Book Chapters by Basak Akkan
Papers by Basak Akkan
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Jul 21, 2023
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Nov 20, 2020
Istanbul Bilgi University, Jun 5, 2023
Social Politics, Nov 13, 2017
Abstract:This article deals with the politics of care and the changing features of familialism in... more Abstract:This article deals with the politics of care and the changing features of familialism in Turkey under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). While sacred familialism, which is built on the role of women as devoted care providers and blessed mothers, is evident in the AKP’s gender politics, care has received more public recognition through targeted policies than in any other period of the modern Republic. A combination of conflicting cultural, social, political, and demographic forces has compelled the AKP to introduce care policies in different realms of life to support the family in its caring function.
Istanbul Bilgi University, Sep 30, 2022
Son 20-30 yıl içerisinde feminist yazında bakım kavramını ele alan çalışmaların sayısı arttı. Anc... more Son 20-30 yıl içerisinde feminist yazında bakım kavramını ele alan çalışmaların sayısı arttı. Ancak bakım kavramı farklı boyutlarıyla tartışabilecek, karmaşık bir kavram olma özelliğini koruyor. Son dönemde, eşitlik mücadelelerinin, ihtimam toplumu tahayyüllerinin ve toplumsal dayanışma ilişkilerinin biçimlerini belirleyen bir kavram olarak da bakım, günlük yaşamımızda daha fazla telaffuz edilir hale geldi. Bakım kavramının bugün sosyal bilimlerde bu kadar üzerinde durulan bir kavram olması da, bakımın toplumsal eşitsizlikleri ortaya koyduğu kadar, iyi toplum tahayyülleri için de ışık tutucu bir kavram olması. Bu makale, bakım kavramını politik bir kavram olarak ele alıyor, feminist yazına dayanan bir yaklaşım ile bakım kavramını farklı boyutları ile tartışarak, ihtimam toplumu tahayyüllerimizde bakım kavramının ve bakım etiğinin toplumsal bir arada olma ve dayanışma ilişkilerimizi düzenleyici rolü üzerinde duruyor. Makale, salgın ile birlikte dünyanın gündemine oturan bakım tartışmalarını kuramsal bir çerçeve sunarak bakım siyasetinin kamusal alandaki yerini bir kez daha tartışmaya açıyor.
Research and policy on Turkey, Jul 3, 2018
Women are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in Turkey in terms of their labour market ... more Women are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in Turkey in terms of their labour market participation. This article explores the changing features of work and family reconciliation; the possible effects of newly introduced labour market policies on flexibility, and childcare arrangements. The vulnerability of women young women in particularin the labour market manifests itself in two areas: access to the labour market and staying in the labour market. The problems of access and continuity can be explained by difficulties in reconciling work and family life and by a labour market structure that creates vulnerabilities for young women, particularly those with a low level of education who engage in informal and precarious jobs. We argue that policies that aim to support women's employment are situated in the wider context of policies that are designed to promote flexible employment practices, and as such, their capacity for creating decent work opportunities for women is questioned. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate public childcare (which reflects the traditional gender division of labour within the family), ostensibly women-friendly measures fail to produce the desired outcome: an increase in female employment. Flexible measures end up increasing the vulnerability of young women who are engaged in precarious jobs. This situation will persist unless policies are instituted that reconcile work and family and that address gender and class inequalities by providing extensive childcare facilities.
Journal of Gender Studies, Mar 28, 2019
This article explores care as an inequality-creating phenomenon pertaining to the position of you... more This article explores care as an inequality-creating phenomenon pertaining to the position of young female carers. Engaging the normative theory of Nancy Fraser on 'participatory parity' as a framework for equality, an intersectional analysis of childcare practices of young female carers reveals inequalities that cut across class and gender, and given the focus on young carers, age is incorporated as a third social category. The experiences of sibling care practices of older daughters are explored in the familialist institutional and cultural setting of Istanbul, where the gendered identity of the young carer is constructed, and the childhood participation is shaped in relation to the care work. Driving on the empirical study conducted in Istanbul, the article aims to build the link between the normative theory of equality and intersectional analysis of care family care practices of young female carers. The article argues that care emerges as an inequality-creating phenomenon that cuts across not just gender and class but also age in cases where the participatory parity is hindered.
