Child marriage, commonly defined as the marriage of children under the age 18, became an issue of concern over the past several decades. Today, the majority of countries have laws setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 years old. What... more
Child marriage, commonly defined as the marriage of children under the age 18, became an issue of concern over the past several decades. Today, the majority of countries have laws setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 years old. What explains this global legislative shift that started haltingly in the 1960s and 1970s and intensified greatly in the 1990s? This is one of the major research questions addressed in this dissertation. In addition to this global legislative trend, starting in the late 1990s, child marriage became a focus of concern for many international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and multilateral organizations. How did child marriage come to be defined as a major global problem? This is the second major question examined in the dissertation. I address these questions through a mixed methods study. In the first section, I utilize qualitative methods such as interviews and document analysis to examine global cultural scripts that constitute the discourse against child marriage. Second, I conduct quantitative analyses of factors influencing legislation setting the minimum age of marriage at 18. I analyze time-series data for 167 countries from 1965 to 2015. By means of survival analysis techniques, I examine factors that help explain which countries were early adopters of legislation. By using logistic regression, I analyze factors that help explain whether or not a country ever adopted a minimum-18 marriage law in the 50 years of my analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative findings indicate that world cultural scripts are crucial for understanding the global fight against child marriage, in terms of both legislative reforms and the international movement. Country characteristics matter comparatively little; it is largely the global system that has shaped the process.
Conservative NGOs contesting women's rights in the UN are on the rise, and their activity is increasingly being described as an antifeminist backlash. The paper argues that this backlash has been facilitated by the socialization of... more
Conservative NGOs contesting women's rights in the UN are on the rise, and their activity is increasingly being described as an antifeminist backlash. The paper argues that this backlash has been facilitated by the socialization of conservative NGOs into transnational practices and the UN. To show this, the paper approaches this socialization comprehensively, applying several analytical angles: the definition, directionality, mechanism, degree, and the effects of socialization. The paper treats conservative NGOs' socialization as both a process and an outcome. It sees this socialization as developing horizontally, via competitive mimicry of feminist NGOs in two domains: the manner of transnational organizing and the skillful use of the UN's human rights framework. The paper assesses that conservative NGOs socialized into transnational NGO practices and into the UN's regulative institutional rules, but not into its constitutive norms, namely its progressively leaning human rights framework. This framework is what they are there to contest. The chief effect of this kind of socialization is polarization. The paper singles out and empirically illustrates four of these: sneaky institutional strategies, zero-sum approach to policy, perceiving one another as an existential threat, and depicting one's position as morally justified and that of their opponents as morally questionable.
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by... more
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, the UN Africa Group, and the G77. Uniting them is the aim of restoring the 'natural family' and opposing 'gender ideology'. The group has become increasingly strategic, and its impact can already be seen in a number of UN fora, including the Security Council. By surveying feminist notions of backlash and comparing them to Alter and Zürn's definition of 'backlash politics', the article gauges whether the group's activities can be characterised as such politics. The conclusion is that they can, suggesting that we are looking at a group with the potential to alter not only the global course of women's rights but also how politics is done within the UN.
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by... more
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, the UN Africa Group, and the G77. Uniting them is the aim of restoring the 'natural family' and opposing 'gender ideology'. The group has become increasingly strategic, and its impact can already be seen in a number of UN fora, including the Security Council. By surveying feminist notions of backlash and comparing them to Alter and Zürn's definition of 'backlash politics', the article gauges whether the group's activities can be characterised as such politics. The conclusion is that they can, suggesting that we are looking at a group with the potential to alter not only the global course of women's rights but also how politics is done within the UN.
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by... more
Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, the UN Africa Group, and the G77. Uniting them is the aim of restoring the ‘natural family’ and opposing ‘gender ideology’. The group has become increasingly strategic, and its impact can already be seen in a number of UN fora, including the Security Council. By surveying feminist notions of backlash and comparing them to Alter and Zürn’s definition of ‘backlash politics’, the article gauges whether the group’s activities can be characterised as such politics. The conclusion is that they can, suggesting that we are looking at a group with the potential to alter not only the global course of women’s rights but also how politics is done within the UN.
The majority of countries in the world have laws setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 years old. This is a global legislative trend that intensified greatly in the 1990s. What explains this tr...
Conservative NGOs contesting women’s rights in the United Nations are on the rise, and their activity is increasingly described as an antifeminist backlash. This article focuses a new theoretical lens on this development: socialization.... more
Conservative NGOs contesting women’s rights in the United Nations are on the rise, and their activity is increasingly described as an antifeminist backlash. This article focuses a new theoretical lens on this development: socialization. It argues that conservative NGOs’ socialization into transnational practices and the United Nations has played a significant part in facilitating the antifeminist backlash. To support this claim, the article examines socialization comprehensively, applying several analytical angles: its definition, directionality, mechanism, degree and effects. It also treats conservative NGOs’ socialization as both a process and an outcome. As a process, it unfolds horizontally, by conservative NGOs competitively mimicking feminist NGOs in two domains in particular: their manner of transnational organizing and their skilful use of the UN human rights framework. The article finds that conservative NGOs have socialized into transnational NGO practices and the regulati...
