Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Deriving from the Gezi Park protests, this chapter focuses on an art exhibition that took place in Istanbul in 2017, which was realized under the ‘Aesthetics of Protest’ project. Looking at past examples of community art practices, this... more
Deriving from the Gezi Park protests, this chapter focuses on an art exhibition that took place in Istanbul in 2017, which was realized under the ‘Aesthetics of Protest’ project. Looking at past examples of community art practices, this exhibition proposes to think of collectivity as a form of resistance and frames how aesthetics of protest can be traced to artistic work in order to provide solidarity and empowerment. Working with different art and environmental collectives, the exhibition questions the idea of ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘neighbourliness’ and searches for ways of sustaining hope and solidarity through the aesthetic values of the Gezi Park protests and in an artistic practice. This chapter conceptualizes the process of the exhibition and its artistic research process.
Research Interests:
This study aims to shed light on Turkish football forum users on the Internet from a social identity and uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective in order to reveal joint intentions among football fans online. The research model of the... more
This study aims to shed light on Turkish football forum users on the Internet from a social identity and uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective in order to reveal joint intentions among football fans online. The research model of the current study applies a uses and gratifications approach to examine whether fan motivations while using online football forums determine we-intentions among forum members. Social influence processes are also essential in the context of research on online forums, since they determine changes in attitudes and actions produced by the virtual social influence that may occur at different levels. Findings reveal uses and gratifications of football forum participation as maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, generating entertainment and purposive value along with affective social identity construct determined we-intention among forum users.
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On 20 September 2011, Fenerbahçe, played against Manisaspor in front of 41,000 women and children under 12. The usual crowd, male Fenerhahçe fans, waited outside the stadium, trying to join in with the chants. Fenerbahçe had become the... more
On 20 September 2011, Fenerbahçe, played against Manisaspor in front of 41,000 women and children under 12. The usual crowd, male Fenerhahçe fans, waited outside the stadium, trying to join in with the chants. Fenerbahçe had become the first soccer club to pioneer a new sanctions code for fan trouble. Under the new code, the team could only allow women and children in, instead of playing in an empty stadium. This chapter focuses on this“historic decision” which was in effect for three seasons. It explores the issue from the female fans’ point of view as well as from a human rights perspective.
Research Interests: Sociology, Social Movements, Gender Studies, Gender, Feminism, and 4 moreIslam, Sports, Routledge, and Football Soccer
Istanbul's ‘Big Three’ football clubs, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, dominate the Turkish Super League. The matches between these fiercely rival teams, also known as ‘derbies’, are often intense and culminate in the eruption... more
Istanbul's ‘Big Three’ football clubs, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, dominate the Turkish Super League. The matches between these fiercely rival teams, also known as ‘derbies’, are often intense and culminate in the eruption of violence, which has even been fatal on occasion. To many people's surprise, the anti-government protests which were sparked by outrage over police action against environmental protestors in May 2013 brought these eternal rivals together. Thousands of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray supporters marched arm-in-arm to Taksim Square and demanded justice and freedom. Out of this solidarity is born Istanbul United, a seemingly new fan group with a new logo that combines the three rival logos. Çarşı, the legendary fan group of Beşiktaş, also played an important role in the protests and received the support of all football fans as well. This paper will focus on the politicisation of football in Turkey during the second half of 2013. By looking at both the political role of football fans of the ‘Big Three’ during and after the Gezi protests, and the ways in which mutual respect and solidarity is born among diverse protesters, this paper discusses the possibilities of translating this positive genre to a peaceful spectatorship in Turkish football.
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Discussions on the right to privacy usually involve persons in the Lockean sense. However, psychological properties that make up the person can be lost due to neurodegenerative diseases, cerebral tumors or trauma. Depending on the... more
Discussions on the right to privacy usually involve persons in the Lockean sense. However, psychological properties that make up the person can be lost due to neurodegenerative diseases, cerebral tumors or trauma. Depending on the severity of the disease or the trauma the patient may end up in PVS (persistent vegetative state) or a coma. In this article the privacy rights of these patients will be discussed. In light of two examples − the publication of photographs showing Bülent Ecevit and Barış Akarsu in a coma − it will be argued that the privacy rights secured by the Turkish Constitution are being violated by the Turkish Press.
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Protestors across the world use aesthetics in order to communicate their ideas and ensure their voices are heard. This book looks at protest aesthetics, which we consider to be the visual and performative elements of protest, such as... more
Protestors across the world use aesthetics in order to communicate their ideas and ensure their voices are heard. This book looks at protest aesthetics, which we consider to be the visual and performative elements of protest, such as images, symbols, graffiti, art, as well as the choreography of protest actions in public spaces. Through the use of social media, protestors have been able to create an alternative space for people to engage with politics that is more inclusive and participatory than traditional politics. This volume focuses on the role of visual culture in a highly mediated environment and draws on case studies from Europe, Thailand, South Africa, USA, Argentina, and the Middle East in order to demonstrate how protestors use aesthetics to communicate their demands and ideas. It examines how digital media is harnessed by protestors and argues that all protest aesthetics are performative and communicative.
