Cemil Boyraz | Istanbul Bilgi University (original) (raw)

Papers by Cemil Boyraz

Kitap İncelemesi: Türkiye'de Sendika Özgürlüğü ve Sendika İçi Demokrasi (İmre Sipahi), 2024

Kapitalizmin önlenemeyen siyasi ve ekonomik krizine paralel şekilde yükselen neoliberal otoriter ... more Kapitalizmin önlenemeyen siyasi ve ekonomik krizine paralel şekilde
yükselen neoliberal otoriter devletçiliğin etkilerinin en keskin biçimde
gözlemlendiği alan olarak emek süreçleri ile örgütlülüğündeki sorunları göstermek zor olmayacaktır. Parçalanmış, güvencesizleştirilmiş ve esnekleştirilmiş emek süreçleri bir yandan emek örgütlerini kurumsal olarak zayıflatmakta, diğer yandan da yükselen baskıcı devlet aygıtı gerek anayasal-yasal düzenlemeler gerek grev yasakları ve fiziksel şiddet yoluyla sendikal yapılar ve faaliyetler üzerindeki etkisini artırmaktadır. Taşeron uygulamasının artması, sendikal örgütlülüğün yoğun ve nitelikli olduğu işletmelerde toplu işten çıkarmalar ya da hak gaspları, geçici ve güvencesiz istihdam biçimlerinin yaygınlaşması, “Özel İstihdam Büroları”nın
kurulması, sözleşmeli personel sayısının artışı, kapsamlı ve keyfî grev yasakları, “evden çalışma”, “uzaktan çalışma” ve “çağrı üzerine çalışma” gibi esnek çalışma modellerinin yasal dayanağa kavuşması, kadınları çalışma yaşamından dışlayacak düzenlemelerin yürürlüğe konması, 4/C denilen “geçici personel” uygulamasının yaygınlaşması, iş güvencesinin ve güvenliğinin, işyeri denetimlerinin zayıflaması, sendikalaşma oranının özellikle bağıtlanmış toplu iş sözleşmeleri kapsamındaki işyerlerinde bulunan sendika üyelerinin sayıları dikkate alındığında kimi dönemlerde
yüzde onların altına inecek şekilde çok düşük kalması, ortaya çıkan ihtilaflarda zorunlu arabuluculuk uygulamasının yasalaşması gibi somut sonuçlar neoliberalizmin emek süreçleri üzerindeki tahribatını özetler nitelikte.

Cogito, 2019

Siyasal gündemi oldukça meşgul eden bir gündem olmasına rağmen Türkiye’de sekülerizm literatu... more Siyasal gündemi oldukça meşgul eden bir gündem olmasına rağmen Türkiye’de sekülerizm literatürünün gelişkin olduğunu söylemek oldukça zordur. Alanda mevcut çalışmaların da daha ziyade devlet-din ilişkileri meselesi olarak sekülerizme yaklaştıklarını belirtmek de gerekir. Bu çalışmada, 19. yüzyıl itibariyle Osmanlı modernleşmesinin bir bileşeni olarak sekülerizmin tarihsel gelişimi; daha sonra otoriter biçim alarak erken Cumhuriyet döneminde laiklik politikaları olarak karşımıza çıkan gerçeklikle beraber ele alınacak ve çok partili hayat sonrasında dinin denetim ve kontrol aracı olarak siyasallaşmasıyla sekülerizmin evrimi incelenecektir. Sekülerizmin söz konusu tarihsel gelişimi ve evrimi ise çokça yapılmadığı üzere ekonomi-politik bir çerçeveden değerlendirilecek ve değişen uluslararası-ulusal iktisadi ve siyasi gelişmelerin ışığında toplumsal sınıfların ve devlet elitlerinin kendi güçlerini yeniden üretme stratejileri bağlamında tartışılacaktır. Bu yönüyle çalışma; hem siyasal tartışmalarda hem de akademik yazında hakim olan ilerici-gerici, merkez-çevre, güçlü devlet-zayıf sivil toplum gibi ikiliklerin ötesine geçmeye çalışarak, sekülerizmin gelişimini tarihsel ve toplumsal bağlamı içerisinde eleştirel bir perspektifle okumayı önerecektir. Böylesi bir çabanın da dinin toplumsal rolü ve anlamı üzerine verilen mücadelelerin arka planında yatan siyasi ve iktisadi güç ilişkilerinin ve çıkarlarının anlamlandırılmasında önemli olduğu düşünülmektedir.

