Yaprak Kurtsal | Università di Bologna (original) (raw)

Papers by Yaprak Kurtsal

World is facing an employment crisis and youth constitutes a group that is among the most vulnera... more World is facing an employment crisis and youth constitutes a group that is among the most vulnerable. Especially in developing countries, the problems associated with youth unemployment tend to be even more challenging at the regional level. The aim of this study is to suggest reasons to why there are regional disparities of youth unemployment in Turkey. A quantitative analysis will be undertaken to comment on regional disparities of youth unemployment, as well as observing other regional trends in education, job-search methods and type of work done, using Household Labour Force Survey conducted by the State Institute of Statistics. The main findings suggest that regional disparities regarding unemployment, education, job search- methods and type of jobs done are statistically significant; while there is a significant negative relationship between youth education and unemployment of youth.

There is a growing scientific interest and public debate on the potential contributions that Loca... more There is a growing scientific interest and public debate on the potential contributions that Local Food Systems (LFS) and Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) can make towards overcoming sustainability challenges and creating societal impact. In the case of Turkey, where local agricultural systems are particularly vulnerable, lacking of resilience and innovative capacity, understanding the governance mechanisms of SFSCs would have strong implications for policy making. To this end, our aim in this study is to explore the mechanisms through which civil society driven SFSCs are governed in the city of Izmir (Turkey), referring to the actors involved in the process, institutional frameworks that are adopted and challenges experienced, that could inform policy discussions towards establishing more sustainable local food systems. In this direction, the questions we aim to answer are: (1) what are the mechanisms through which community level SFSCs are initiated and governed, (2) how collaboration takes place within these groups and through which processes, and finally (3) what the outcomes of these processes are, with respect to individual, community and local impacts experienced on the ground, and challenges associated with them. We use a descriptive case study methodology, to study seven SFSC initiatives (four food community networks, two farmers' markets and a local shop) in the city of Izmir; and collect data through qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews (41 with producers, 32 with consumers, 11 with coordinators and 5 with experts). Our findings suggest that different mechanisms are at play within our cases, depending on aspects including their governing structures and their way and purpose of operation. While farmers had difficulties relying solely on their income from these initiatives for their livelihoods, organizational challenges experienced by food communities were mainly related to difficulties associated to managing tasks on a voluntary basis. Moreover, arriving at a shared understanding about mutual goals, in addition to finding a way to include stakeholders in the process, were among the most prevalent challenges of all initiatives.

I owe sincere gratitude to many people, including professors, colleagues and friends, who support... more I owe sincere gratitude to many people, including professors, colleagues and friends, who supported me during this journey. First of all, I present my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Davide Viaggi for offering me this incredible and priceless opportunity, that not only provided me with an amazing chance in terms of my career in research, but also a unique life experience. I, thus, am sincerely grateful for his guidance, support and valuable advices. I also thank Associate Prof. Emel Karakaya Ayalp for her suggestions, as well as for sharing her perspective about the Turkish case. I also thank sincerely my friend and fellow-worker İdil Akdöş for her continuous support in listening to my ideas, and providing time for discussion and brainstorming sessions that were important for me during this period, as well as her significant support during my field research. Moreover, although, unfortunately I cannot mention each of their names here, I would like to thank sincerely, the members, coordinators and volunteers of food communities, in addition to farmers, interns, food activists, researchers, non-governmental organization (NGO) members, and those who have dedicated themselves to food justice and security issues and concerns, in all parts of Turkey, who have contributed greatly to my research, in sharing of ideas, recommendations, and also in making the data collection phase possible. Observing and sharing their experiences further strengthened my belief in the work that I do. Furthermore, I owe special and sincere thanks to my mother and many friends, who have supported me continuously during this period. Last but not least I am grateful to the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), of the University of Bologna, for the scholarship provided, that made the research described in this thesis possible. Consumer-production interaction-based models, (2) Transformative learning models, (3) SFSCs as innovative learning spaces, (4) Sustainability indicators approach, and (5) Collaborative governance approaches. Finally, a learning framework is proposed specifically for the purposes of SFSCs, which takes contributions from three different prominent theories, namely, experiential learning theory, community of practice theory and activity theory.

Sustainability

The term food community networks (FCNs) has been introduced to define a governance structure wher... more The term food community networks (FCNs) has been introduced to define a governance structure where consumers and producers integrate their functions to promote socially just, environmentally conscious, and healthier ways of food provisioning for communities. We use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore how consumers’ behavioral intentions are shaped to participate in FCNs in Turkey. We extend the theory by exploring if collaboration is a factor that influences consumer participation. We further identify the main challenges associated with active participation. The findings show that the extended construct in our study, that is collaboration, positively and significantly predicted consumers’ attitude, while attitude, along with subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) had significant and positive effects on consumers’ intention to participate (co-produce) in FCNs. Consumers regarded time constraints as the biggest issue preventing active participation, while l...

Sustainability