REFLEKTIF Journal of Social Sciences

A Holistic Perspective on the Multiple Crises of the Modern World

Çağdaş Doğan — 2025-02-25

The multiple crises of the modern world—such as the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic inequality—are deeply interconnected and complex. Addressing these crises requires a mode of thinking that moves beyond a reductionist, one-dimensional perspective and instead enables an understanding of the complex relationships among these systems. We argue that holistic thinking, which emphasizes the interconnections between phenomena rather than merely categorizing them through analytical thinking, offers an effective approach to tackling contemporary global crises. To explore this idea, we first examine the philosophical and evolutionary foundations of analytical and holistic thinking to clarify their fundamental differences and principles. By synthesizing various Research findings, we then highlight the potential advantages of holistic thinking in addressing key global challenges, particularly the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic inequality. Based on the evidence discussed, we emphasize the importance of analytical thinking for deconstructing and defining concepts while advocating for the complementary role of holistic thinking in capturing the relationships between these elements. We suggest that this holistic approach will provide a crucial framework for comprehensively addressing the multiple crises facing the modern world.

An Intersectional Analysis in the Age of Multiple Crises: The Crises of Democracy and Gender Equality

Gülçin Özge Tan — 2025-02-25

This article examines the interplay between the crisis of democracy—one of the defining challenges of the current era of multiple crises—and the crisis of gender equality. Within this framework, the crisis of democracy is identified as a fundamental driver that exacerbates other crises. It is argued that authoritarian regimes, which often emerge as a consequence of democratic decline, actively perpetuate gender inequality. The article highlights how the position of women, as intersectionally impacted by the convergence of various crises, is intrinsically tied to the broader transformation of democracy. Accordingly, the primary aim of this study is to explore potential pathways for addressing the crisis of gender equality in such a complex and precarious period. Based on a comprehensive review and analysis of the existing literature, the study begins by elucidating the nature of the democratic crisis before delving into its interconnectedness with the crisis of gender equality. The concluding section synthesizes solutions proposed within feminist scholarship as viable strategies to navigate and counter these interrelated crises.

A Magic Recipe or Black Box: Investigating the Narrative of Resilience for Cyber Crises

Salih Bıçakcı — 2025-02-25

Emerging digital technologies and the accompanying socio-economic transformation have made cybersecurity crises an integral part of the era of poly-crises. Furthermore, the evolving characteristics of threat actors and attack methodologies in cybersecurity, along with the complexities of risk modeling and the problems of forecasting attack impacts, have rendered uncertainty and insecurity in this domain nearly normative. Within this framework, cyber resilience has become one of the most prominent paradigms in cybersecurity over the past decade, emphasizing survival and adaptation capabilities during crises. However, cyber resilience is not a single solution, technology, or application; instead, it is a multi-layered perspective that requires the balanced implementation of socio-technical solutions. In this context, by highlighting its differences from cybersecurity, this study aims to explore the concept of cyber resilience in detail and examine it specifically within the dimensions of people, process, and technology approaches for the different phases of cybersecurity crises. Additionally, we address how cybersecurity can be made more accessible, flexible, agile, and inclusive to enhance cyber resilience in the era of poly-crises.

Green Social Service Integration: Climate Refugees and a Sustainable Future

Elmas Kılıçarslan — 2025-02-25

Climate change leads to an increase in global problems such as migration and refugee crisis. These problems particularly affect developing countries and disadvantaged groups living in these countries. Individuals who are forced to leave their living spaces due to climate change have difficulty in meeting their basic needs such as shelter, food and security in the regions where they settle or migrate. The basis of this problem is the question of the status of climate refugees. In this context, the integration of climate refugees and social services is important for a sustainable future. In order to ensure this integration, this article addresses the phenomenon of migration, climate change, the status problem of climate refugees and the importance of social services.

An Assessment of Ethical Tensions and Dilemmas in Qualitative Migration Research

Hande Aral Uluk — 2025-02-25

Migration research has rapidly developed in recent years, with growing academic interest in the structure, meaning, and conceptual framework of migration, alongside its social impacts. However, social scientists have approached this field not from a unified perspective, but from diverse disciplinary and theoretical standpoints, employing various methodological approaches. The increasing number of studies focusing on vulnerable migrants has also brought forth methodological debates and ethical considerations. This study focuses on the experiences and recommendations reflected in the literature regarding research involving vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on migration research. By examining the dilemmas, concerns, and ethical responsibilities encountered during the research process, this study aims to highlight and discuss the challenges faced.