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies

The rise of digital labour platforms and the gig economy has provoked debate among scholars and p... more The rise of digital labour platforms and the gig economy has provoked debate among scholars and policymakers. Some emphasize the platforms' contribution to efficient labour processes by facilitating transactions between customers and service providers. In contrast, others highlight the precarity of gig work in platforms and call for greater regulation of the platform economy. This article reports a field study on the experience of Turkish platform workers in the domestic work and home repair sectors, focusing on the growing platform Armut. The impact of the platform economy on labour processes is explored, with particular attention to the concepts of autonomy and control with reference to alternative perspectives on labour platforms and the gig economy.

Philosophy & Social Criticism, 2014

In this article, recent attempts by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to address the proble... more In this article, recent attempts by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to address the problems of Alevi citizens in Turkey are analysed. After briefly outlining the sources of Alevi revitalization in the 1990s, the article critically discusses different aspects of the Alevi Opening process. It concludes by arguing that the Alevi question reveals many aspects of the problematic nature of secularism in Turkey.

Turkish Studies, Sep 1, 2022

The global economic crisis and the associated economic downturn in Turkey revitalized debates abo... more The global economic crisis and the associated economic downturn in Turkey revitalized debates about the theory and politics of the middle classes. The significance of the middle classes has historically been shaped by not only the ‘declining’ boundaries of their objective class position but also their ‘rising’ importance in the reproduction of capital accumulation and hegemonic relations. Inspired by the notion of ‘contradictory class locations’ offered by Erik Olin Wright to make sense of the growing middle class of nonmanual labor in contemporary capitalist societies, and with a particular focus on Turkey’s hardware sector and small traders in the Karaköy region, this article addresses the specific historical conditions of these workers’ class formation and analyzes small traders’ experiences with changing market conditions, their approaches to the functioning of market mechanisms, and the role of the state, as well as forms of their political representation.

The Yearbook for Cultural Policy & Management in Turkey, Nov 1, 2009

This article explores the book publishing in Turkey within the framework of historical developmen... more This article explores the book publishing in Turkey within the framework of historical development of book publishing and current structure of the Turkish book market. The aim of the work is to view a panorama of recent trends, developments, and problems in the Turkish book publishing, within its specific historical conditions and comparing it (in the light of the most available statistics compiled from Eurostat, International Publishers Association, Turkish Publishers Association and The Ministry of Culture and in-depth interviews with the components of the Turkish book market) with the current structure of book publishing industry in developed countries where book publishing is a global business and highly integrated to other sectors of cultural commodity production. In addition to elaborate analysis of Turkish book publishing in general, political-cultural factors and state policies influential on the late-development of book publishing as the most prestigious form of cultural production and on the reading activity as a habit, will be analyzed critically. In the last part of the study, a list of proposals for the development of book publishing in terms of “cultural policies” as a disregarded field in Turkey, while it is a primary policy issue in European Union (it is absent from unique framework and insufficient, though), will be discussed and critical remarks as well as policy suggestions will be listed.

Democratization

This paper investigates the new character of the strategy of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) ... more This paper investigates the new character of the strategy of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) using populism to combat the success of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). We consider populism along a left-right axis in terms of the differentiation of exclusionary and inclusionary approaches and conduct a content analysis of campaign speeches by Ekrem İmamoğlu during the 2019 local elections, as well as speeches of the party elites given during the currency crisis of 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that an alternative to the exclusionary right-wing populism may construct images of egalitarianism, participatory budgeting, and agrarian populism instead of mobilizing security or survival issues.

The Alevis in Modern Turkey and the Diaspora

Revisiting Secularism in Theory and Practice, 2020

As will be discussed in the following sections, current analyses on the rise of Anatolia-based ca... more As will be discussed in the following sections, current analyses on the rise of Anatolia-based capitalist fractions propose a similar dichotomy between "Islamic capital"-"Secularist capital" and assume a conflict between them, with an underestimation of merged interests and considerations in the political-economic reproduction of power.