Why have more Dutch-Moroccan youth joined ISIS than any other ethnic group in the Netherlands? How can scholars interpret this radicalisation in light of the rising anti-Moroccan rhetoric of the Party for Freedom (PVV)? Through... more
Why have more Dutch-Moroccan youth joined ISIS than any other ethnic group in the Netherlands? How can scholars interpret this radicalisation in light of the rising anti-Moroccan rhetoric of the Party for Freedom (PVV)? Through deconstructing the political manifestos, speeches and bills of the Party for Freedom, I will determine what specifically constitutes Dutch Islamophobia, compare the Dutch example to Islamophobia in other European states, and analyse the arguments that are used to legitimise hatred against Islam and Muslims, especially Moroccan Muslims, in the Netherlands. Due to the globalisation of the PVV party-model, not understanding how these xenophobic political structures affect marginalised populations will consequently catalyse transnational radicalisation and increase the associated societal costs.
Batılı anlamda bir “refah toplumu” yaratamayan Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nde, son dönemde hız kazanan neo-liberal politikalar nedeniyle, sosyal refah devleti idealinin terk edilip/ edilmediği konusunun giderek daha büyük bir tartışma konusu... more
Batılı anlamda bir “refah toplumu” yaratamayan Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nde, son dönemde hız kazanan neo-liberal politikalar nedeniyle, sosyal refah devleti idealinin terk edilip/ edilmediği konusunun giderek daha büyük bir tartışma konusu oluşturduğu gözlemleniyor. Her ne kadar önemli bir genç nüfus potansiyelini içinde barındırsa da, ülkede yaşlı nüfusun, genel nüfusa oranının önemli ölçüde artmaya başladığı da unutulmamalıdır. Bu bağlamda, yaşlı nüfusun sosyal hakları ve bu hakların getirdiği uygulamalar, Türkiye’de sosyal hakların geleceğine dair mevcut tartışma konularından birisini oluşturmaktadır. Mevcut hükümet tarafından öngörülen bazı gelişmeler olmasına rağmen, Türkiye’de yaşlı hakları halen yeterli konumda değildir. Bu kapsamda, Türk devletinin sosyal bir devlet olup olmadığına dair öne sürülen tezler, yaşlılara yönelik sosyal politika hükümlerinin yetersizliği ve bu hükümlerin de “haklar” temelinde barındırdığı yoksunluk mevcut durumu anlamak için önemlidir. Bu temelde, bu makale yaşlı haklarının mevcut durumu ve AKP dönemi içindeki gelişmeleri, eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.
Family conflict has been found to play a role in caregivers' psychological well-being; however, few studies have considered race differences in the prevalence and consequences of caregiving conflict. In this paper, we use... more
Family conflict has been found to play a role in caregivers' psychological well-being; however, few studies have considered race differences in the prevalence and consequences of caregiving conflict. In this paper, we use mixed-methods to examine differences in the experiences of conflict among Black and White adult children caring for mothers. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 279 adult-child caregivers (213 White; 66 Black). Multilevel modeling revealed that conflict with mothers predicted depressive symptoms among Black, but not White caregivers, whereas there were not statistically significant race differences in the effects of conflict with siblings. However within-model tests showed stronger effects of conflict with mothers than siblings for Black caregivers, and stronger effects of conflict with siblings than mothers for White caregivers. Qualitative data revealed that Black caregivers' conflict with mothers resulted from their inability to meet th...
This study explores cross-cultural variations in adult children's perceptions of maternal favoritism during caregiving in Turkey and the United States. Qualitative analysis of interview data from two siblings in each of 14 Turkish and... more
This study explores cross-cultural variations in adult children's perceptions of maternal favoritism during caregiving in Turkey and the United States. Qualitative analysis of interview data from two siblings in each of 14 Turkish and 14 American families revealed differences in adult children's perceptions of and explanations for maternal favoritism. Most Turkish children perceived that their mothers favored sons because of higher filial expectations from sons. Conversely, most American children perceived that their mothers favored daughters and explained mothers' preferences as based on socioemotional factors. Furthermore, perceptions of maternal favoritism had detrimental consequences for sibling relationships in both contexts but differently. Turkish daughters reported conflicts over their favored brothers' lack of cooperation. American daughters perceived themselves as favored and felt obligated to undertake most of the caregiving burden which fueled sibling con...
