Decent Work Conditions for Sustainable Academia: The Foundation Universities in Turkey

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47613/reflektif.2023.187

Keywords:

foundation universities, decent work, gender equality, adjunct faculty, sustainable development goals, ILO 190

Abstract

This study adopts a rights-based approach to decent work conditions at foundation universities in Turkey. Recognized as a fundamental human right, decent work encompasses key elements such as fair wages, safe working conditions, and equal opportunities. This Research specifically analyzes the working conditions of academics at foundation universities, with a particular focus on women and adjunct faculty. Grounded in relevant international standards, including ILO and UNESCO recommendations, the study highlights critical issues such as gender equality, wage fairness, and precarious employment. Utilizing qualitative methods, including data review and interviews with a limited number of participants, the findings are thematically analyzed. The results underscore the crucial role of ensuring decent work conditions for the sustainability of academia and call for rights-based structural solutions to address the precarious conditions at foundation universities.

Author Biographies

Burcu Sarı Karademir, TED University, SDG5 Network

Dr. Burcu Sarı Karademir received her PhD degree with Distinction in Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara in 2012. Upon completion of her dissertation entitled “A Constructivist Analysis on Balancing: The Impact U.S. War on Terror on China and Russia,” Dr. Sarı pursued her post-doctoral studies on the impact of status-seeking on states’ balancing tendencies in Arnold Saltzman War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, New York, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Robert Jervis between 2013-2014. Her research project on status-seeking and balancing was granted TUBITAK post-doctoral research scholarship in 2013. Among her publications are:“Building Back Better with Gender in Mind: Centering Turkey’s Women and Girls in Earthquake Recovery”, (Middle East Institute, 2023); “Kadın-Yurttaş için ‘Mor Sözleşme’: Mor Küçülme”,  (Reflektif Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2023); “Afet SarmalındaKadınlar: Bakım Emeği Yükü ve Afet Yönetimi İçin Mor Küçülme (Purple Degrowth)”, (İktisat ve Toplum Dergisi,2023), “A Conceptual History: Historical Sociological Analysis of Unipolarity in Structural Realist Literature”, (Uluslararası İlişkiler, 2023); “Mor Küçülme: Mor Ekonomi ve Küçülme Perspektifiyle Bakım Krizi”, (İktisat ve Toplum Dergisi, 2022),  “A Dance of Entanglement: The US-Turkish Relations in the Context of the Syrian Conflict”, (Uluslararası İlişkiler, 2019); “Turkey as a ‘Willing Receiver’ of American Soft Power: Hollywood Movies in Turkey during the Cold War”, (Turkish Studies, 2013); and “China’s Security Understanding: from the ‘New Security Concept’ to 2010”, (China and International Security: History, Strategy, and 21st Century Policy, Praeger, 2014). Her research agenda covers traditional security and foreign policy issues such as Turkey’s strategic autonomy, great power politics under unipolarity as well as issues of critical security studies including human security, purple degrowth, disaster risk management, gender and democracy. Dr. Sarı worked in Department of International Relations at Bilkent University and Department of International Relations and Political Science at TED University, Ankara, Turkey.  Burcu Sarı and Selver Şahin received the 2023 Şirin Tekeli Research Incentive Support award with their project entitled “Emancipating Women and Girls from Vulnerabilities Through A Social Reconstruction-Oriented Approach to Disaster Management”. She is a founding member of SDG5 Network. 

Zehra Yılmaz, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, SDG5 Network

Zehra Yılmaz holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Baskent University/Turkey, a MA in Political Science and a PhD in International Relations, both from Ankara University/Turkey. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University/USA for one year. She continued her postdoctoral studies for two years at the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University/the Netherlands. Currently, she works as an Associate Professor at Van Yuzuncu Yıl University/Turkey. 

