Erol Saglam
Biographic Data
| ID | 172414 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erol Saglam |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erol |
| FAMILY NAME | Saglam |
| SIGNATURE | SAGLAM E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Istanbul Medeniyet University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7192-5113 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Conspiracism, Politics, and the State in the Twenty-First Century
No longer consigned to the margins of society, conspiracy theories have been normalized as integral to public discourse and governance in many countries. But as developments in Turkey illustrate, this is not simply a matter of the masses being subjected to top-down manipulation by misinformation. Conspiratorial narratives are circulated among ordinary citizens, generating bottom-up pressures, including vigilante violence, that compel government r…
Paperwork as statecraft
Are bureaucratic institutions simply hollowed-out instruments of autocratisation, meaning they merely execute the orders of populist-authoritarian actors? If not, how do they deal with the destabilisations of autocratisation? Drawing on a study of street-level bureaucracies in contemporary Turkey, this article contributes to ongoing debates on the (un)makings of autocratisation and its limits through its focus on the role played by documents in …
Identity and (dis)owning the past
Drawing on ethnographic research on and subsequent interviews with Turkish nationalist communities who continue speaking an endangered Greek variety, this article raises a number of questions around the preservation and revitalisation efforts. It departs from the declining status of the language due to migration to urban centres, which seem to hinder intergenerational transmission, and socio-political context, the article explores the heritage co…
Conspiratorial narratives as cultural repertoires and methodological tools
This article builds on data and field work notes from two ethnographic studies conducted in two cities: Istanbul and Trabzon, Turkey. It examines the socio-political dynamics behind the prevalence and impact of conspiratorial narratives. We explore the emergence, circulation, and effects of these narratives and how they shape political orientations and mobilisation. We raise methodological questions about these narratives and propose researchers …
Embodying the State in the Margins
This article explores the reconfigurations of state making in Turkey through an exploration of men’s circulation of conspiracy theories and engagements with vigilante violence since the 2000s. Rather than readily dismissing conspiratorial narratives because of their (anti)truth qualities, I suggest reading their circulation as a social practice through which (political) subjectivities and communities are forged. In addition, I argue that their ci…
Ethnographies of the Psychosocial
(Un)Earthing violence
This article and the special issue it introduces contribute to existing debates on forgetting, remembering, and reckoning with past violence by bringing them up to date with violence's materially and spatially expansive workings that recent scholarship on sovereignty and ecology has highlighted. Thinking with scholars who have considered organized violence as the maker of ‘weathers', ‘atmospheres' and ‘ecologies', we engage critically with how th…
Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices
This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories-in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science, philosophy, and social psychology-to frame conspiracy theories as productive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted through their epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and political margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropological sc…
Negotiated Conformism
Despite ideological alignment, right-wing populist constituencies and civic groups may openly resist and renegotiate the anti-gender and anti-feminist stances of populist parties through a process we call negotiated conformism. To analyse this phenomenon, we draw on two qualitative datasets from Turkey: one focusing on ordinary citizens who ideologically support and vote for the populist-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP); the other…
Remembering through possessed treasures? Landscapes and memories of societal violence in contemporary Turkey
May narratives of treasures be interrelated to remembrances of past societal violence? Attending to imaginations of and hunts for treasures across seemingly natural interfaces, this article explores these practices not simply as quests for material riches but as occasions through which past societal violence is recounted in the present across human and non-human assemblages. The article engages with two interrelated domains of scholarly debates. …
Bureaucracies under authoritarian pressure
Drawing on ethnographic research across two street-level bureaucratic institutions in Istanbul, Turkey in the late 2010s, this paper traces the causes and implications of the politicisation of bureaucrats in the context of authoritarianisation. It argues that politicisation of bureaucrats cannot solely be taken as a reflection of the erosion of bureaucratic autonomy and capacity but must be explored further to reveal how bureaucrats cope with aut…
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics:Insights from Reconfigurations of Conspiracy Theories in Turkey Erol Saglam (bio) conspiracy theories, no doubt, are one of the most controversial aspects of contemporary political contestations across the globe. Ranging from the ever-prevalent antisemitic accounts of secret (global) government to the belief that governments deliberately hide the existence of extraterrestrial life from the public,…
Intimate and yet Alienated
Drawing on ethnographic data from northeast Turkey, this article departs from the discreet preservation of Greek among Turkish-nationalist communities and explores the changing meanings of home and homeland in relation to this discreet cultural heritage. The discussion interrogates the changing dynamics, modalities, and configurations of home/land in contemporary Turkey and provides us with insights into how landscapes are implicated in the way c…
Taking the matter into your own hands
This article explores the changing configurations of statehood in the Turkish context through an exploration of men’s engagements with conspiratorial narratives, vigilantism, and extralegal violence against whom they deem to be ‘subversive’ elements. Drawing on ethnographic research on nationalist communities in Trabzon, in northeast Turkey, I trace everyday encounters, imaginations, and utterances to understand how the circulation of conspiracy …
What to do with conspiracy theories