The Construction of Fragility in Antakya: February 6 and February 20 Earthquakes

Saadet Tuğçe Tezer — 2025-02-25

Disasters are events that cause losses for the whole or a significant part of the society, halt or interrupt normal life and human activities, and for which the coping capacity of the society is not sufficient, and the consequences of these events (AFAD, 2023). Our country is particularly vulnerable to some types of natural disasters as a result of its geography. Earthquakes, which have been observed many times in history and have caused significant loss of life and property and great destruction, stand out as the most effective type of disaster in our geography throughout history. Today, when the effects of disasters are getting deeper and deeper, the scope of urban planning discipline is largely related to disaster-resilient urban planning. On February 6, 2023, an earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş caused major destruction and damage in 11 provinces, with Antakya being the province with the greatest destruction and damage. When the causes of the damage in Antakya are analyzed, the effects of the planning and construction processes in the preearthquake period come to the fore. Analyzing the planning and construction processes since the earthquake, almost two years after the earthquake, is important for predicting the level of resilience and vulnerability of Antakya against possible disasters in the coming years. This article analyzes Antakya’s pre-earthquake and post-earthquake construction and planning processes.

Islands of Memory and Resilience: The Importance of Social Memory in The Construction of Resilience

Pınar Karababa Demircan — 2025-02-25

When the emphasis in the definition of resilience shifts towards administrative and institutional continuity policies, the resilience practices created by social dynamics become invisible. However, the continuity of communities in the social space they produce enables both the development of practices in crisis and disaster management and the empowerment of communities by taking part in decisionmaking mechanisms in the space where they are located. While the article discusses the development of social resilience practices through the interaction of social memory with space, it relates the weakening of resilience with lack of spatial continuity and gaps in memory through the example of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake. For resilience to become a functioning system, incorporating the demands of communities and the knowledge and coping mechanisms already produced by them to the planning would, at the same time, reduce the hierarchies between public and local memory

Evaluation of the Witnesses of The 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake in the Context of the Survivors Syndrome and Loneliness Variables

Özlem Anuk — 2025-02-25

The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between the survivors syndrome and loneliness experienced by University students who witnessed the earthquake by living in the earthquake zone or other cities for the first time in their lives in the case of the February 6 2023 Kahramanmaras earthquake in the light of demographic variables related to the earthquake experience. When the sample’s answers to the earthquake-related questions were examined, 48.9% of the earthquake victims expressed that they experienced different needs primarily in which ways, civil society organizations, 53.9% disappointment after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, 62.4% confidence, and 63.8% of the sample experienced fear of earthquakes to the question of what was most needed after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. Students who do not find their homes safe, who witnessed earthquakes in cities that did not experience earthquakes, who suffered losses in the earthquake and who need security the most, experience the survivor syndrome. However, students whose thoughts about the future changed after the earthquake, who stated that they could not receive accurate information about the earthquake, and who were more pessimistic about the future of the country before the earthquake, experience loneliness syndrome. All results of the study were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions were made for future studies.

Autoethnography of February 2023 Earthquakes: Forced Migration and Resilience Story

Zerrin Arslan — 2025-02-25

Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that attempts to describe and systematically analyze a cultural phenomenon through the lived experience of the person. This article presents an autoethnographic narrative on individual and social resilience, based on my personal experience (auto), placing it in a social and cultural context (ethno) to analyze (graph) the 2023 earthquakes and its aftermath. It includes, therefore, my experience of the moment of the earthquake and its aftermath, forced migration and return, and the attempt to understand and explain the disaster in social and cultural terms. It is my story of this two-year period, and also our story as Antioche’s victims of the earthquake. Our story is about resilience, encompassing the social, physical, cultural, and emotional dimensions of holding on to life and forced migration, of helping and solidarity, and of coping with self-protection, panic, fear, pain, losses, and traumatic stress.

The Accumulation by Dispossession after the February 6 Earthquakes

Zelal Beyaz Karçal — 2025-02-25

To overcome its internal contradictions and open new areas for capital accumulation capitalism was reshaped with neoliberal paradigm in the 1970s. David Harvey explains the new accumulation model that emerged after the crisis of capitalism in the 1970s with the thesis of “accumulation by dispossession”. He particularly emphasizes that urban spaces have become important centers of this new wave of accumulation. According to Harvey, capital accumulation can only occur in an environment where both basic institutional structures such as private property, freedom of contract and law, and monetary security are ensured. Therefore, there is a need for a strong state that holds the monopoly of coercion. The state plays an important role in the accumulation process by both regulating capitalist institutions and privatizing or nationalizing assets. This study discusses the dynamics of the accumulation by dispossession process following the earthquakes centered in Maraş on February 6, 2023, which caused major destruction in 11 provinces in Turkey. The study concludes that post-earthquake practices such as urgent expropriation, reserve construction area and risky area declarations are legal tools of dispossession. These practices primarily serve capitalist accumulation through wealth transfer, not collective interest. In this context, it is possible to say that the ruling class alliance urbanized the hegemony by force through the reconstruction process of the cities destroyed after the earthquake. A reconstruction process that disregards right to the city and is carried out through the seizure of urban commons will deepen existing class inequalities and lead to cultural and ecological destruction.