Child Indicators Research, Aug 6, 2018
Residing on an empirical study carried out in Istanbul with young female carers (daughters who sh... more Residing on an empirical study carried out in Istanbul with young female carers (daughters who share the care responsibility of their younger siblings with their mothers), this article explores the care provider positioning of a child by contemplating the dilemma of empowerment/vulnerability in relation to generational order and relational agency of the child. The care responsibility within the course of childhood locates a particular intergenerational experience. Understanding this experience from the standpoint of children contributes to the conceptualisation of childhood as a contested, yet relational space of interdependencies along the generational order. The study demonstrates that sharing the caring responsibility of a family member brings both empowerment and vulnerability for young carers that is negotiated within the entangled boundaries of the childhood and adulthood. The emerging themes pertaining to the empowering features of caring duties are solidarity between the mother and older daughter being/feeling capable of doing things without being supervised by an adult whereas the emerging themes pertaining to vulnerability are physical and emotional (anxiety) burdens of caring for younger sibling and the difficulty older daughter's have in balancing their own needs against their siblings' needs. The narratives of young female carers reveal the solidaristic as well as the conflicting features of the intergenerational relations (childhood in relation to adulthood) along the lines of empowerment and vulnerability that problematizes the interdependencies and agency of the child within the generational order.
Toplum ve sosyal hizmet, Jul 29, 2022
concerning low-income families' access to social assistance schemes. In our research being shared... more concerning low-income families' access to social assistance schemes. In our research being shared in the article, in-depth interviews were carried out with the social assistance provision administrators, social workers, beneficiaries of the cash-for-care scheme, and NGO representatives. Based on their narratives, the concepts of deservingness and mobility are being explored.
Sosyal siyaset konferansları dergisi, Aug 25, 2022
Yakın dünya tarihinde benzeri görülmemiş bir sağlık krizine yol açan COVID-19 salgını ülkelerin u... more Yakın dünya tarihinde benzeri görülmemiş bir sağlık krizine yol açan COVID-19 salgını ülkelerin uzun dönemli bakım rejimleri üzerinde ciddi bir baskı oluşturmuş; yaşlı, engelli ve bakım gereksinimi duyan tüm bireyleri refah sistemleri içinde daha da kırılgan hale getirmiştir. Özellikle, Kuzey Amerika ve Avrupa ülkelerinde uzun dönemli bakım kurumlarında gerçekleşen ölümlerin tüm COVID-19 ölümlerinin neredeyse yarısını oluşturması, uzun dönemli bakım politikalarını ve kurumlarını tekrar tartışmaya açmıştır. Türkiye yüzde 4'lük oranıyla uzun dönemli bakım kurumlarında gerçekleşen COVID-19'a bağlı ölüm oranının düşük sayıldığı ülkeler arasındadır. Ancak, Türkiye'de yaşlı nüfus ağırlıklı olarak kurum bakımı dışında aile temelli bakım almaktadır ve salgının ilk dönemlerinde uzun dönemli bakım kurumları dışında ölümlerin çoğunluğunu 65 yaş üstü bireyler oluşturmuştur. Makale, Türkiye'deki COVID-19 salgınının uzun dönemli bakım alanı üzerindeki etkisini Türkiye'nin aile temelli bakım rejimini temel alarak tartışmaktadır. Türkiye yaşlı nüfusunu korumak için uzun soluklu karantina önlemleri hayata geçirmiştir. Bu önlemler, COVID-19 salgınına yönelik birbirini izleyen dört dönem içinden tartışılmaktadır. Makalede ortaya konduğu üzere, uzun dönemli bakım alanında farklı aşama ve düzeylerde geliştirilen bu önlemler aileyi temel alan uzun dönemli bakım politikaları üzerine inşa edilmiştir. Salgının bir sonucu olarak öncelikli hale gelen uzun dönemli bakım rejiminin geleceği, alan yazınında ortaya konan tartışmalar ile paralellik göstermektedir.
Social Inclusion, Sep 16, 2021
This article deals with the educational arrangements and the multiple inequalities that they repr... more This article deals with the educational arrangements and the multiple inequalities that they reproduce from a comparative perspective. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in six countries (Austria, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, and the UK) as part of a multinational research project concerning justice in Europe, the article explores the mechanisms through which education sustains and reproduces "categorical inequalities." Although equal access to education is granted by constitutional laws as well as by incorporation of international treaties in the national legal frameworks, it is commonly the educational arrangements that identify the features of access to good quality education in a given context. Dealing with different country cases that have their path dependencies in the arrangements of education, the article provides insights on understanding how different features of segregation in education operate as mechanisms of exclusion for students from a disadvantaged background. Hence, the disadvantages manifest themselves concerning socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and minority background. By focusing on the country-based debates around school segregation, which goes together with the segregated character of urban settings and school choice patterns, the article shows how the institutional context with or without residency-based registration rules and different types of schools with different resources perpetuate multiple inequalities. In a context where educational arrangements operate as a mechanism of sustaining categorical inequalities, identity-based differences, combined with economic disadvantages lead to a situation where students from vulnerable and minority groups face multiple forms of exclusion.