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Research Interests:
Founded by four friends in 2006, the fan group Ladies of Besiktas are supporters of one of the largest football clubs in Turkey, with hundreds of active members and representatives in almost all Turkish cities as well as in Germany and... more
Founded by four friends in 2006, the fan group Ladies of Besiktas are supporters of one of the largest football clubs in Turkey, with hundreds of active members and representatives in almost all Turkish cities as well as in Germany and Japan. On their official Facebook page their mission is listed as reconciling the three seemingly contradictory concepts of ‘women’, ‘football’ and ‘fandom’ in Turkey. Their main fight is directed against the gender inequality and violence inside the stadia. They march into Besiktas’s Inönü Stadium dressed in identical black and white scarves and jackets and blow whistles to mute the male fans who use foul language. This article will link the emergence of the fan group Ladies of Besiktas to the political changes in the first half of the 20th century in Turkey and elaborate on its effect on the disruption of gender norms.
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Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ips-10.1177_0192512120971151 for Looking for truth in absurdity: Humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism by Umut Korkut, Aidan McGarry, Itir Erhart, Hande Eslen-Ziya and Olu... more
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ips-10.1177_0192512120971151 for Looking for truth in absurdity: Humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism by Umut Korkut, Aidan McGarry, Itir Erhart, Hande Eslen-Ziya and Olu Jenzen in International Political Science Review
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This chapter explores the relevance of the protest song as politicalcommunication in the Internet era. Focusing on the prolific and diverse YouTube music video output of the Gezi Park protest of 2013, we explore how digital technologies... more
This chapter explores the relevance of the protest song as politicalcommunication in the Internet era. Focusing on the prolific and diverse YouTube music video output of the Gezi Park protest of 2013, we explore how digital technologies and social media offer new opportunities for protest music to be produced and reach new audiences. We argue that the affordances of digital media and Internet platforms such as YouTube play a crucial part in the production, distribution and consumption of protest music. In the music videos, collected from Twitter, activists use a range of aesthetic and rhetorical tools such as various mash-up techniquesto challenge mainstream media reporting on the protest, communicatesolidarity, and express resistance to dominant political discourse.
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Resimli cocuk kitaplari, kulturel degerler ileten araclardir ve bu da onlari toplumsal normlar konusunda degerli bir gosterge haline getirir. Bu calismada, bu kitaplarin hangi sekillerde okul oncesi cocuklar icin karakter gelistirme... more
Resimli cocuk kitaplari, kulturel degerler ileten araclardir ve bu da onlari toplumsal normlar konusunda degerli bir gosterge haline getirir. Bu calismada, bu kitaplarin hangi sekillerde okul oncesi cocuklar icin karakter gelistirme araclari olarak kullanildiklarini bulmak amaclanmistir. Bu bakimdan, su sorulara cevap aramaya calistik. Resimli cocuk kitaplari karakter ozelliklerinin ve davranislarin ogretilmesinde nasil kullanilabilir ve (cocuklar) bu karakter ozelliklerinin (iyi kiz/iyi oglan, dininin gereklerini yerine getiren ve ayni zamanda Turk ailesi icinde iyi bir anne/baba, iyi bir ogul/kiz evlat olan iyi bir insan) hangilerini hayata gecirmeyi tercih edeceklerdir; bu resimli cocuk kitaplari hangi sosyal davranisi asilamaktadir? Sonucta, incelenen butun kitaplardaki carpici ortak noktalardan biri olarak, cocuklarin davranis ve ifadelerinde ilimliliga vurgu yapildigi bulunmustur. Asiri yiyen, asiri oyun oynayan, asiri terleyen ve hatta asiri dinlenen karakterler, butun hikaye...
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This article explores how Twitter has emerged as a signifier of contemporary protest. Using the concept of ‘social media imaginaries’, a derivative of the broader field of ‘media imaginaries’, our analysis seeks to offer new insights into... more
This article explores how Twitter has emerged as a signifier of contemporary protest. Using the concept of ‘social media imaginaries’, a derivative of the broader field of ‘media imaginaries’, our analysis seeks to offer new insights into activists’ relation to and conceptualisation of social media and how it shapes their digital media practices. Extending the concept of media imaginaries to include analysis of protestors’ use of aesthetics, it aims to unpick how a particular ‘social media imaginary’ is constructed and informs their collective identity. Using the Gezi Park protest of 2013 as a case study, it illustrates how social media became a symbolic part of the protest movement by providing the visualised possibility of imagining the movement. In previous research, the main emphasis has been given to the functionality of social media as a means of information sharing and a tool for protest organisation. This article seeks to redress this by directing our attention to the role o...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sociology, Social Movements, Digital Media, Visual Culture, Political communication, and 15 morePerformance, Social Media, Protest, Turkey, Visual Communication, Twitter, Sociology of Everyday Life, Public Space, Everyday Life, Protest Movements, Visual, Language Culture and Communication, Social Movement Studies, Gezi Park, and Gezi Protests
This article explores how the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, Turkey, exemplify the changing character of contemporary social movements, where teamwork and collaboration are supported and the ability to empower, support, and engage others... more
This article explores how the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, Turkey, exemplify the changing character of contemporary social movements, where teamwork and collaboration are supported and the ability to empower, support, and engage others is emphasized. We argue that the role of leadership in social movements in general and in the Turkish Gezi context specifically goes beyond the creation of traditional leaders. This new form of leadership is driven by the possibilities opened up by other democratic and collaborative social movements and also social networking sites. We look at how a horizontal, postheroic leadership message was conveyed via the posters, t-shirts, and chants used by the protestors during the Gezi Park protests, with analysis supported by interviews conducted with protesters.
