Cemal Burak Tansel
Rethinking State Formation in Turkey: A Historical Materialist Analysis
The aim of this research is to provide a historical materialist exposition of the emergence of Modern Turkey, informed by international historical sociology and Marxist historiography. Building on a two-folded critique of the prevalent currents in Marxist history writing and the state formation literature in Turkey, the research proposes an alternative conceptual framework with which to delineate the particular paths of transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. Accordingly, it refutes the dualist mainstream accounts which portray the formation of the new Turkish state either as a ‘unique’ case entirely detached from international developments, or a quintessential example of the Western modernisation theory, devoid of historical specificities and social configurations. Against such dichotomies, it offers analyses of processual transformations in the late Ottoman Empire—economic organisation, property relations, class conflict/formation and state structure—and examines the impacts thereof on the new Republic. Establishing the multiplex trajectories of the (modern) state formation and capitalist consolidation in Turkey, this investigation also attempts to position the case within a non-diffusionist global perspective by recasting a critical exegesis of the theory of uneven and combined development.
Research Supervisors
Dr Adam David Morton and Prof Andreas Bieler
Primary Funding Source
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International Office Research Excellence Scholarship
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School of Politics and International Relations Annual Bursary
Research Interests
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Historical Materialism
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International Historical Sociology
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International Political Economy
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Marxist Historiography
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Radical Geography
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Social Movements
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State Theory
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Subaltern Studies
Publications
• TANSEL, C. B. and MORTON, A. D. (2012) ‘Türkiye’de Pasif Devrim ve Hegemonya: Kavramsal Bir Yanılsama mı?’, Felsefelogos, forthcoming.
• TANSEL, C. B. (2011) 'İngiltere'den Direniş Notları: Neoliberal Yeniden Yapılandırma, Eğitim'de Piyasa Dönüşümü ve Öğrenci Hareketi' in Öz, D., Dönmez Atbaşı, F. and Bürkev, Y. (eds.) Gerçek, Yıkıcı ve Yaratıcı: Dünyada ve Türkiye'de Üniversite, Eğitim, Gençlik Mücadeleleri. Ankara: Notabene. 353–366.
• TANSEL, C. B. (2011) ‘Beyond the Binaries: Deterritorialisation, Place and Resistance.’ Paper presented at the conference Confronting the Global: Alternatives, Alterity and Solidarity. University of Warwick, 8–9 September.
Book Reviews
• TANSEL, C. B. (2012) Review of Kiely, R. Rethinking Imperialism. Political Studies Review, forthcoming.
• TANSEL, C. B. (2012) Review of Pleyers, G. Alter-Globalization: Becoming Actors in the Global Age. Capital & Class, 37/2, forthcoming.
• TANSEL, C. B. (2012) Review of Routledge, P. and Cumbers, A. Global Justice Networks: Geographies of Transnational Solidarity. Studies in Social Justice, forthcoming.