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Nov 20, 2020
Various chapters in this book have investigated mechanisms that generate injustice as well as mec... more Various chapters in this book have investigated mechanisms that generate injustice as well as mechanisms that contribute to justice. Some (Chapters 4, 5 and 6) have examined legal rules and practices related to the exercise of specific rights, others (Chapters 7 to 10) explored discursive constructions of justice-related tensions in political and advocacy discourses or analysed struggles for justice by bringing in the perspective on (in)justice of vulnerable populations and stakeholders in the domains of welfare benefits and care. The focus was on social groups that are defined as vulnerable by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in European Union (EU) law and in EU legislation such as ethnic and national minorities, people with disabilities, frail elderly, migrant care workers and young unemployed women. Together they embody intersectional categories of age, class, ethnicity and gender in specific configurations. This chapter aims to unravel mechanisms of redistributive, recognitive and representative justice causing outcomes for vulnerable populations in Europe that are supportive for reaching the capability to live the life one values (focus on individual development) and participatory parity (focus on equal social participation). Such mechanisms consist of entities (with their properties) and the activities that these entities engage in bringing about change. Section 13.2 conceptualizes mechanisms that impede (in)justice and outlines the theoretical and methodological approach of the chapter. Section 13.3 elaborates entities as mechanisms of (in)justice and Section 13.4 focuses on activities that impede (in)justice. The final section of this chapter is a concluding one that reflects on the findings.
Romani Studies, Jun 1, 2017
This article aims to reveal the multidimensional aspects of social exclusion of Roma in Turkey, w... more This article aims to reveal the multidimensional aspects of social exclusion of Roma in Turkey, which manifests itself in the stigmatized space of Roma neighborhood. In our analysis, we do not depict 'Roma' distinctively as an ethnic category but as a 'low status' in the society that is embedded in the stigmatized places. We argue that those from a Roma neighborhood hold a common "stigmatized spatial identity", regardless of their ethnicity, which determines the processes of poverty and social exclusion in different spheres of life. In order to unfold the process of social exclusion that we refer to as the "Romanization of poverty", our study provides analysis under the analytical category of spatial stigmatization intertwined with insecure livelihood.
Çalışma ve toplum, Jan 25, 2023
The long-term care policy debates that came to the fore with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemi... more The long-term care policy debates that came to the fore with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed the importance of care labour and universal social care service delivery. This article presents an evaluation of care work from the perspective of care workers in the context of long-term care services in Turkey. It discusses the importance of universal social care services within the framework of care work. The research data is based on the qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 11 care workers working in public, municipal and private long-term care institutions. In this context, the meanings attributed to care by social care workers, their perceptions of the limits of care work, and their situation in the labour market are discussed. The result of the research underlines the importance of the delivery of post-pandemic universal social care services and improving the working conditions of care workers while emphasizing the importance of the universal provision of social care services by rendering paid care work valuable with a view to enhancing social welfare.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Jan 27, 2020
European politics and society, Jul 29, 2020
Political discourses in Europe operate at the supranational, national and local level, with supra... more Political discourses in Europe operate at the supranational, national and local level, with supranational institutions providing a normative framework for the policy making at lower governance level. However, the actual appeal of the legal, political and normative frameworks offered by supranational European institutions remains unclear. For example, while 'justice' is deemed constitutive of European values and ideals of democracy, and European institutions offer a clear vision of what 'justice' in pluralistic European societies should imply, relatively little is known about how this normative framework is reflected in national-level politics. The current article aims to close this gap by comparing political discourses on representative justice in six European countries with the European normative framework reconstructed on the basis of documents issued by the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Parliament (EP). The research question we address relates to how the European normative framework on representative justice for minority and vulnerable groups is present and strived for in national political discourses. Our analysis shows that the principles of representative justice set out at the supranational European level lose their appeal at the national level politics permeated with conflicting visions of what is just, for whom and on what moral grounds.
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Book Chapters by Basak Akkan
Papers by Basak Akkan