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.

Trafficking in persons is a phenomenon that threatens not only basic human rights but also source, passage and destination countries / therefore, it rightfully draws international attention. Being a global threat, it necessitates cooperation and intervention. The aim of the thesis is to analyze anti-trafficking efforts in Turkey by focusing on a particular international initiative. To this end, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is selected as a case and its activities in Turkey are mentioned with the ultimate goal of questioning its effectiveness in the process of fighting against trafficking in persons. The thesis examines the phenomenon of trafficking in persons with a conceptual analysis by dwelling upon the objectives, function and perspective of the IOM. It concentrates on the IOM, which actively assists the Turkish government in every aspect of migration and in combating human trafficking with a particular focus on trafficking in women through the counter-trafficking program implemented in 2004. The thesis also aims at evaluating whether international and local actors take effective actions that cover both the prevention and punishment of trafficking in women, and the protection of victims&rsquo / rights. The binding international legal instrument on the subject matter, the UN Trafficking Protocol of 2000, will be referred to and different approaches to the evaluation of the problem will be mentioned so as to present the focal points of the varying goals.

FRAME ALIGNMENT STRATEGIES IN THE RIGHT TO SHELTERING MOVEMENT: THE CASE OF DIKMEN VALLEY, ANKARA Aykan, Beg&uuml / m M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helga Rittersberger Tili&ccedil / July 2011, 146 pages By the increasing hegemony of neoliberalism following the 1980s, urban transformation projects are becoming increasingly widespread. The present market oriented and rent seeking formulations of the urban transformation projects, leave the gecekondu dwellers who live in the areas to be transformed, outside the redistribution process of the produced rent and lead to the eviction of lower-income gecekondu population from the city to the periphery. Dislocations of this sort as they impose additional burdens to the already disadvantageous populations enhance the urban unevenness. Nevertheless there is an expanding gecekondu resistance against those projects. And Dikmen Valley Right to Sheltering Movement (DVRtSM) is a successful social movement that has been emerged by the organization of this gecekondu resistance which has developed against the implementation of the 4th and 5th Phases of Dikmen Valley Urban Transformation Project. DVRtSM has a strong influence over similar cases of grievances sourced by the neoliberal urbanization: as to this it can be regarded as a model of Right to Sheltering Movements. v The thesis aims to make an analysis of the strategic framing processes of the organization of the DVRtSM, by exploration of the frame alignment strategies which are regarded as decisive factors of movement

Information and communication technologies and their innovative apparatuses have extensive social consequences. The basic interest of this thesis is to argue whether the information technologies and their technological apparatuses have the power to breach in the current capitalist system and therefore to lead us into a transformation towards an alternative world. In fact, this study more specifically attempts to argue and make sense out of this argument on the basis of an analysis of the Free Software Movement (FSM), since it is a product of the information technologies and has some suggestions for such a transformation towards a new society. Simultaneously, the study also argues the novel parts of the FSM as a new social movement and change agent of today&#039 / s contemporary world with reference to the literature on social movements.

This study examines critically how women in poverty use their labor in the production and reproduction processes against poverty and the effects of these processes on women becoming poor referring to women&amp / #8217 / s knowledge. The material foundation of women&amp / #8217 / s poverty is conceptualized as a two-way devaluation of women&amp / #8217 / s labor used in social reproduction. Patriarchal, cultural and ideological structures and relationships are studied as other determinants of women&amp / #8217 / s poverty. In this framework, women&amp / #8217 / s poverty studied based on a field research conducted on 120 women in EskiSehir province, consisting of regular and irregular workers, housewives, married and single mothers. Household is the basic unit of analysis of women&amp / #8217 / s poverty. The scope that women&amp / #8217 / s poverty experiences are questioned are the following: women&amp / #8217 / s labor in production process, women&amp / #8217 / s domestic labor, women participating in social life, violence against women, their perception of poverty and their place in power relations.