition of the immigrant work strategy is the activities and the attitudes that the immigrants take to find and maintain thier first jobs, immediately after immigration. To learn about the work strategies of the immigrants, I conducted a field research which was based on semi-structured in depth interviews. In my sample, there are fifteen women and fifteen men who have work experience both in Bulgaria and Turkey. During the field research, i asked the respondents questions about their immigration ad settlement processes, their working lives, both in Bulgaria and Turkey and their perceptions about working. Theni to interpret this data, I employ three approaches from the international migration literature: migration system approach, political approach and network aapproach with some important concepts like social capital and work ethic and I tried to connect them with work strategies of the immigrants. As a result of this study, it is suggested that to improve their standards of living, the immigrants developed a work strategy with two main steps: finding a job and maintaining this job. Immigrants follow different patterns in these two steps. While they are trying to find a job, they benefit from existing immigrants&#039 / networks which are products continous immigration waves from Bulgaria to Turkey and Turkish state&#039 / s provisions which are for the accomadation of the immigrants who are privileged in the eyes of the state due to their ethnicity and religion. As a second step of the work strategy, they maintain these jobs with the help of work ethic they gained in Bulgaria and their ignorance about the operation of Turkish labour market. With these characteristics they are distinguished among the non-immigrant workers. The narratives which are widely told by the immigrants and shared by the employers and other employees enviably also emphasize how hardworking they are, how loyal they are to their job, to their employers and to their country and strenthen the immigrants&#039 / position in the labour market.

In this thesis, the purpose is to analyze the path that the nation building process in Kazakhstan has been following in the post-Soviet period through examining the various policies implemented and the official rhetoric and discourses stated by the Kazakh policymakers. The ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and the views of Walker Connor and Willfried Spohn on nationalism and national identity have been utilized in the analysis of the research. The Soviet Nationalities Policy is examined to be able to better understand the post-Soviet nation-building, because the policies implemented under this comprehensive project, which had been outlined by the Bolsheviks, had deep political, cultural, demographic and linguistic impacts on the process in Kazakhstan. The ethnic situation has also been laid down in order to highlight under which ethnic circumstances the nation building process has been taking place. After analyzing the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the post-Soviet policies about language, education, employment, culture and national symbols, the statements of the President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the move of capital, this study claims that post-Soviet nation building process and nationalism in Kazakhstan have both ethnic and civic components whereby the nation building process in Kazakhstan is a more ethnic process than it is civic.

ABSTRACT This thesis approaches the concept of citizenship from the angle of citizens by focusing on the citizenship perception of the citizens in Turkey. It has been aimed to measure citizenship perceptions in terms of the balance between both total rights and duties, and also in terms of civil, political and social elements of citizenship. Liberal and civic republican conceptions of citizenship have been employed as the ideal-standard models against which it is attempted to measure the citizenship perceptions, because it is consensually agreed that the Turkish notion of citizenship is based on a civic republican understanding which emphasizes duties over rights. For this purpose a scale for citizenship rights and another one for citizenship duties have been developed on the basis of a questionnaire. Additionally, in order to measure people&rsquo / s opinions concerning the possible effects of Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership on citizenship issues a scale of &ldquo / EU membership and citizenship&rdquo / has been developed. In addition to the questionnaire study which was applied to unionized workers, employers, bureaucrats and retired military officers, focus group meetings and interviews were conducted. The results of the scale study revealed that all occupational groups shared a republican perception of citizenship as far as the total right and duty items are considered. However, in terms of political and social elements of citizenship, occupational groups displayed different perceptions. In terms of political elements, while workers, employers and bureaucrats emphasized the political rights, with respect to social elements workers assigned more weight to social rights. The EU membership and citizenship scale results indicated that all occupational groups shared a pro-EU perspective with respect to its effects on citizenship.