Bu calisma, Aleviler icin bir ibadet ve kulturel sosyalizasyon merkezi olarak islev goren cemevle... more Bu calisma, Aleviler icin bir ibadet ve kulturel sosyalizasyon merkezi olarak islev goren cemevlerinin mevcut kosullarini ve cemevlerine resmi hukuk statu taninmasi taleplerinin icerigini ele alacaktir. Calismanin ilk kisminda cemevlerinin hukuki statu kazanmasinin Alevi siyasallasmasinin derinlik kazanmasi ve Turkiye’nin demokratiksekuler acmazlarinin cozumlenmesi acisindan onemine yer verilecektir. Bu bolumde Turkiye’de devlet-din iliskisi baglaminda, Diyanet Isleri Baskanliginin yapisi ve isleyisi ile diger kurumsal yapilar ve yasal mevzuat incelenerek, cemevlerinin icinde bulundugu acik ayrimcilik durumunun ve kotu kosullarin detayli bir anlatimi da soz konusu olacaktir. Ikinci kisimda ise, 2009 Haziran-2010 Ocak aylari arasinda 7 calistay toplantisinda gerceklesen Alevi Acilimi surecinde, cemevlerinin statusu basta olmak uzere Alevi orgutlerinin taleplerine verilen resmi tepkiler resmedilecektir. Bu baglamda cemevlerinin icinde bulundugu sorunlar yumaginin giderilmesi baglamind...

Geopolitics, 2020

ABSTRACT Following the Arab Spring and the Syrian war, two non-state actors, the Islamic State (I... more ABSTRACT Following the Arab Spring and the Syrian war, two non-state actors, the Islamic State (IS; also known as ISIS or ISIL) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), deployed their political projects of the caliphate and democratic confederalism, respectively, amid rising geopolitical interest in the Middle East. Beyond mobilising people on the battleground in Syria, these political projects led to comprehensive debates about the future of the Westphalian order of sovereignty, territoriality, and the state in the region, as well as the viability of the ideals of political and cultural pluralism. This article compares the potential of these projects. First, it explores whether these actors challenge the older forms of the state, territoriality, and sovereignty, or whether they reproduce them. Then, it discusses whether the political organisation and governance models of these two non-state actors have the capacity to solve the problems of democratic representation and cultural pluralism in the region. Finally, the potential impact of these projects is discussed by examining whether they could serve as a model or inspiration for new political ideas and arrangements in the region.

Istanbul Bilgi University, 2020

This study will examine the main opposition party in Turkey, the Republican People's Party (CHP) ... more This study will examine the main opposition party in Turkey, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and discusses the constitutive role of populism in the party's discourse. Therefore, this study will highlight and compare the major cornerstones of the CHP's populist discourse and its current manifestation. For this purpose, after some opening remarks about the literature on populism in Turkey in Turkey, this article will move on to analyze the three historical periods that have shaped the party's populist appeal: the single-party era of 1923-1946; the 1970s, which saw the rise of left-populism in the party; and the social-democratic opening in the late 1980s under the name of, first, the Social Democratic Party (SODEP) and subsequently the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). The final section will provide an analysis of the party's current performance and its discourse on contemporary Turkish political issues, to offer a critical debate on the continuity and ruptures within the CHP's populist discourse and the potential for left-populism in Turkish politics. Öz Bu çalışma, ana muhalefet partisi olan Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi'nin (CHP) söyleminde kurucu rol oynayan popülizm temasını ele almaktadır. Bu amaçla ilk olarak CHP'nin popülist söyleminin tarihsel gelişiminin önemli aşamaları ve şu andaki performansı incelenmektedir. Bu çerçevede, Türkiye'de popülizm literatürüne dair başlangıç tespitlerinden sonra, CHP'nin popülist söyleminin tarihsel uğrakları tek partili dönem (1923-1946), sol-popülizmin hakim olduğu 1970'ler ve 1980'lerin ortasında Sosyal Demokrat Parti (SO-DEP) ve sonlarında Sosyal Demokrat Halk Partisi (SHP) performansı çerçevesinde haritalandırılıyor. Sonrasında ise partinin mevcut performansı ve Türkiye'nin güncel meseleleri üzerine geliştirdiği yaklaşımlar ele alınarak, partinin popülist söyleminde demokratik sol-popülizmin imkanları ve sınırları üzerine bir tartışma yapılıyor.

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2019

ABSTRACT The Alevi question in Turkey is not only about a manifestation of the demands for religi... more ABSTRACT The Alevi question in Turkey is not only about a manifestation of the demands for religious freedoms and pluralism but also an issue of citizenship at least for the last three decades. This article argues that as a result of the rise of the Alevi identity and collective capacity of the Alevis to formulate demands in the national and international public spheres, the issue has increasingly turned to a matter of struggle for the long-denied equal citizenship rights of the Alevis in Turkey. Expected failure of workshops process, namely Alevi Opening, during the second term of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) period increasingly brought a sense of the disappointment among the Alevi organizations due to the fact that the issue was not managed with a perspective based on equal citizenship rights but with a discussion on the authenticity and originality of the Alevi demands. Enduring silence for the solution of the Alevi question in the last decade would lead Alevi organizations to the search for the extension of the self-creation of the survival mechanisms without the state support. This paper, within these considerations, is based on the demands of the Alevi society in Turkey and their struggle for the legal recognition, which increasingly challenged the Turkish form of secularism and citizenship regimes today.

