Poverty is one of the most important internationally recognized problems. The first Millennium Development Goal declared by the United Nations (UN) is to &ldquo / Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger&rdquo / . Women rank first among groups most affected by poverty. Based on the argument that women compose two-thirds of the poor, the term &ldquo / feminization of poverty&rdquo / took its place in the development discourse in the 1970s. There is an inverse relationship between development and women&rsquo / s poverty, making women&rsquo / s poverty a crucial agenda item of poverty alleviation strategies. Microcredit systems have spread all over the world beginning in Bangladesh and have now become an important poverty alleviation tool both in developed and developing countries. From the beginning of this millennium, microfinance institutions started to spread in Turkey and Turkish Grameen Microfinance Program (TGMP), a commercial affiliate of Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction, is the leading organization. It is one of the crucial microfinance institutions in Turkey. Women are the primary target group of microcredit and this makes microcredit today&rsquo / s most popular poverty alleviation tool. The impact of microcredit on women is examined through interviews with women who registered with the Ankara TGMP v office. In this context, this study investigates microcredit&rsquo / s effectiveness as a poverty alleviation tool for women in the light of the correlation between development and women&rsquo / s poverty. Based on the fact that poverty is a multidimensional concept, positive and negative aspects of microcredit are revealed in this research, however, no conclusion is made as to microcredit&rsquo / s success or failure as an independent poverty alleviation tool. Rather, it is concluded that microcredit should be integrated with other actors and poverty alleviation tools and should be supported with other relevant institutions and policies.

This thesis, aims to provide an analysis of the perception of homeland of the Armenians in Istanbul and Armenians in Armenia of Anatolian origin in order to identify the meanings attributed to the concept of homeland in the formation of their identity. Based on the in-depth interviews, this thesis focuses on transformation of the homeland and questions where is &ldquo / home&rdquo / , &ldquo / homeland&rdquo / and &ldquo / diaspora&rdquo / . The analysis is based on data collected during fieldwork conducted in Istanbul, Turkey during the months of November 2011 to February 2012 and Yerevan, Armenia during September 2011.

ABSTRACT THE CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF GENDER ROLES AMONG TWO COHORTS OF WOMEN: A STUDY IN ANKARA Deniz CoSan Eke M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayse-G&uuml / nd&uuml / z Hosg&ouml / r December 2006, 147 pages The purpose of the thesis is to try to examine whether there is change in the perception of gender roles between two cohorts. The focus point of this study is what the difference between old women and young women is / how these women define their gender roles in the public and private spheres and how they describe their relations with their husbands and their children. The main argument in this thesis is that altering the perception of gender roles might be a way to create different policies regarding the problem of gender inequality. To achieve this aim, first gender roles are presented in different sociological approaches. Then, the term socialization is examined in different approaches to analyze how gender roles occur at micro-level of social relations. Finally, the term patriarchy is discussed to interpret macro level definitions of gender roles within private and public spheres. In this study, the general tendency of the perception of gender roles is formulated in the discussion of these concepts. The perception of gender roles of two cohorts women were conceptualized within the context of gender, marriage, work life and violence against women. In general, the analyses of perceptions among two cohorts&amp / #8217 / women showed that younger women have more egalitarian perception on gender roles. One of the most important results of this study is that education was emphasized as the key variable in achieving gender equality. Consequently, if studies had paid sufficient attention to the perceptions of gender roles, the issues of gender inequality or equality in policies and programs could have been discussed more profoundly and gender consciousness and awareness could have been promoted. The stereotypical perceptions of gender roles, that have been developed and standardized over a long time, have been the major obstacles in the formation of a gender-equal society.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how the technological developments implemented in the production processes and organizational structures of small and medium sized enterprises affect the skilling and thus the employment process of youth in these enterprises. The furniture sector of Turkey is chosen as a specific industrial sector for this research.

This study aims to provide an account of the production of subject through the representations of body and technology in the discourse of cyberculture through the analysis of Wired magazine. The findings indicate that the subject produced in this discourse is normatively white and male, and is produced along the ways of liberal humanism as it is conceptualized as autonomous, having free will and preceding the discursive operations and market relations. The production of this subject requires a series of exclusions and abjections including the smart machines which are becoming increasingly humanoid and thus forming a threat to the category of &ldquo / human&rdquo / and to the boundaries of the autonomous subject.

Turkey is an arena of social struggles for young people who have often been repressed, marginalized, invalidated,isolated and stereotyped by the dominant discourses that shape the existence of youth. This could be related to the rapidly changing circumstances that anticipate the milieu of frequent crises Turkey has been associated with. This thesis is an attempt to contribute to an understanding of the social patterns that are reflections of the mediated crisis and their role in identity formation processes of youth in the 1980s. It focuses on the post-1980 generation in Turkey. The study analyzes constructions and representations of youth in Turkey, particularly between 1980 and 1990. Institutional ethnography was used in order to understand the emergence of the post-1980 generation, as well as to draw a picture of politics and culture in the 1980s, focusing on identity politics to comprehend the public discourse in which this generation was represented.

