The new international division of labour has transformed the economic structure of Turkey from an import-substituted to an export-oriented economy. Starting from the early 90s, many Moldovan migrants began to come to Turkey in order to work temporarily in the informal economy. They worked in clothing and shoe ateliers until the beginning of this century. Nowadays many Moldovan migrants work in clothing shops as Russian-speaking sales assistants and in the cargo firms as carriers. Based on this historical context, this study explores the changing labour market position and workplace interactions of irregular Moldovan migrants, who are working in the textile/clothing sector in Istanbul, Turkey. I firstly try to understand the mechanisms of the changing labour market positions of irregular migrants by focusing on the factors and agents behind these dynamic processes. Secondly, I intend to analyze the labour process control regimes and resistance in the workplaces where migrants work. With this aim in view, I conducted field research in Istanbul consisting of 35 in depth and informal interviews with Moldovan migrants, Turkish employers and Turkish employees. As a result of the analyses of my findings, I first observed that although foreign workers cannot change the exploitative working conditions, they can find ways of escaping from exploitative working conditions in a context. Secondly, the level of exploitation in informal working conditions are not only determined by the necessities of capitalist accumulation regimes and the migration policies of the state but also by the preferences of employers based on economic and cultural motives but also.

The general subject of this thesis is about farm labor intermediaries who are important not only because they are transferring and organizing seasonal agricultural work but also they have social relations and interactions with other actors of seasonal agricultural work. This analysis elaborates multi dimensional relations of farm labor intermediaries and construction and reproduction of these relations. These social relations which can be accepted also as social capital and their nature are important for both understanding farm labor intermediaries and seasonal agricultural work in Turkey. Adana is determined as research field because of its long history about seasonal agricultural work. Moreover, changes and transformations in terms of social and agricultural structure taking place in Adana for 20 years are very important factors with regard to understand how farm labour intermediaries reproduce social relations. Labor intermediaries are the people who are providing and organizing seasonal labor force demanded by employers in labor intense agricultural production in different regions of Turkey. Delegate, backer, or sarge is the some local names of intermediaries using in Turkey. As it can be understood from the function of labor intermediary, it is arbiter between employer and worker. Family, relatives, friends and neighbors are seen as the labor force resources of intermediaries. From the eyes of the seasonal agricultural workers, intermediaries are not only the people who are finding job for them but also they are the people who meet their basic needs. This is very crucial point, since seasonal agricultural labor force is supplied from very poor regions in Turkey. At the same time intermediaries are important actors for employers due to their controlling functions of agricultural work process. However, the relationship between intermediary and employer is simply defined as business where mutual interests are important. In this context labor intermediation in Turkey has lots of meaning other than finding job for workers and worker for employers. Labor intermediation is a legal job which is controlled and regulated by law. However, both pervious researches and this study demonstrate that this job is mostly executed as informal. The main determinant factor for this informal execution of the job can be related with working style of intermediaries, namely, face to face social relations that has been institutionalized within time.

This study aims to evaluate conceptual considerations of the sociology of agriculture and food from inside and outside of the literature in relation to transnationalization and its claim on the emergence of a transnational state. Although the history of the literature can be traced back to mid-1970s, its development corresponds to 1990s which is also the period that witnessed the hegemony of the concept of globalization in social sciences. This study argues that the claim on transnationalization reflects the intimate relationship of sociology of agriculture and food with the globalist interpretation of the concept of globalization or globalization theory which suffers from methodological and theoretical problems mainly in relation to the analysis of immanent contradictions and distinctive features of capitalism. With the criticism of the concepts of globalization and transnationalization, this study aims to break the intimate relationship of the sociology of agriculture and food with the globalization theory and suggests that the concept of imperialism is a powerful analytical concept in comprehending the transformation of capitalist relations, particularly the agrifood relations since late 1970s. In other words, this study aims to reevaluate the concepts (agrifood system and food regime) and problematics formulated in the sociology of agriculture and food literature within the theoretical framework based on the concept of capitalist imperialism exemplified in the analysis of transformation of agrifood relations since 1980 in the case of Turkey.

