The main concern of this thesis is to analyze the transformation of domestic human rights discourse by looking at the shifting representations of the idea of human rights. The representation of the idea of human rights in &lsquo / Turkey Human Rights Movement Conferences&rsquo / in different political contexts during the period 1998-2010 is evaluated with reference to three areas of literature on the idea of human rights and with a social constructionist perspective which begins with the proposition that ideas and practices concerning human rights are created by people in particular historical, social, and economic circumstances. The different conceptualizations of legitimation of the idea of human rights, the shifting representations of the idea of human rights as civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights and the varying constructions of domestic human rights language amongst local and universal claims in respect of human rights within different political contexts is explored. In this framework, the research design of the study is envisioned to evaluate these issues in the context of &lsquo / Turkey Human Rights Movement Conference&rsquo / texts. The final reports of eleven conferences held in the period 1998-2010 are analyzed by the method of &lsquo / qualitative content analyses&rsquo / .

Like femininity, there is not one type of masculinity. Since there are different kinds of masculinities, there are also various types of fatherhood. Historical, cultural, economic, and social factors can affect fatherhood experiences in different ways. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the fatherhood experiences of lower-middle class men who live in Eskisehir and have at least one son. Within this context men&rsquo / s relations with their sons and their fathers will be the focus of this study. Issues such as early childhood experiences, maturity, work life, education life, and domestic division of labor will also be included with reference to the fatherhood experiences of the men in the sample.

Like femininity, there is not one type of masculinity. Since there are different kinds of masculinities, there are also various types of fatherhood. Historical, cultural, economic, and social factors can affect fatherhood experiences in different ways. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the fatherhood experiences of lower-middle class men who live in Eskisehir and have at least one son. Within this context men&rsquo / s relations with their sons and their fathers will be the focus of this study. Issues such as early childhood experiences, maturity, work life, education life, and domestic division of labor will also be included with reference to the fatherhood experiences of the men in the sample.

The primary aim of this thesis is to analyze the consideration of suicide by modernity which imposes life as the most essential and unconditional affirmation and death as the absolute opposite of life. Herein, the mutual exclusiveness of life and death is considered under the guidance of Foucault&rsquo / s critique on modernity. Thus, the potential of suicide as a resistance to the primacy of life in modern times is discussed in a Foucauldian framework. From this point forth, with inspiration from existentialist thought, a hypothetical category of philosophical suicide is defined to emphasize a peculiar form which has a more radical potential to resist the pre-given and unconditional affirmation of life than any other form of suicide. Within this framework, the peculiarity of this hypothetical category of philosophical suicide is discussed by focusing on its radical potential to resist the mode of existence dictated by modernity.

This thesis aims to describe and analyze the politicians who belong the right-wing political conservative traditions in Turkey by the mediation of their understanding and mentality. In this framework, the study primarily intends to investigate and analyze their perceptions of political and ideological imaginations. Turkish right seems to have a quite heterogeneous structure. While the recognition of the heterogeneity embodied around the political-institutional structuring is crucial to understand the Turkish right-conservatism, focusing merely on the heterogeneity and differences is inadequate to understand the right-conservative tradition. This study aims to analyze the aforesaid diversity and heterogeneity in the axes of politics and ideology. In spite of its heterogeneous qualifications, there are some attributions which made the Turkish right-wing conservative tradition homogeneous on certain economic, social and cultural issues. In this context, the study aims to analyze and understand the differentiations and affinities among the politicians who belong to the mainstream right-wing conservative political parties by focusing on the politicians discourses.

This thesis examines the history of Turks migrated from Turkey to Rochester and their changing constructions of identities. In the early 1960&rsquo / s, there was only a small group of Turkish immigrants in Rochester, who were well educated professionals. After 1967, Turkish tailors and their families, who were seeking better employment in Western countries started to migrate to Rochester. Different than the common aspect of homeland based Turkish labor migration to West, Turkish tailors in Rochester came from different cities of Turkey. As a result of the communication between high skilled Turks and the tailor-migrants, Turkish Society of Rochester was founded as a distinctive immigrant association. This study focuses on Turkish Society of Rochester and the other Turkish organizations in Rochester which were established after 1990&rsquo / s, in order to investigate the role of ethnic, cultural and political identities on the formation of collective behavior of Turks in Rochester. The thesis considers the concept of integration as a bidirectional phenomenon, whereby Turks can integrate with the larger American society and/or with the Turkish community within the US as well. This study has concluded that the religious identity is becoming more prominent within the changing social context of Rochester.

Especially recently, cooperatives occupy the global agenda as efficient organizations that contribute to mainstream development goals. However, cooperatives, which may also emerge as grassroots organizations, could create an alternative through empowering women socially, economically and politically. In this respect, this study investigates the impact of women&rsquo / s cooperatives on women&rsquo / s empowerment in urban Turkey. Empowerment Approach composes the theoretical framework of this study. Primarily, the mainstream development approach, Women in Development approach and Gender and Development approach are analyzed critically which are the precursors of Empowerment Approach. Later, Empowerment Approach is analyzed, and benefiting from postmodern approaches that emphasize the importance of local ways of knowing and doing, empowerment is defined as a process that fulfills practical and strategic gender needs through power within, power with and power to, which are generative forms of power. Through field research conducted in Istanbul and its periphery, I concluded that: 1) Women&rsquo / s conceptualization of empowerment overlapped with my conceptualization of power with and power within. However women did not mention power to as power or empowerment. 2) Rather than practical or strategic gender needs, women mostly fulfill psychological and social needs through cooperative involvement. This category emerged as a third category that should be added to practical and strategic gender needs framework. 3) Women&rsquo / s cooperatives empower women through power within and power with, which in turn mostly fulfill social, psychological and practical gender needs. Power to is not revealed through cooperative membership which is in fact a sin qua non aspect of empowerment.

