Beginning with 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has mobilized millions of Turkish citizens from the most impoverished districts of Istanbul. Based on two years of ethnographic engagement in two districts of Istanbul (Esenler and Kucukcekmece), the party’s stronghold, this dissertation focuses on the conjunction of neoliberal economic transformations, mass mobilization and political Islam. By paying close attention to personal histories, daily capacities, emerging hopes and inter-generational grievances of the party members and sympathizers, it investigates how material and financial transformations facilitate and even promote a popular knowledge that authoritarian politics, embodied by the AKP in Turkey, are the only solution for the predicaments of late capitalism. The project aims to problematize some key presumptions of contemporary social scientific analyses, namely individualization, depoliticization, and economic rationality, and investigates the emergence of alternative practices in their steads: self-negation, authoritarian mobilization, and fundamentalist disposition. To this end, the dissertation intervenes in four current debates of social scientific and public significance. Firstly, against the long standing debates about the character and consequences of neoliberal transformation in the global south, in which the general consensus is that these new economic practices have resulted in depoliticization and apathy among the masses, the project demonstrates that the very same economic polices and practices result in the promotion of a form of mass mobilization that is authoritarian in its characteristics. Second, it intervenes in a related literature about depoliticization, which claims that the contemporary form of capitalism produces isolated individuals, i.e. individuation. The dissertation shows that neoliberal transformations have precipitated a wide range of political and social practices, like self-sacrifice of partisans, which produce alternative modes of political identification and new identities conditioned by economic vulnerability. Third, the research and analysis argues that the critique of bureaucracy and bureaucratic regulations, conceived as sources of unproductivity and institutional rigidities by neoliberal thought collectives, has been appropriated by the masses in Turkey as a part of anti-formalist policies that the AKP propagates. However, the popular critique of bureaucracy among the AKP partisans does not produce a version of liberal governance, in which transparency, flexibility, and accountability are dominant values, but a popular conviction that rules, regulations, and laws may be suspended for the interest of “the people,” thus legitimizing the violation of “bureaucratic” rights, be they human rights, freedom of speech, or fair trial principle. Lastly, this dissertation furthers a significant body of anthropological works on political Islam that complicates the relationships between secularism and religiosity by showing their co-constituted histories. However, it substantially diverges from the trajectory of this literature by shifting the focus from morality to efficacy, from cultural politics to political economy. Ultimately, the purpose of the dissertation is to understand how neoliberal economic transformations provided a suitable social, material and political context for religiously informed authoritarian practices without attributing any essentialized qualities to their religious characteristics.

This study examines how the uneven application of regulatory standards in oil exploration and extraction in Nigeria has exacerbated ethnic and class tensions and how the oil exploration activities have affected the individual and collective lives of the people in the Niger Delta region. Overall, the study links the individual and collective lives of Nigerians, particularly people in Obelle and Obagi communities to the political economy of global capital. Furthermore, the study explores how the expansion and activities of global capital necessarily create ethnic tension, class struggle, and gender inequality. In order to maintain the status quo, global capital creates structural inequalities that divide societies into hierarchies of the rich and the poor. The study also examines the strategies adopted by the people to ameliorate negative consequences of oil exploration in the communities.<p>In this study, the researcher posits that there is a relationship between the uneven application of international and national regulations in oil production by MNCs and environmental degradation as well as the negative effect on peoples live and means of livelihood, resulting in competition for scarce resources, which in turn have exacerbated ethnic conflict between and among communities. Consequently, the main questions addressed in the study focus on if, how, and why globalization, carried out through the activities of MNCs, affects ethnic tension, class struggle, and gender inequality. In order to address the questions, a critical ethnographic paradigm was used to explore and explain the processes of globalization that affect the peoples lives and means of livelihood. Since this studys focus is on a neglected population (Obelle and Obagi communities), a critical ethnographic paradigm was used to speak on behalf of the subjects as a means of empowering them by giving more authority to their voices. Consequently, this study has the possibility of not only speaking about the marginalization of the people of Obelle and Obagi communities and their livelihood but, also, speaking on their behalf in order to increase awareness of their present economic situation, aiming at the general improvement of their economic situation and quality of life. This study, therefore, provided the subjects an opportunity to articulate their economic problems and share their lived experiences in a region that has been devastated by the activities of oil MNCs. Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The specific methods used in data collection included in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and observation. Analysis of the data was done by employing a variety of methods that includes a combination of descriptive statistics based on cross-tabulation, analysis of themes that emerged from in-depth interviews, and Atlas.ti 5.0 qualitative analysis computer programme to show the relationship between variables that emerged from the study. The results obtained from the study support the hypothesis that the oil MNCs in Nigeria, in partnership with the Nigerian government, have engaged in a process of resource exploitation that has resulted in economic expropriation, political disenfranchisement, social dislocation, anomie and environmental devastation, of the people of the Niger Delta and Obagi/Obelle in particular.