Her research interests include gender, migration, and political Islam. She has published numerous articles in academic journals on these topics. Her research has been published in respected scholar journals such as European Journal of Cultural Studies, Religion&Human Rights, Mülkiye, Alternatif Politika and Fe-Journal. Her book “Feminine Piety: Transformation of the Islamist Women’s Movement” (İletişim Publication) was first published in 2015, and the second edition of the book was published in 2021. 

In addition to her academic studies, she also participated in various projects: “Project of Empowering the NGOs for Developing Local Governance”; “Enhancement of Participatory Democracy in Turkey: Gender Equality Monitoring Project” ; and “The project of Establishing a Rehabilitation and Consultancy Centre for Women and Children Asylum Seekers in Van/Turkey.” She is a founding member of SDG5 Network.

 

Selver B. Şahin, SDG5 Network

Selver B. Şahin is an assistant professor of international relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye. She has more than fifteen years of teaching, research, project planning and coordination experience gained at multiple institutions in Türkiye, Australia and New Zealand. Her research is focused on development challenges and the forms and outcomes of internationally supported democratic governance reforms designed to address these challenges. This includes efforts to understand the class and gender related dynamics of institutional reform outcomes. She has carried out field studies in Timor-Leste, Kosovo, Indonesia and North Macedonia both independently and collaboratively as part of a research team. Her research has been published as a sole-authored book (with Routledge in 2015) and as solo and co-written articles in respected scholarly journals such as Third World Quarterly, Democratization, Development Policy Review, International Peacekeeping, Contemporary Politics, Asian Studies Review, Journal of ContemporaryAsia, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Australian Journal of International Affairs, and the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. She was a recipient of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK) 2232 special grants programme for outstanding researchers returning to Turkey (in 2014-6). Currently, she is the principal investigator of a research project on the planning and implementation of government-funded scholarships funded under TÜBITAK’s 1001 Scientific and Technological Research Projects Funding Programme. Selver Şahin and Burcu Sarı received the 2023 Şirin Tekeli Research Incentive Support award with their project entitled “Emancipating Women and Girls from Vulnerabilities Through A Social Reconstruction-Oriented Approach to Disaster Management”.

In addition to continuously producing in respected academic outlets, Dr. Şahin has actively been involved in community capacity development projects delivered in Türkiye and Australia. She acted as a honorary research fellow and country contact point in Türkiye for the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, worked as a co-facilitator and translator during the delivery of a “women’s leadership” programme administered by the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights in Melbourne, took part in a research study on improving women’s political participation in post-conflict societies with colleagues from Monash University and the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), and assumed voluntary service delivery roles at Dallas community hub in Melbourne to support migrant and refugee women’s integration into the Australian society. She is a founding member of SDG5 Network.

 

Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz, TED University, SDG5 Network

Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz is professor at the Political Science and International Relations Department at TED University in Ankara. She completed her BA/MA (1995) and PhD (2000) at Bonn University with Political Science as a major, American Language and Literature and Islamic Sciences as a minor. Between October 2001 and January 2012, she worked at the Political Science and International Relations Department at Başkent University. Since February 2012 she is part of the Political Science and International Relations Department at TED University. Her areas of interest are gender, migration, critical security studies and EU integration. She is the head of TED University’s Center for Gender Studies. She has published articles in Alternatif Politika, Ankara Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi, BOAS insights, Femina Politica: Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, İktisat ve Toplum Dergisi, International Policy Analysis, Internationale Politik, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Merkur: Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken, Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine, Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs, Turkish Review of Balkan Studies andWeltTrends: Das außenpolitische Journal. She is a founding member of SDG5 Network.

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Published

2024-10-15

How to Cite

Sarı Karademir, B., Yılmaz, Z., B. Şahin, S., & Yeşilyurt Gündüz, Z. (2024). Decent Work Conditions for Sustainable Academia: The Foundation Universities in Turkey. REFLEKTIF Journal of Social Sciences, 5(3), 691–716. https://doi.org/10.47613/reflektif.2023.187

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2024): October

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Burcu Sarı Karademir, Zehra Yılmaz, Selver B. Şahin, Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz

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