Suchergebnisse

AbstractThrough ethnographic and archival research conducted in Istanbul and Izmir, this article examines the dynamics and regulation of charitable giving in contemporary Turkey. The article is based on interviews I conducted with the volunteers, employees, and aid recipients of three civil society organizations that rely on charitable giving to fund their projects, which center on helping the poor and providing aid during and after wars and other disasters. I document how religious ideals of anonymous charitable giving for the sake of giving, without expectation of return, are closely intertwined with anxiety over finding a worthy charitable association and recipient. In doing so, I focus onvakıfas both a concept and a practice that gives meaning to charitable giving in Turkey. The increasing desire to document, define, and categorize the deserving poor as a way to justify the intent to give and to receive goes against the anonymity and immediacy of giving, thus riddling intent with ethical contradictions. I argue that attention needs to be paid to the intent, practice, and various forms of giving, and not just to the effects and outcomes of charity.

Based on ethnographic and archival research conducted at the headquarters of the non-governmental association Deniz Feneri [Lighthouse] Aid and Solidarity Association (DF) in Istanbul and its local branch in Izmir, Turkey, this article aims to add to the literature on accountability and corruption by critically examining technologies of accountability and transparency foregrounded by DF to counter possible corruption allegations against the association. Through an ethnographic study of various governance processes, the study aims to reach a comprehension of both corruption and accountability experienced and discussed as social practice. The research points to the fact that the overarching concern over corruption and accountability should be seen not as a reaction to the neoliberal agenda of deregulation and privatization favored by the government but as the neoliberal agenda reasserting itself through "good governance" and "audit culture" in an effort to ensure the public's and donors' trust in the effectiveness of neoliberal accountability as the poor are continuously categorized and made visible.

This article focuses on the pious practice of sabir (patience) within the context of the weaving neighborhoods in Konya, Turkey. Through an ethnographic analysis of the everyday politics of the practice of sabir, which is central to labor relations, this article adds to and complicates feminist analyses of labor politics and the economy by highlighting the interconnected nature of ethical religious practice and labor politics. Additionally, I argue for the need to go beyond the question of whether women have or lack agency as subjects in feminist analyses of labor politics and relationships, and instead point out the need for the empirical examination of specific, contextually-bound practical conditions through and within which women cultivate various forms of ethical action and subjectivities. In pointing out the importance of a project that analyzes operations of power with a keen awareness of context, this essay presents an ethnographically grounded discussion of pious practice within the context of Konya's weaving neighborhoods, underscoring the effects of the coexistence of exploitation and empowerment on the construction of women weavers' selfhoods. Adapted from the source document.

Gender and Sexuality in Critical Animal Studies explores nonhuman animals' experiences of gender, physiological sex, and sexuality while in nature and captivity. Each chapter applies disciplines like literary theory, disability studies, queer studies, ecocriticism, and more to investigate media that shape perceptions and treatment of nonhumans.