The aim of this thesis is to compare the ideas Ziya G&ouml / kalp and Yusuf Ak&ccedil / ura on Turkism. Nationalism emerged in the 18th century in Western Europe has been a real force in world politics for the last two centuries. Naturally, towards the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire with many different ethnic groups within its borders was influenced by Western nationalist movements. Analyzing Turkish nationalism, it is seen that from the late 18th century to the announcement of the Second Constitution in 1908, Turkish nationalism went parallel to the modernization attempts of the Ottoman reformers. The Ottoman bureaucrats considered modernity as a goal to overcome the difficulties of the Ottoman Empire. Ottomanism and Islamism were the sub-ideologies of the state, which were essential for its survival. However, after the Balkan wars, Turkism became popular among ottoman intellectuals. Both G&ouml / kalp and Ak&ccedil / ura played a leading role in the direction of Turkish nationalism during the transition from a multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire to a secular and modern Turkish nation-state. Additionally, after the foundation of the Turkish nation-state, they shaped the content of the reforms of the new state with their nationalist way of thinking. In this respect, they served as the intellectual sources of Turkish nationalism. The main purpose of this thesis is to offer an analytical framework for understanding the peculiarities of G&ouml / kalp and Ak&ccedil / ura&rsquo / s nationalist thoughts during the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. In this context, this thesis examines the ideas of the two scholars on a comparative basis and aims to reveal the differences and similarities in their ideas.

Kars is an ethnically diverse city located at the North East Turkey, neighboring Armenia. In the year 2002, Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk published a political-historical novel named Snow, the story of which is set in Kars. The book created a public debate on national and global scale about cutting edge questions of Turkey. This thesis aims to address these questions from the perspective of inhabitants of Kars, who had reacted fiercely to the representations in the book Snow. By focusing on identification and boundary negotiation processes of people in Kars, this thesis and presents an ethnography of Kars, which was achieved by application of grounded theory method and by discussing local perceptions of ethnicity, nationalism and secularism at the periphery of Turkey.

This dissertation aims to scrutinize the fractions of the Turkish middle class, based on Bourdieu&rsquo / s theory of social, cultural, economic capitals and habitus. Distinction among the fractions was identified through lifestyles and tastes via home furnishing and decoration. A quantitative field research was conducted in two towns of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, namely Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren and &Ccedil / ankaya, and the data was collected by applying a detailed questionnaire on a sample that is not representative. The data was analysed with SPSS. The outcomes of factor and multiple correspondence analyses were formulated as four fractions of the Turkish middle class: Lower/bitter, Middle/resentful, Upper/contemptuous, and Well-off/happy middle class. The structural and material conditions, social-psychological utterances of the respondents and interviewees, survey results, field notes and observations as well as insights collected from furniture/decoration magazines provided the basis for defining and naming these subcategories. This categorization is an important step for further studies of lifestyles and tastes of the fractions. Lifestyles were defined as everyday habits/routines/activities, and tastes as selections/arrangements of furniture/accessories of everyday life objects. The finding of the dissertation is that the middle class(es) in Ankara is stratified within itself and these fractions have different lifestyles and tastes of their own: The well-off/happy fraction has an &lsquo / outgoing&rsquo / lifestyle, and &lsquo / legitimate/highbrow taste&rsquo / the upper/contemptuous fraction has a &lsquo / shopping mallcentred&rsquo / lifestyle, and &lsquo / middlebrow taste&rsquo / the middle/resentful fraction has an &lsquo / emulationcentred&rsquo / lifestyle and &lsquo / popular taste&rsquo / finally, the lower/bitter fraction has a &lsquo / &lsquo / stuck to home, family and neighbors&rsquo / lifestyle and &lsquo / taste of necessity&rsquo / .

This study is focusing on the conflict-induced internally displaced Kurdish women&rsquo / s experiences. There has been an ongoing internal armed conflict in Turkey since 1984 and one of the consequences of this conflict is the internal displacement that occured in 1990s. In the displacement process, women and other family members were victimized. They did not only loose their homelands, but they also had to struggle in the city centers with poverty and discrimination. After they started to live in the city centers, women may become both marginalized and empowered. The aim of the study is to understand the situations that lead Kurdish women to be marginalized and/or empowered in the cities to which they have been forced to migrate. After the displacement process, which is one of the major victimization processes for these women, some of them may be trapped in ethnic and gender-based discrimination and may become more marginalized in the city centers. But marginalization and empowerment are not fixed categories and there is always a possibility for these women to transform their marginalized position into empowerment. By political engagement, working outside house and/or being head of the househod these women may break the cycle of their marginalization and becomes empowered in the city centers.

