Academic Projects

NATIVISM AND ANTI-IMMIGRATION IN TURKEY (TÜBİTAK 1001)

This project aims to analyze nativism and anti-immigration, which has been widely discussed around the world, especially during the last ten years, and criticize the Western-centric definitions of nativism and anti-immigration using Turkey as a case study. The rise of nativist right-wing parties and leaders in Europe and the United States paved the way for increasing concerns about democracy, tolerance, and polarization. While nativism and anti-immigration have been treated as similar concepts, the reduction of nativism to anti-immigration led to falling short of analyses from different perspectives. Thus, this project will analyze two versions of nativism: secular nativism and populist nativism. This study has seven contributions to the academic literature. First, we aim to analyze the nativism typologies and how such typologies occur. Second, we will develop scales to analyze such typologies using quantitative and qualitative methods. Third, we will discuss the similarities and differences between Turkey and Western cases to make theoretical contributions to the nativism literature. Fourth, while determining the social groups that have the characteristics of secular and populist nativism, we will also question the variables that cause anti-immigration to put forward how out-groups are perceived as homogeneous entities. Fifth, we will integrate various quantitative and qualitative methods that underpin one another. Hence, we will have a unique dataset. Sixth, in addition to the theoretical contribution, our experimental modules contribute to methodological approaches to nativism and anti-immigration that can be applied to other case studies. Finally, we aim to determine and appease potential societal issues by analyzing anti-immigration and polarization. We will use three different qualitative and quantitative methods. First, we will comparatively analyze the case of Turkey. Second, we will conduct focus groups in four provinces of Turkey. Third, we will field a representative survey with survey experiments to determine typologies of nativism.

Project Team

Ezgi Elçi (Principal Investigator)
Evren Balta (Senior Researcher)
Deniz Sert (Senior Researcher)

SOS4democracy: Social Sciences for democracy: A training program for improving
research on illiberal systems and finding ways to build more robust democracies

The HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-03 project “SOS4demoracy” (Grant Agreement No.101119678) is a training program for improving research on illiberal democracies and examining ways to build more robust democracies, organized and led by the Institute of Criminology at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It aims to bring together academic and non- academic partners in South-Eastern Europe to deepen intersectoral cooperation in research and increase research capacity, communication, and exchange of ideas regarding illiberal democracies. In line with the working program, the project will pursue three major objectives. First, the project will strengthen cooperation and improve research and innovation ecosystems in academic and non-academic organizations by developing a training-through-research program to equip researchers, journalists, and civil society activists with the conceptual and methodological tools needed to explore the impact of illiberal measures in the participating countries. The training- through-research program will be carried out during secondments involving 31 staff members. Second, to ensure the transfer of know how between the academic and non-academic sectors, the project will develop the following training programs: the academic sector will provide training on advanced research methods and practical skills, the news media organization will provide media training, while non-governmental organizations will provide training on civic monitoring mechanisms, public advocacy, and the use of new technology in civil society organizing. The extensive transfer of know-how will be carried out on secondments, in-person networking events, and webinars. Thirdly, to improve the overall R&I capacity of all participating organizations, the project will organize a training program on research management, knowledge brokering, data stewardship, and knowledge transfer. The project started in September 2023 and will run until September 2027. It comprises 10 partners (6 universities and 4 non-academic institutions, listed below) from 5 countries (Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, and Bosnia-Herzegovina). Dr. T. Deniz Erkmen is the lead partner from Özyeğin University and for the project, she will spend time in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her research involves protests under authoritarian transformation, repression, and autocratic legalism.

See the website for the project or follow it on social media for more information:
www.sos4democracy.eu
X (former Twitter): @SOS4democracy
Facebook: SOS4democracyEU
Project Partners

Participant Universities: Institute of Criminology, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia -
Coordinator); Roma Tre University (Italy), Vrije University (Belgium), University of Sarajevo
(Bosnia and Herzegovina), Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Özyeğin University (Turkey)
Participant civil society associations: Delo (Slovenia), Libera (Italy), İstanpol (Turkey), Zasto Ne
(Bosnia and Herzegovina)

HORIZON EU Project: DE-CONSPIRATOR

The DE-CONSPIRATOR project aims to measure the impact of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) strategies, which have been increasingly employed in digital communication tools in recent years, on political, social and societal incidents in 25 EU member states and 3 partner countries, including Turkey, and to develop counter-strategies to combat this. At the end of the project, it is planned to develop definitive solution proposals by understanding more broadly and comparatively the causes, means, and consequences of foreign information manipulation strategies observed in international politics. The project also aims to increase the resilience and awareness of Turkey and EU member states about international disinformation with the ultimate goal of protecting the freedom to receive and consume information. The project DE-CONSPIRATOR (Detecting and Countering Information Suppression from a Transnational Perspective) to be conducted under the coordination of Associate Prof. H. Akın Ünver from the International Relations Department at Özyeğin University has received 3 million Euros of funding from Horizon Europe, the European Union’s 9th Framework Program for Research and Innovation. Funded under the Cluster-2 of the Horizon Europe Program to which Europe's leading universities apply, the project DE-CONSPIRATOR is of paramount importance as it is the second multi-partner project coordinated by a Turkish institution under the “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Societies” Cluster of Horizon Europe. The DE-CONSPIRATOR project will be coordinated at Özyeğin University and will be jointly conducted by 12 partner organizations, including Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), an Italian international relations think tank, Riga Stradiņš University, University of Groningen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), University of Amsterdam, Heidelberg University, Lithuanian Center for Advanced Cognitive Studies (AdCogito), Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB), Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM Istanbul) and Georgia’s Reforms Associates (GRASS).

Other projects:

Prof. Dr. Deniz Sert received a research grant from TÜBİTAK 1002 for her project titled “Abroad Perceptions on Turkey’s Covid-19 Aid.”

Assist. Prof. T. Deniz Erkmen and Assist. Prof. Mert Arslanalp received a research grant from Boğaziçi Üniversity Scientific Research Fund for their project titled “The Transformation of the Protest Arena in Turkey (2007-2021)”

Assist. Prof. Ezgi Elçi, Prof. Dr. Evren Balta and Prof. Dr. Deniz Sert received a research grant from Heinrich Böll Stiftung for their project titled “Political Party Representation of Anti-Immigration Attitudes: The Case of Turkey.”

Assoc. Prof. Ebru Ertugal and Assoc. Prof. Faik Gür received a research grant from TÜBİTAK 1002 for their project titled “Sürdürülebilir Kalkınmada Belediyelerin Rolü[The Role of Municipalities in Sustainable Development]”

Assoc. Prof. Akın Ünver received a research grant from TÜBİTAK 1001 for his project titled “Silahlı Örgütlerin Dijital Kamu Diplomasisi: Suriye ve Irak Örnekleri[The Digital Public Diplomacy of Armed Organizations: The Cases of Syria and Iraq]”

Assoc. Prof. Akın Ünver received a research grant from Bilim Akademisi (BAGEP 2021) for his project titled “Küresel Yapay Zeka Temelli Silahlanma Veritabanı Projesi [The Project for a Database of Global Artificial Intelligence Based Armament]”