Philosophy & Social Criticism, 2018

This article is based on the question “How does the current governing party in Turkey, namely Jus... more This article is based on the question “How does the current governing party in Turkey, namely Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), reproduce its social power?” In order to answer this question, it is suggested that a combination of the different techniques of governmentality of the ruling party should be analyzed, with particular reference to the policies and institutions reconfiguring the role of the state and the notion of public deliberation in the midst of the rising discontents of neoliberalism in Turkey. As an instance of such a technique of neoliberal governmentality in populist content, the formation of the communication centers by the AKP in Turkey will be investigated. For this purpose, firstly, the rise of the populism will be related to the increasing need for channels of political participation and a solution to public demands in the midst of rising authoritarian tendencies, in order to solve the political legitimacy crisis as well as creatin...

Turkish Studies, 2016

The spirit of the laws: the plunder of wealth in the Armenian genocide, by Taner Akcam and Umit K... more The spirit of the laws: the plunder of wealth in the Armenian genocide, by Taner Akcam and Umit Kurt, New York, Berghahn Books, 2015, 220 pp., $85.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1782386230.The exterminati...

Turkish Studies, 2015

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the Alevi Opening in 2009 by the Justice and Development Part... more Abstract This paper aims to analyze the Alevi Opening in 2009 by the Justice and Development Party. Based on a close reading of the manuscripts of the seven workshops and the subsequently published report, a critical analysis of the initiative by the government is presented. It is argued that the organization and the composition of the workshops were not conducive to attaining a set of solutions to the problems encountered by the Alevis. The article concludes by stating that, though a historic step in state–Alevi relations, the Opening has not been successful in producing a politically significant result.

Turkish Studies, 2013

"DESCRIPTION: This anthology offers an alternative, critical reading of contemporary Turkish... more "DESCRIPTION: This anthology offers an alternative, critical reading of contemporary Turkish politics by problematizing the synthetic articulation of Islamist politics with neoliberal capitalism during the AKP party's decade-long rule. The contributors offer a detailed analysis of the seemingly contradictory policies of the AKP regime, from social to cultural to foreign policy, with a view to understanding changes in Turkey's neoliberal order. The editors contend that the AKP party's rule should be read on the basis of transformations within capitalism in neoliberal times involving different forms of suppression and exploitation along axes of class, race and gender. Contents: Part I: State, Law and Society 1. Politics and Discourse under the AKP’s Rule: The Marginalisation of Class-Based Politics, Erdoğanisation, and Post-Secularism [21] by: Galip Yalman 2. Fragments of Changes in the Legal System in the AKP Years: The Development and Reproduction of Market Friendly Law [43] by: Ali Murat Özdemir 3. The AKP’s Hold on Power: Neoliberalism Meets the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis[67] by: Simten Coşar 4. Islamist Bourgeoisie and Democracy under the AKP’s Rule: Democratisation or Marketisation of Politics?[93] by: Berna Yılmaz Part II: Social Policy, Citizenship and Gender 5. The Social Policy Regime in the AKP Years: The Emperor’s New Clothes [125] by: Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir 6. The AKP’s Citizenisation Project: Where To? [153] by: Nalan Soyarık-Şentürk 7. The AKP and the Gender Issue: Shuttling between Neoliberalism and Patriarchy [179] by: Metin Yeğenoğlu & Simten Coşar Part III: Global Interfaces: Politics, Economy and International Relations 8. Turkish Foreign Policy under the AKP Governments: An Interplay of Imperial Legacy, Neoliberal Interests and Pragmatism [213] by: Birgül Demirtaş 9. Internalisation of Dependency: The AKP’s Dance with the Global Institutions of Neoliberalism [251] by: Filiz Zabcı 10. The EU and the AKP: A Neoliberal Love Affair? [269] by: Zuhal Yeşilyurt-Gündüz Conclusion: Hearing the Silence of Violence: Neoliberalism and Islamist Politics under the AKP Governments [295] by: Simten Coşar & Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir"