Exploring publicness as social practice: An analysis on social support within an emerging economy

AbstractBy utilizing the concepts of field, habitus, and capital inherited from Bourdieu, this study explores publicness as a social practice. In doing this, the paper problematizes publicness concerning accountability and public value and empirically explores the organization of social support delivery in Istanbul. We posit our research question: In what manners does publicness open up a space for collaboration and convergence in relation to accountability? The data gathering and analysis follow a qualitative methodology. We found different forms of publicness under three different conditionalities: (1) publicness as political authority based on hierarchization and centralization; (2) publicness as competing positions produced by diverse actors and their diverse positions taken beyond hierarchical relations; (3) publicness as social inclusion and diversity that is all‐embracing by employing more inclusive practices. Publicness relationally unfolds public value with and among formal rules, voluntary practices, and networks. By delving into constitutive elements of practice—symbolic capital and habitus—engaging in the field struggles of redefining and owning publicness, the paper goes beyond the conventional dichotomy of normative versus empirical conceptualizations of publicness and instead differentiates among distinct forms of publicness in different conditionalities and contributes to the literature by bridging publicness and accountability habitus.</jats:p

The Politics of Uncertainty in a Global Market: The Hazelnut Exchange and Its Production

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the market works on the ground. It analyzes the hazelnut market in Turkey and explores the interaction between the market agents. It reveals how this interaction relates to the presence, production and circulation of forms of uncertainty. It also ascertains what uncertainty means in market settings and what role production, representation, dissemination and limiting of uncertainty play in market relations. In market relations, intentionally or unintentionally, individuals try to forecast, value, prevent and qualify (as risk or loss) uncertainties. They assume that they can perceive, measure and avoid uncertainties on the basis of probabilities, level of knowledge about unknowns or ability to overcome. As such, uncertainty is assumed to be given yet with inadequate attention into its constitutive dynamics, actors of its making and its role in the market creation. The dissertation examines how uncertainties are constructed and what role this construction plays in constituting the market exchange and relations. The conclusions reached are that economizing uncertainty becomes a market device in production, exchange, circulation, pricing and policy making. The dissertation starts with an analysis of the market reform policies and agricultural transformation in Turkey. Next, it traces the processes of the production and calculation of hazelnuts, examining how hazelnuts are produced and measured under uncertainty, and how uncertainty is created in the calculation of hazelnuts. It then explains exchange relations and price politics created at different spheres and with different expectations. After that, it explores the struggles and controversies among market groups over the production, calculation, exchange and pricing of hazelnuts and policy making. Subsequently, it analyzes what the politics of uncertainty means and how it is produced in the market setting. Following uncertainties and observing their making in markets require a research program that draws on literatures concerning economics, political science and sociology. The research program includes the discussion of material things, individuals, formal and informal institutions and prices as well as their interactions. The research was based primarily on qualitative interviews, participant observations, case studies and document analysis conducted between 2006 and 2009

The politics of noise: case study of the commercialization of Alaçatı Village, Turkey

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Employing the concept of biopolitics, this study explores noise and policy inaction as normalizing technologies of the body and as market discourse through the commercialization of a small village. Noise in Alaçatı Village, which has been increasing since 2015, is analyzed here in terms of its constitutive processes, which include mechanisms of power and resistance. This approach shows how the normalizing technologies of the body, in conjunction with the inaction and contingency policies of biopower, result in the emergence of new power mechanisms with privatized and individualized modes of action. This study employed a qualitative method involving two months of participant observation and 45 qualitative interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017. The outcomes of policy inaction are as follows: (1) excessive noise is accepted and resistants become silent, (2) connections between noise supporters and resistants are lost, (3) responsibility for overcoming noise is individualized, and (4) de-territorialization and re-territorialization occur

Platform coopetition in the tourism industry: conflicts and tensions caused by the closure of Booking.com in Turkey

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.In March 2017, as a result of a precautionary interim decision made by the courts based on the case relating to ‘unfair competition practices’, Booking.com closed its platform for inbound tourism in Turkey and ceased operations. This was the first instance of an online booking platform halting access for inbound bookings for the domestic market. This platform-based relationship involves both cooperation and competition, and thus this paper identifies this relationship as platform coopetition. Based on the governance network theory and employing a case-study approach, the Booking.com case is examined from the viewpoint of tourism coopetition from two perspectives: industry-wide and agent-specific. The paper provides an analysis of these perspectives and the past and on-going process of Booking.com’s platform closure. The constitutive dynamics this case endangers the coopetitive environment of the tourism industry and thus creates destructive uncertainties, especially for small hotels. This analysis also reveals the issues in terms of political representation for digital service platform companies