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The gendered model of the Republican era emphasized masculinities and femininities under the guise of equality. While women were seen as the sacred symbol, totems, of modernization and men were given the duty of modernizing women and... more
The gendered model of the Republican era emphasized masculinities and femininities under the guise of equality. While women were seen as the sacred symbol, totems, of modernization and men were given the duty of modernizing women and civilizing the Turkish nation. The Republican masculinity was Westernized and characterized by rationalism, enlightenment values and elitism. In this paper, we will examine Republican masculinity and its crisis as represented in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s bitter, arrogant middle-aged character Aydın in Winter Sleep (2014). We will argue that such masculinities, because they are no longer part of the dominant discourse, are now dissolving. We will try to account for Aydın’s own masculinity crisis with reference to the Republican masculinity project, its challenges, how it reached an impasse and led to a masculinity crisis at the macro level. Finally, we will examine how the masculinity crisis at the macro level has led some men to question the ideals set forwar...
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Cumhuriyet Turkiye'sinin ilk yillarinda, esitlik kisvesi altinda, kadinlik ve erkeklik vurgusu cok belirgindir. Kadinlar Turk modernlesme surecinin kursal sembolleri, totemleri, olarak konumlandirilirken erkeklere de kadinlarin... more
Cumhuriyet Turkiye'sinin ilk yillarinda, esitlik kisvesi altinda, kadinlik ve erkeklik vurgusu cok belirgindir. Kadinlar Turk modernlesme surecinin kursal sembolleri, totemleri, olarak konumlandirilirken erkeklere de kadinlarin modernlesmesini saglama, Turk milletini muasir medeniyetler seviyesine tasima gorevi verilmistir. Cumhuriyet erkekligi rasyonalite, batililik, Aydinlanmacilik ve elitizm ile karakterize edilebilir. Bu makalede Cumhuriyet erkekligini ve bu erkekligin krizini Nuri Bilge Ceylan'in Kis Uykusu (2014) filmindeki orta yasli, kibirli Aydin karakteri uzerinden incelemeye calisacagiz. Bu tur erkekligin, artik egemen soylemin parcasi olmadigi icin, cozulmeye basladigini iddia edecegiz. Aydin'in kisisel olarak yasadigi erkeklik krizini, Cumhuriyet erkekligi projesine, bu projenin cikmazlarina ve bunlarin makro duzeyde yarattigi erkeklik krizine deginerek aciklamaya calisacagiz. Son olarak da makro duzeyde yasanan erkeklik krizinin nasil bazi erkekleri Cumh...
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Deriving from the Gezi Park protests, this chapter focuses on an art exhibition that took place in Istanbul in 2017, which was realized under the ‘Aesthetics of Protest’ project. Looking at past examples of community art practices, this... more
Deriving from the Gezi Park protests, this chapter focuses on an art exhibition that took place in Istanbul in 2017, which was realized under the ‘Aesthetics of Protest’ project. Looking at past examples of community art practices, this exhibition proposes to think of collectivity as a form of resistance and frames how aesthetics of protest can be traced to artistic work in order to provide solidarity and empowerment. Working with different art and environmental collectives, the exhibition questions the idea of ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘neighbourliness’ and searches for ways of sustaining hope and solidarity through the aesthetic values of the Gezi Park protests and in an artistic practice. This chapter conceptualizes the process of the exhibition and its artistic research process.
Research Interests:
What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social networking and digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content? Our research argues that the way in which humour is deployed... more
What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social networking and digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content? Our research argues that the way in which humour is deployed through digital media during protest action allows protestors to assert humanity and sincerity against dehumanising political manipulation frameworks. Humorous content, to this extent, enables and is indicative of independent thinking and creativity. It causes contemplation, confronts the hegemonic power of the oppressor, and challenges fear and apathy. In order to conduct this research, we collected and analysed tweets shared during the Gezi Park protests. Gezi Parkı was chosen as the keyword since it was an unstructured and neutral term. Among millions of visual images shared during the protests, we concentrate on those that depict humour both in photography and video formats.