Is it Over? On the Melancholy of Lost Hope
By Oguz Alyanak and Funda Ustek-Spilda. “Our people made a choice and approved the constitutional changes. The debate is over. So are days of post-election uncertainty. It is time to move on,” argued the Turkish President Erdoğan in his post-Referendum address…
Is it Over? On the Melancholy of Lost Hope
By Oguz Alyanak and Funda Ustek-Spilda. “Our people made a choice and approved the constitutional changes. The debate is over. So are days of post-election uncertainty. It is time to move on,” argued the Turkish President Erdoğan in his post-Referendum address…
Colonial Envy and the Success of the Kurdish Political Struggle
By Deniz Yonucu. It has been three weeks since Turkey’s controversial referendum and the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the founding party of Turkey and the second biggest party in Parliament, has already started discussing potential candidates for a “no” block…
Colonial Envy and the Success of the Kurdish Political Struggle
By Deniz Yonucu. It has been three weeks since Turkey’s controversial referendum and the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the founding party of Turkey and the second biggest party in Parliament, has already started discussing potential candidates for a “no” block…
Hope and the Turkish Political Imagination
By William Garriott. The essays in this final installment on the Turkish referendum address the question: what now? Both essays eschew a narrow focus on the referendum’s immediate implications in favor of a broader consideration of time, emotion, and the political imagination Deniz Yonucu emphasizes …
Hope and the Turkish Political Imagination
By William Garriott. The essays in this final installment on the Turkish referendum address the question: what now? Both essays eschew a narrow focus on the referendum’s immediate implications in favor of a broader consideration of time, emotion, and the political imagination Deniz Yonucu emphasizes …
The Complicity of Hope
By Ayşe Parla. It is by now common knowledge that the April 2017 referendum in Turkey to move from a parliamentary to a presidential system is likely to grant sweeping executive powers to the country’s president. What may have escaped the outside gaze, however, is the extent to which the landscape of dissent was steeped in hope…
The Complicity of Hope
By Ayşe Parla. It is by now common knowledge that the April 2017 referendum in Turkey to move from a parliamentary to a presidential system is likely to grant sweeping executive powers to the country’s president. What may have escaped the outside gaze, however, is the extent to which the landscape of dissent was steeped in hope…
Erdoğan is (Partially) Right
By Elektra Kostopoulou. More than ten days after the contentious constitutional Turkish referendum of April 16th, developments in Turkey seem to confirm that the country is moving from bad to worse: human rights abuses, violent censorship, massive retaliations against any form of opposition…
Erdoğan is (Partially) Right
By Elektra Kostopoulou. More than ten days after the contentious constitutional Turkish referendum of April 16th, developments in Turkey seem to confirm that the country is moving from bad to worse: human rights abuses, violent censorship, massive retaliations against any form of opposition…
The “Anatolian Revolution” and the “Spirit of Capitalism”
By Aimilia Voulvouli. It was during a visit to a private hospital in Kayseri, a central Anatolian city in Turkey considered to represent the so-called New Turkey (Yeni Türkiye) — that I saw a headscarved woman wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt. To me, that was very unusual…
The “Anatolian Revolution” and the “Spirit of Capitalism”
By Aimilia Voulvouli. It was during a visit to a private hospital in Kayseri, a central Anatolian city in Turkey considered to represent the so-called New Turkey (Yeni Türkiye) — that I saw a headscarved woman wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt. To me, that was very unusual…
Disappearing Democracies
By Jennifer Curtis. One apocryphal account says that, when asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi replied, “I think it would be a very good idea.”[1] In the present, the political form so closely associated with Western civilization—democracy—appears aspirational as well…
Disappearing Democracies
By Jennifer Curtis. One apocryphal account says that, when asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi replied, “I think it would be a very good idea.”[1] In the present, the political form so closely associated with Western civilization—democracy—appears aspirational as well…
APLA Announces Graduate Student Paper Prize 2017
The APLA Board invites individuals who are students in a graduate degree-granting program (including M.A., Ph.D., J.D., LL.M., S.J.D. etc.) to send stand-alone papers centering on the analysis of political and/or legal institutions and processes for the 1017 paper prize…
APLA Announces Graduate Student Paper Prize 2017
The APLA Board invites individuals who are students in a graduate degree-granting program (including M.A., Ph.D., J.D., LL.M., S.J.D. etc.) to send stand-alone papers centering on the analysis of political and/or legal institutions and processes for the 1017 paper prize…
Divided by Democracy? Reflections on the Turkish Referendum
By Bilge Firat. “In democratic states, no single man can shape social life according to his thinking. The new era of restoration will help our society to make peace with itself, to stand on its own intellectual formation, cultural values…”
Divided by Democracy? Reflections on the Turkish Referendum
By Bilge Firat. “In democratic states, no single man can shape social life according to his thinking. The new era of restoration will help our society to make peace with itself, to stand on its own intellectual formation, cultural values…”
The Seals of the Constitutional Referendum in Turkey
By Serra Hakyemez. On April 16, 2017 at around 5pm, an hour before voting for Turkey’s landmark constitutional referendum was completed, the eleven member Supreme Board of Elections (YSK) decided that ballot envelopes lacking YSK’s…
The Seals of the Constitutional Referendum in Turkey
By Serra Hakyemez. On April 16, 2017 at around 5pm, an hour before voting for Turkey’s landmark constitutional referendum was completed, the eleven member Supreme Board of Elections (YSK) decided that ballot envelopes lacking YSK’s…
On the Freedom of Bodies: A Short History of Liberty
By Valeria Verdolini. My dear friend Gabriele del Grande, journalist, documentarian, and war correspondent was stopped by Turkish authorities in Hatay Province in Southern Turkey on April, 9th 2017. He was there doing research for his new…
On the Freedom of Bodies: A Short History of Liberty
By Valeria Verdolini. My dear friend Gabriele del Grande, journalist, documentarian, and war correspondent was stopped by Turkish authorities in Hatay Province in Southern Turkey on April, 9th 2017. He was there doing research for his new…
#freegabriele, right now!
By Francesco Vacchiano. Gabriele Del Grande is an Italian activist, free-lance journalist and writer who has published extensively on migration and borders in the Mediterranean. He is the author of the blog Fortress Europe, the first independent initiative aimed at documenting…
#freegabriele, right now!
By Francesco Vacchiano. Gabriele Del Grande is an Italian activist, free-lance journalist and writer who has published extensively on migration and borders in the Mediterranean. He is the author of the blog Fortress Europe, the first independent initiative aimed at documenting…
Emergency for Turkish Democracy
By Heath Cabot. In response to Turkey’s constitutional referendum on April 16, 2017, which replaces the parliamentary system with an executive presidency, PoLAR and APLA commissioned a series of responses from scholars and activists focused on democracy…
Emergency for Turkish Democracy
By Heath Cabot. In response to Turkey’s constitutional referendum on April 16, 2017, which replaces the parliamentary system with an executive presidency, PoLAR and APLA commissioned a series of responses from scholars and activists focused on democracy…
PoLAR Call for Symposia
The editors of PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review invite proposals for symposia to be considered for the Fall 2018 issue and beyond. We are seeking short collections of articles that extend or innovate on emerging and contemporary debates in the sub-fields of political and legal…
PoLAR Call for Symposia
The editors of PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review invite proposals for symposia to be considered for the Fall 2018 issue and beyond. We are seeking short collections of articles that extend or innovate on emerging and contemporary debates in the sub-fields of political and legal…
“Post-Truth” and the Social Sciences
By Felix Stein. The term “post-truth” has been difficult to avoid in Anglophone media outlets recently. In the US, mostly liberal political commentators are currently calling much of the rhetoric of far-right politicians and their news sources “post-truth,”…
“Post-Truth” and the Social Sciences
By Felix Stein. The term “post-truth” has been difficult to avoid in Anglophone media outlets recently. In the US, mostly liberal political commentators are currently calling much of the rhetoric of far-right politicians and their news sources “post-truth,”…
New PoLAR Virtual Edition on Immigration!
A new PoLAR virtual edition entitled “Immigration” has been compiled, with free online access to all articles until June. The new edition collects classic PoLAR articles that complement the APLA series, Speaking Truth to Justice: APLA/PoLAR Respond to the Trump Executive…
New PoLAR Virtual Edition on Immigration!
A new PoLAR virtual edition entitled “Immigration” has been compiled, with free online access to all articles until June. The new edition collects classic PoLAR articles that complement the APLA series, Speaking Truth to Justice: APLA/PoLAR Respond to the Trump Executive…