The main aim of this thesis is to discuss conflicting opinions about the existence, targets and the system of advertising and to examine its effects on purchasing behaviors. Another important aim of the study is to demonstrate that advertising is an important but not the sole factor which increases the sales of a product. The study focuses on the relationship between the capitalist industry and consumers&amp / #8217 / purchasing decisions. It discusses the effects of marketing strategies on consumer behaviors and purchasing preferences. The interaction between the symbolic representations of commodities&amp / #8217 / brand names and consumption decisions are evaluated and the basic arguments of critics and advertisers about the system of advertising are discussed. In addition, variables other than advertising that influence consumer behaviors are examined and the importance of advertising in modern marketing is presented. To understand the messages in today&amp / #8217 / s advertisements deeply, semiology as one of the most important methodologies of decoding advertisements, the basic advertising formats and the language of advertising are evaluated. The question of how meaning is reconstituted both by advertisers and the viewers of messages is discussed. The study also entails a case study in which AkSam&amp / #8217 / s re-launch advertising campaign is evaluated. AkSam&amp / #8217 / s brand and image perception before and after the advertising campaign is examined. After this evaluation, the success of an advertising campaign in accordance with its advertising strategy is discussed.

ABSTRACT A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF WORKING URBAN POOR IN ISTANBUL AND GAZiANTEP Neriman A&ccedil / ikalin PhD, Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycioglu Eyl&uuml / l, 2004, 242 pages In this study, the aim is to find some indications about urban poverty in Turkey, which recently became a major topic in sociological studies. In order to study this topic, the thesis focuses on working urban poor to be able to examine the effects of the changing labor market. Urban poverty in general, and more specifically the working urban poor, are analysed in three levels, namely macro, mezzo and micro. In the macro level, the effects of great transformations after the 1980&rsquo / s and the new international division of labor, on the emergence of new urban poor is discussed. In the mezzo level, &ldquo / Structural Adjusment Policies&rdquo / as one of the significant impacts of this transformation, which mostly have affected the underdeveleped countries like Turkey is understood. The thesis, however, will mostly focus on the micro aspects of poverty. In the micro level, family and kinship reciprocal relations and mutual ties of solidarity / values and customs about social and economic life / survival strategies / the effects of culture of poverty / and factors of disempowerment are examined. Furthermore, the starting definitions of the urban poor are based on Peter Lloyd&rsquo / s study, which was carried out in Peru. In this context, a field study was carried out in Istanbul and Gaziantep to find out some indications to understand the regional differences of the working urban poor in Turkey. Turkey has also been affected by the conjunctural changes in the world and a new urban poor has been also emerging. In terms of regional differences of working urban poor istanbul labor market reflects the effects of new international division of labour and the structural adjustment policies more than Gaziantep. istanbul has an urban labour market which mainly performs as the periphery of international capital. Urban labour market in Gaziantep however, includes rural and local elements of causal labour as well, besides its links to the new international division of labour. In the micro level, istanbul working urban poor represent more western and urban values, more literacy and higher level of education and more positive attributes to the role of education, better working conditions of casual labour, more feelings of isolation but also more hopeful for future prospects and more motivated for initiating coping mechanisms. On the other hand, Gaziantep working urban poor represent a very complicated and multi-step migration process compared to istanbul migrants and migrant women in Gaziantep tend to work more in pieceworking jobs due to agro-industry. Hence, the thesis argues that to designate urban poverty and more specifically working urban poor in Turkey, regional, cultural factors and dynamics of migration are significant.

This thesis analyses the concept of transnationalism as a newly emerging approach in the field of international migration. This study aimed to try to understand the context of the emergence of this new approach in relation with changing global context. Additionally, this study also aimed to analyse functions of the concept of transnationalism as a new theoretical frame and a new analytical tool to generate an appropriate research agenda in order to study contemporary migratory phenomena. This study has concluded that the concept of transnationalism can generate an appropriate approach and research agenda to understand contemporary migratory phenomena. In spite of the fact that transnationalism is not a well-established approach, transnational practices and relations of migrant communities in specific and contemporary migratory phenomena in general can be studied in the frame of this new concept.