Post-Disaster Housing Preference Analysis: The Case of Adıyaman Province

Parla Güneş — 2025-02-25

Many earthquake disasters have occurred in the Anatolian geography, and it can be said that the most significant devastation occurred during the 6th February 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes. Due to the occurrence of two major earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6, a total of 11 provinces were affected by the disaster. During these earthquakes, widespread destruction occurred, and approximately 60,000 people lost their lives in the homes where they felt safest. This marked the beginning of a challenging process in crisis management, necessitating efforts for both the reconstruction of the built environment and the recovery of individuals’ psychosocial well-being. At the same time, the increasing awareness of the relationship between earthquakes, structures, and soil, along with the individual’s own psychological resilience, has been found to influence housing preferences. This study focuses on how the level of resilience of earthquake survivors, measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), has influenced their housing choices, and the results have been analyzed using in-depth interviews as a method to better understand the issue. In the study conducted in Adıyaman province, it was revealed through CD-RISC applications that individuals tend to prefer structures in which they feel safe after experiencing trauma.

Şehir Düştü –Fuat'ı Kaybettik–

Lale Duruiz — 2025-02-25

Şehirler, tıpkı insanların ruhları gibi, zamanla şekillenen, değişen ve birbirine eklenen katmanlardan oluşur. Bu katmanlar, her bir köşe taşında, her bir duvarda, her bir sokakta geçmişin izlerini taşır. Örneğin Troya, insanın geçmişiyle yüzleşen bir şehir gibi, her kazıda yeni bir kimlik, yeni bir hikâye, yeni bir zaman dilimi ortaya çıkarır. Bir katman, bir halkın refahını, diğer katman bir yıkımı; bir katman, bir aşkı, diğer katman bir kaybı fısıldar. Tıpkı bir insanın yaşamında olduğu gibi, katmanların zamanla silindiği düşünülse de, her bir katman, bir öncekinin üzerinde yükselirken, geride bıraktığı izler, bir diğerine anlam katmak için orada durur.

Fuat Keyman da işte tam bu anlamda, bir insanın katmanlarını en derin şekilde yansıtan renkli bir kişilikti. O, yalnızca bir akademisyen, düşünür ya da entelektüel bir figür değildi; aynı zamanda bir insanın farklı zaman dilimlerinden, farklı düşünsel evrelerinden nasıl bir bütün haline geldiğini gösteren iyi bir örnekti. Attığı adımlar, yalnızca bireysel değil, toplumsal bir anlam taşıyordu.

Son çalışmalarının şehirler üzerine olması da belki tesadüf değildi. Fuat Keyman, şehirlerin Türkiye'nin geleceğinde merkezi bir rol oynayacağını ileri sürerken, kentleşmeyi, sadece ekonomik gelişmenin değil, aynı zamanda toplumsal bütünleşmenin, demokratikleşmenin ve kültürel zenginliğin bir arada bulunabileceği dinamik alanlar olarak tanımlardı. Özellikle, kentlerin sosyal adalet, çevresel sürdürülebilirlik ve toplumsal eşitlik gibi kriterlere göre yeniden tasarlanması gerektiğini tartışırdı.

Fuat’ın zihinsel dinamiğini, sık sık katıldığı uluslararası önde gelen düşünce kuruluşlarında tartışılan dünya siyaseti konularını, köyünün muhtarı ile yaptığı konuşmaya bağlamasında, oradan Rumi okumalarını dizilerde aramasında görürdük. Gündelik hayatını anlatırken muhakkak bir felsefeciye, siyasetçiye değinir, konferanslarda önceki konuşmacılara atıf yapmadan konuşmasını bitirmezdi.

Düşünsel birikimini insanlığın daha iyi bir geleceğine dönüştürmeye çalışan bir yaklaşım içindeydi her zaman. Öğrencilerinin sevgili hocası, ailesinin ve arkadaşlarının canı, ciğeriydi ve hepsine ayrı ayrı emek ve değer verirdi. Bütün bunlara nasıl yetiştiği bizim için merak konusuydu ama enerjisinin boyutlarını, hastalığı sırasında son haftaya kadar hiçbir programını aksatmadan sürdürmesinde yakından izledik.

Fuat’ı kaybettiğimizde, evet ‘Şehir Düştü’ ama her şehir gibi, o da arkasında bıraktığı derin izler ile hep bizimle...