The purpose of this thesis is to establish a preliminary foundation of a research method aimed at understanding the social identity, role and function of the university. In this respect, it aims at identifying and articulating a set of issues, concepts, questions, social dynamics and so on, which have to be addressed and investigated carefully, before starting to build such a research method. To this end, the thesis focuses on and analyzes a recent debate on the changing nature of the contemporary social system of knowledge production / a debate constituted by several theses of change, namely, Mode 2, Finalization in Science, Post-normal Science, Academic Capitalism and Triple Helix, and the critiques directed towards these theses. In consequence, the thesis argues that to understand the social nature and function of the university, first and foremost, a versatile conceptual framework is required to capture the phenomenon of the social construction of the paradigm of knowledge/science / a phenomenon which is certainly nonlinear by nature and involves complex interrelations between scientific, political, economic and cultural realms.

Religious charity is said to be one of the oldest phenomena which has been present in many societies and social welfare provision is one of the central aspects of religious charity. Although, religiously motivated welfare provision has an older history than nation state based welfare provision, with the advent of the modern welfare state social aid area has been taken -partially or totally- from the religious authorities. However starting with 80s and attracting considerable interest by 90s in contemporary world, religious themes, namely faith based organizations, have been visible again in social aid area. As a form of faith based welfare provision, Faith Based Organization (FBO) is the central concept of this study / particularly Islamist FBOs will be on the focus of this study. In that sense FBOs will be studied as a part in history of Islamist faith based welfare provision in Turkey. The central hypotheses of the thesis, FBOs are organizations fertilized by changing economic and political climate of 70s. Changing state religion relationships has a significant impact on FBO proliferation in Turkey. By combating through poverty FBOs have big problems in terms of financial accountability, permanency, trustworthiness and professionalism.

This study focuses on understanding the reasons for the consciousness emerged towards Judeo-Spanish starting from the late seventies. This consciousness was followed by the establishment of several institutions, centers and even departments at Universities mainly in Israel, later in Turkey and all over the world aimed at maintenance of Judeo-Spanish by perceiving it as the unique medium of the continuance of the Sepahardic cultural heritage. The mentioned awareness towards Judeo-Spanish has become salient through the rise and the encouragement of the creative writing produced on distinct ethnic communication platforms by several Judeo-Spanish speakers composing of both native speakers and the generation raised by them, the youngest of whom was born around 1945. As a result of the analysis of three ethnic communication platforms which consist of Judeo-Spanish part of Salom newspaper, Salom&rsquo / s entirely Judeo-Spanish supplement El Amaneser, and the on-line correspondence circle Ladinokomunita Yahoo Group, it is concluded that the activity based on recalling of memories regarding the past Sephardic life as a part of the recent creative writing activities in Judeo-Spanish present that the Jewish language is still internalized and represents &lsquo / we&rsquo / in the eyes of the remaining speech community. It can be argued that through the cultivation of Judeo-Spanish on the ethnic communication platforms, Sephardic identities are strengthened and even reconstructed in some cases. It is concluded that the recent creative writing in the Jewish language is crucial both to preserve and archive the Sephardic cultural heritage embedded in the Jewish language for the next generations.

This ethnographic study is on a sacred patrilineage, on the Ulusoy family members who are widely accepted by the Alevi Bektasi communities as the descendants of the eponymous founder of the Bektasi Order, Haci Bektas Veli. In line with the Shi&rsquo / ite tradition, it is claimed that Haci Bektas Veli inherited the batin, the esoteric aspect of the knowledge and the type of spirituality of this knowledge - walaya, by genealogical chain traced back to Ahl-al Bayt, and therefore undertook an initiating and supervisory role over his adherents. As the progeny of Haci Bektas Veli, the &Ccedil / elebis, namely the Ulusoy family, have also become the heirs of his sacred authority which was also inherited by their descendant through blood and transmigration. The Ulusoys have undertaken the role of spiritual guides and leaders of some other sacred dede (sacred guide) lineages called ocaks, as well as of the disciples of those ocaks, to regulate and supervise their life in accordance with the batin, divine knowledge. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the maintenance and reproduction of the hereditary sanctity of the Ulusoy family during the Republican period during which, due to the secularization and modernization attempts of the Republic, the sanctity and sacred authority of the family has not been recognized as a social distinct category. To this end, I firstly examine the historical background of the family by situating the family in the Ottoman period. Having found out the continuities and ruptures in exercising of the sacred authority of the family over the disciples after the establishment of the Republic, I focus on the transformation of the sanctity and new forms of it by employing the concepts of space/place / kinship and, gender.