Isil Erdinc: Labour unions and politics in Turkey. Industrial relations under the AKP rule (2002-2015)
Thesis abstract:
The thesis studies the relationship between the political parties and labour unions and the role of the State in reconstruction of the trade union field in Turkey under the government of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) from 2002 to 2015. Joining the discussion around Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, it examines the relations between three labour union confederations (DİSK, Hak-İş, Türk-İş) and the main political families (left-wing factions, kemalism, conservative Islamism, liberal democracy, nationalism). It points out that the State intervention, the internal political conflicts and the restructuring of the labour market during the neoliberal era in Turkey are three main factors playing a role in the labour unions’ collective action strategies. Under the AKP government, the influence of political cleavages on trade union strategies increases. Being for or against the AKP government becomes the main axis of union competition. These homologies do not yet happen in the same way at all scales. The local (sectorial and territorial), and even international dynamics generate a plurality of configurations. Autonomous spaces for resistance for trade unions emerge at the local level.
Current research project:
This project focuses on the economic structures of contemporary Turkey from the foundation of the republic in 1923 to the present day. More precisely, it examines the models of accumulation of capital and the transformation of relations within the economic power field. It plans to report on political changes from a study on the economic field and the role of the state in the regulation of capital. Through a study of foreign investment and international trade agreements, the project aims to make a political sociology of economics in the post-ottoman area. This project proposes to reflect on the division of labour in domination and on the regimes formally democratic but whose practices of government do not allow to characterize them as democratic.