This study examines how the uneven application of regulatory standards in oil exploration and extraction in Nigeria has exacerbated ethnic and class tensions and how the oil exploration activities have affected the individual and collective lives of the people in the Niger Delta region. Overall, the study links the individual and collective lives of Nigerians, particularly people in Obelle and Obagi communities to the political economy of global capital. Furthermore, the study explores how the expansion and activities of global capital necessarily create ethnic tension, class struggle, and gender inequality. In order to maintain the status quo, global capital creates structural inequalities that divide societies into hierarchies of the rich and the poor. The study also examines the strategies adopted by the people to ameliorate negative consequences of oil exploration in the communities.<p>In this study, the researcher posits that there is a relationship between the uneven application of international and national regulations in oil production by MNCs and environmental degradation as well as the negative effect on peoples live and means of livelihood, resulting in competition for scarce resources, which in turn have exacerbated ethnic conflict between and among communities. Consequently, the main questions addressed in the study focus on if, how, and why globalization, carried out through the activities of MNCs, affects ethnic tension, class struggle, and gender inequality. In order to address the questions, a critical ethnographic paradigm was used to explore and explain the processes of globalization that affect the peoples lives and means of livelihood. Since this studys focus is on a neglected population (Obelle and Obagi communities), a critical ethnographic paradigm was used to speak on behalf of the subjects as a means of empowering them by giving more authority to their voices. Consequently, this study has the possibility of not only speaking about the marginalization of the people of Obelle and Obagi communities and their livelihood but, also, speaking on their behalf in order to increase awareness of their present economic situation, aiming at the general improvement of their economic situation and quality of life. This study, therefore, provided the subjects an opportunity to articulate their economic problems and share their lived experiences in a region that has been devastated by the activities of oil MNCs. Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The specific methods used in data collection included in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and observation. Analysis of the data was done by employing a variety of methods that includes a combination of descriptive statistics based on cross-tabulation, analysis of themes that emerged from in-depth interviews, and Atlas.ti 5.0 qualitative analysis computer programme to show the relationship between variables that emerged from the study. The results obtained from the study support the hypothesis that the oil MNCs in Nigeria, in partnership with the Nigerian government, have engaged in a process of resource exploitation that has resulted in economic expropriation, political disenfranchisement, social dislocation, anomie and environmental devastation, of the people of the Niger Delta and Obagi/Obelle in particular.

Sovereignty has long been deemed an unchallengeable concept. However, starting from end of twentieth century, this concept is severely impacted by the trend of Globalization. And now, it becomes a debatable issue that whether or not the core characters of the traditional Sovereignty theory: i.e. supremacy, inalienability and indivisibility remain. By way of methodologies of documentary analysis and comparative analysis, I intend to start with introducing the traditional Sovereignty theory, examining how this Sovereignty socio-science was structured by the traditional Sovereignty theory, which includes how the core concept, ie. Freedom, Capitalism and modernity impacted the traditional Sovereignty theory. Then, I would like to introduce Zygmunt Bauman¡¦s view, who is one of the contemporary socio-science masters, toward Freedom, Capitalism and Modernity, and to compare the difference implied between these two views. And last, I tried to critique this artificial Sovereignty concept, although it long been adopted, with Bauman¡¦s view from the following dimensions: (a) the structural error of Sovereignty theory; and (b) in reality, the collapse led by modernity of the 3 pillars, ie. Economy, Culture and Military of Sovereignty theory.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-181.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-260). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ56218.