The objective of this study is to examine historically the policies of theDirectorate of Documentary Programs (DDP) of the Turkish Radio Television Corporation (TRT). Since there is very little research about particular sphere of the public service broadcasting in Turkey it is aimed to contribute to this area of study. In the course of the study, historical conditions, structural factors, broadcasting policies, the conditions of public broadcasting of a country, and the role of individuals and the research methods applied in media studies were taken into consideration. Furthermore, governmental, military, lawful, economic, cultural policies, and policies emerging from the institutional mechanisms, and practices of individuals are illustrated regarding the different time periods. In this study, documentary research, observation, interview, and internet research were used as data gathering methods. Literature analysis, historical analysis and interpretative analysis were employed as methods of analysis. It is mentioned that the role of individuals in the analysis of media studies is not paid much attention, additionally, especially in Turkey, research conducted about media generally ignores the methods of ethnography, field research and interpretative analysis. In analyzing the policies of DDP, it is asserted that except for the structural effects, individuals/actors have also roles in shaping these policies. Furthermore, to examine the media, particularly television policies, it is maintained that there is a need to carry out analysis at the individual level by the help of conducting field research, applying methods of ethnography, and interpretative analysis in Turkey. Finally, it is claimed that to a large extend DDP have been under the effects of public broadcasting notion of Turkey, and there is a need for improving the institutional policies for the DDP to serve the public interest.

This study aims to explore the dynamics behind the emergence and expansion of working street children since 1990s in Turkey and Romania, in the context of New Poverty. Poverty is not a new concept, it is a dynamic process, accommodating to new circumstances, its scope shrinking from time to time, but surviving ages. Children, on the other hand, are among the groups that are first and foremost affected from the course of poverty. Nevertheless, working street children is a new notion different from traditional forms of child labour driven with distinct dynamics. In this study, it is claimed that poverty is transformed in the course of globalization process and neo-liberal paradigm. It is also argued that the way children are affected from poverty changed in this process, leading to emergence of working street children. The main discussion of the study is about the connection between working street children and the concept of New Poverty. Turkey and Romania are countries whose political, economic, social and cultural characteristics involve differences at the expense of similarities / however, working street children have been a common problem that both countries have faced at the same period. Employing comparative historical methodology, the main research question is developed as why working street children emerged in similar time periods in Turkey and Romania, which are two quite different countries. After an introductory chapter, Chapter II aims to provide a theoretical framework in which transformation of poverty in general and transformation of child poverty in relation to this process leading to emergence of working street children will be discussed. The third chapter focuses on Turkey and the fourth chapter is on Romania / in both chapters the dynamics leading to emergence of working street children, the scope and dimension of the issue is explored. The fifth chapter is devoted to the comparison of Turkey and Romania in terms of working street children in the context of New Poverty. The conclusion chapter discusses the findings of the study in both countries and tries to locate them into the theoretical framework.

ABSTRACT UNEMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE OF YOUTH IN ANKARA AND SANLIURFA &Ccedil / elik, Kezban Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Sibel Kalaycioglu September 2006, 367 pages This thesis aims to analyse how joblessness is experienced by unemployed youth, which factors are involved in this experience, what are their coping strategies and results. Final objective is to understand the relationship between wage work, adulthood and citizenship for young people who are in the process of learning how to be adult. The study is based on the interviews conducted in Ankara and Sanliurfa with 329 young people, who had registered to iSKUR in the last quarter of 2003 and who were approached after six months of registration, 30 families of the unemployed youth and 21 decision-makers of both provinces. The results of the study represent only the survey group. The study found that &amp / #8216 / family&amp / #8217 / is the most important institution in the experience of unemployed youth due to the scarce welfare state implementation and limited number and low quality of jobs created in the labour market. Therefore, family resources are crucial in the management of unemployment experience. It is not a reason itself for unemployment, but poor resources increase the need for wage work of youth labour. Youth who are heavily dependent on family support cope with unemployment in two ways: early adulthood or postponed adulthood. They try to overcome their unclear stage between childhood and adulthood through finding a job accompanied by other criteria of being adult. The former leads to the reproduction of earlier family patterns and intergenerational transfer of poverty, while the latter means to postpone the exercise of adult rights. With heavy dependence on family, unemployed youth learn to be &amp / #8216 / good family members&amp / #8217 / . This has an eroding effect on their trust and respect towards the state and its institutions as expressed by one interviewee, my State is my father. As a result, their chance to become active, participatory, responsible, entrepreneur individuals as required by new system decrease dramatically. Keywords: Wage work, youth unemployment, experience of unemployment.