Special Issue: Resilience in an Age of Poly-Crises

Pınar Uyan Semerci — 2025-02-25

From Editor

Emre Erdoğan — 2025-02-25

Buğra, A. (2024) Kapitalizm Tarihi İçinde Sosyal Politika: Yoksulluk, Çalışma ve Toplum

Burçak Gürsoy — 2025-02-25

Selin Türkeş-Kılıç, Damla Cihangir-Tetik (Ed.) Simülasyonlarla Uluslararası İlişkiler ve Siyaset Bilimi

Emirhan Altunkaya — 2025-02-25

Seeing Information Disorder from the Window of Resilience in the Poly-crisis Era

Suncem Koçer — 2025-02-25

This opinion piece emphasizes the importance of addressing the problem of misinformation, which can be seen as the dynamo of the era of poly-crisis, from a resilience perspective. The article proposes "yılmazlık" as the Turkish equivalent of resilience and discusses the work done at InfodemiLab to underpin the term resilience.

Can Mathematical Models Be Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Mahmut Özer — 2025-02-25

With the widespread adoption of digitalization, mathematical models have become indispensable in every field. Predictions are made, processes are evaluated and optimized, and future forecasts are developed using mathematical models. The usefulness of these models has accelerated their proliferation. Their application in nearly every aspect of life has triggered a new phase of modeling, where the output of one model can now serve as the input for another, enhancing overall efficiency. Consequently, models are no longer discrete but interconnected, encompassing and influencing human life. At this point, understanding how models operate is critically important for grasping how decisions affecting us are made. Therefore, in this study, mathematical models and algorithms are examined in detail based on Cathy O'Neil's (2016) book ‘Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy’. It is emphasized that a model does not encompass everything related to a given field, and therefore prioritizes aspects of the field, assigning weights externally during this prioritization. As a result, every model provides only an approximation for the field, meaning that elements not measurable within the model risk losing value over time. The biases present in the dataset used by a model can lead to biased outputs, thereby reproducing existing inequalities in society. It is particularly emphasized that the fact that models now serve as inputs for one another weakens the possibility of correcting biased outputs and increases the risk of further deepening inequalities. This risk is expected to grow significantly, especially with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. Therefore, the study recommends adopting a participatory management approach during the development phase of mathematical models, enabling the involvement not only of domain experts but also of representatives of all stakeholders directly affected by the model. This approach could help prevent the use of biased assumptions and datasets in the models, thereby mitigating the potential negative impacts caused by these models.

Understanding Game Culture: Gamer Identity and Consumption in Türkiye and the World

Ertuğrul Süngü — 2025-02-25

Games have been experienced before humans existed. However, in today’s world, especially with the prominence of the title “Digital Gaming” and the “Game Culture” that has become popular with this title, it is consumed by millions of people in the modern world. As a matter of fact, this culture has been cultivated by many different subcultural communities over time and has led to the emergence of the “Gamer” identity over time. The “Gamer” identity as a label has been adopted by many game enthusiasts and internalized by people who consume game culture. Although today the label “Gamer” characterizes people who play games, it actually refers to much more than that. The aim of this article is to try to define “Game Culture” while at the same time understanding the Gamer identity and explaining how this identity is consumed both globally and in Türkiye.

Santralİstanbul Kampüsü’nde Yaratıcı Bir Aradalık: Karakter Tasarımı Dersi Çıktıları

Cansu Nur Şimşek — 2025-02-25

This paper examines the final project outputs and process of the Character Design course (VCD 204) offered in the Visual Communication Design Program at Istanbul Bilgi University during the Spring 2024 semester. Through close reading, it explores how students' relationships with the santralistanbul campus and the living entities on the campus contribute to the digital character design process. The project aims to strengthen students' connection with the campus and develop awareness regarding the campus's living beings. Additionally, the project utilizes social design concepts such as community engagement and world building. Through this work, students have had the opportunity to examine the campus from a nonhuman perspective and gain environmental awareness. This study discusses how creativity and awareness-based projects can enhance environmental consciousness in urban heritage sites like the campus and how new interactions emerging from digital art sources can contribute to a sustainable future.

Childism and Child as Method: Questinoning the Positions of Child and Adult

Nehir Gündoğdu — 2025-02-25

This article focuses on childism and child as method approaches. Childism is a critical lens developed to empower children by changing adultist norms. Child as method is a critical approach that analyses socio-political practices through the positions attributed to child(ren). These approaches offer new ways of thinking about child(ren) in childhood studies, which have developed out of the sociology of childhood's theorisation of children and childhood. In doing so, they especially draw on feminist and postcolonial studies. Moreover, they not only contribute to childhood studies but also invite social sciences to include child(ren) more in their analyses and question adultist ways of producing knowledge. This study highlights these approaches' critiques of adultist knowledge production and their thinking practices beyond the child-adult dichotomy. Thus, it tries to open up space for these approaches in the limited Turkish literature on childhood studies; and hopes to make visible the theoretical and methodological suggestions that these approaches can offer to future debates.