Contemporary capitalism appears to be undergoing deep-seated transformations in the organisation of business enterprise. Business organisation has traditionally been understood in terms of a model of corporate development confined to a single administrative hierarchy, offering current debates a focus to contrast and gauge the historical changes occurring in modem economies. "Chandlerism" has provided a guiding assumption that increasingly complex, diversified businesses would evolve ever-larger administrative structures to manage operations. Yet many believe that business organisation now operates under a different set of assumptions in the era of "Alliance Capitalism". Changes in business organisation appear to embody a new chapter of business history, challenging the traditional assumptions that Chandlerism embodies. Stripped of previous assumptions, attempts to develop an alternative paradigm have searched for a new explanation for the strategies and motivations associated with interfirm networking. Yet an unacknowledged problem in this literature is that current accounts embody an assumption that modem forms of competition and strategy occur within organisational boundaries, albeit shifting boundaries, captured by classificatory concepts such as "alliances", "networks", etc. Few pursue the idea that business enterprise does not simply exist within organisational boundaries but, indeed, develops through the creation and maintenance of new organisational forms. In synthesising an extensive range of secondary material, this thesis argues that business pursuits are inextricably organisational in nature. Business organisation is not simply a by-product of business enterprise but a theoretical problematique underlying Chandlerism and equally relevant to contemporary capitalism. At the heart of this problematique is the idea that business organisation is tied to the 'practicalities of capitalism' , concrete problem-solving activities which, in both latent and explicit ways, design the organisational pursuit of business enterprise. The basic aim and contribution of this thesis lies in developing a fundamentally different organisational thinking-a different conceptual, analytical and theoretical system-through which to more effectively articulate this problematique.

Entrepreneurship within higher education is most often examined as set of market and market-like behaviors within colleges and universities. The field of entrepreneurship studies has been largely neglected by higher education scholars. This qualitative study focuses on entrepreneurship as an academic discipline emerging within the academic capitalist/learning regime. Specific attention is paid to expanding student markets, capitalist behaviors among entrepreneurship students, and the emerging multidisciplinary faculty culture associated with the expanding academic discipline of entrepreneurial studies.I used semi-structured individual interviews, document analysis, and self-administered student questionnaires as the methods for collecting data essential to better understanding the evolution of entrepreneurship education within the context of academic capitalism. The research was conducted at two public research universities: the University of Iowa and the University of Texas at El Paso. From this study, I show the increasing trend of undergraduate students acting as state-subsidized capitalists, the fluid and recursive nature of the capitalist academy, and the multidimensional traits of the faculty cultures that are emerging within the academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime.

This thesis extends the literature on the dynamics of firm growth and failure by testing the robustness of past findings for capitalist firms to alternative ownership structures. While the theoretical results are altered by the internal organisation of the firm, the empirical findings are unchanged. This suggests that the theoretical models place excessive emphasis on the organisational structure and inadequate emphasis on more basic and fundamental factors affecting firm growth. The thesis applies the learning models of growth to the case of the Illyrian labour managed firm, where members maximise profits per worker. The critical efficiency-size relationship is indeterminate under labour management. Thus, the majority of the clear cut empirical predictions of the model for profit maximisation no longer hold. Three possible explanations for the breakdown of the results are examined. One explanation is that the Illyrian model is overly simplistic and does not accurately reflect the actual behaviour of cooperatives. This is rejected using an institutional structure model of the French producer cooperative which yields predictions which are remarkably similar to those of the Illyrian model. The second explanation considered is that the growth and survival of cooperatives in fact substantially differs from capitalist firms. This explanation is rejected in the empirical section which tests the actual growth and survival relationships using a dataset of French producer cooperatives. The estimated survival-size relation is convexly positive and the growth-size relation convexly negative, exactly as they have been found previously for conventional firms. The final remaining explanation is that the theoretical models are structured so as to overemphasize the internal structure of the firm to the neglect of more generic factors affecting growth and survival. This is accepted in a final section which proposes new directions for theoretical research on the growth and survival of all firms.

No description available.