This article presents ethnographic insights into the everyday lives of people who circulate conspiratorial narratives through an ethnographic study of ultranationalist men in contemporary Turkey. Drawing on the findings of this research, the author suggests that conspiratorial discourses should be examined not solely in terms of their (anti-)truth qualities but as social practices through which masculine subjectivities and socialities are engende…
Aestheticised Rituals and (Non-)Engagement with Norms in Contemporary Turkey
Drawing on an ethnographic research in some rural communities of Trabzon, Turkey, this article provides insights about the diversity of Islamic pieties and their relations to religious norms. An exploration of everyday Islamic practices in the area demonstrates how piety can take peculiar forms within which norms are both publicly and socially upheld and yet also hollowed out. Among Muslim men of ‘the Valley’ in Trabzon, piety emerges as an aggre…
Fatherhood in transition
In 2016, in response to whether he would ‘change diapers’ of his children, President Trump gave a quick and stern answer: ‘No, I don’t do that.’ Complaining that ‘[t]here’s a lot of women out there
What to do with conspiracy theories
This article presents ethnographic insights into the everyday lives of people who circulate conspiratorial narratives through an ethnographic study of ultranationalist men in contemporary Turkey. Drawing on the findings of this research, the author suggests that conspiratorial discourses should be examined not solely in terms of their (anti-)truth qualities but as social practices through which masculine subjectivities and socialities are engende…
Bureaucracies under authoritarian pressure
Drawing on ethnographic research across two street-level bureaucratic institutions in Istanbul, Turkey in the late 2010s, this paper traces the causes and implications of the politicisation of bureaucrats in the context of authoritarianisation. It argues that politicisation of bureaucrats cannot solely be taken as a reflection of the erosion of bureaucratic autonomy and capacity but must be explored further to reveal how bureaucrats cope with aut…
Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices
This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories-in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science, philosophy, and social psychology-to frame conspiracy theories as productive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted through their epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and political margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropological sc…
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics:Insights from Reconfigurations of Conspiracy Theories in Turkey Erol Saglam (bio) conspiracy theories, no doubt, are one of the most controversial aspects of contemporary political contestations across the globe. Ranging from the ever-prevalent antisemitic accounts of secret (global) government to the belief that governments deliberately hide the existence of extraterrestrial life from the public,…
Paperwork as statecraft
Are bureaucratic institutions simply hollowed-out instruments of autocratisation, meaning they merely execute the orders of populist-authoritarian actors? If not, how do they deal with the destabilisations of autocratisation? Drawing on a study of street-level bureaucracies in contemporary Turkey, this article contributes to ongoing debates on the (un)makings of autocratisation and its limits through its focus on the role played by documents in …
Conspiratorial narratives as cultural repertoires and methodological tools
This article builds on data and field work notes from two ethnographic studies conducted in two cities: Istanbul and Trabzon, Turkey. It examines the socio-political dynamics behind the prevalence and impact of conspiratorial narratives. We explore the emergence, circulation, and effects of these narratives and how they shape political orientations and mobilisation. We raise methodological questions about these narratives and propose researchers …
Aestheticised Rituals and (Non-)Engagement with Norms in Contemporary Turkey
Drawing on an ethnographic research in some rural communities of Trabzon, Turkey, this article provides insights about the diversity of Islamic pieties and their relations to religious norms. An exploration of everyday Islamic practices in the area demonstrates how piety can take peculiar forms within which norms are both publicly and socially upheld and yet also hollowed out. Among Muslim men of ‘the Valley’ in Trabzon, piety emerges as an aggre…
Identity and (dis)owning the past
Drawing on ethnographic research on and subsequent interviews with Turkish nationalist communities who continue speaking an endangered Greek variety, this article raises a number of questions around the preservation and revitalisation efforts. It departs from the declining status of the language due to migration to urban centres, which seem to hinder intergenerational transmission, and socio-political context, the article explores the heritage co…
Embodying the State in the Margins
This article explores the reconfigurations of state making in Turkey through an exploration of men’s circulation of conspiracy theories and engagements with vigilante violence since the 2000s. Rather than readily dismissing conspiratorial narratives because of their (anti)truth qualities, I suggest reading their circulation as a social practice through which (political) subjectivities and communities are forged. In addition, I argue that their ci…
Aestheticised Rituals and (Non-)Engagement with Norms in Contemporary Turkey
Drawing on an ethnographic research in some rural communities of Trabzon, Turkey, this article provides insights about the diversity of Islamic pieties and their relations to religious norms. An exploration of everyday Islamic practices in the area demonstrates how piety can take peculiar forms within which norms are both publicly and socially upheld and yet also hollowed out. Among Muslim men of ‘the Valley’ in Trabzon, piety emerges as an aggre…
Fatherhood in transition
In 2016, in response to whether he would ‘change diapers’ of his children, President Trump gave a quick and stern answer: ‘No, I don’t do that.’ Complaining that ‘[t]here’s a lot of women out there
What to do with conspiracy theories
This article presents ethnographic insights into the everyday lives of people who circulate conspiratorial narratives through an ethnographic study of ultranationalist men in contemporary Turkey. Drawing on the findings of this research, the author suggests that conspiratorial discourses should be examined not solely in terms of their (anti-)truth qualities but as social practices through which masculine subjectivities and socialities are engende…
Intimate and yet Alienated
Drawing on ethnographic data from northeast Turkey, this article departs from the discreet preservation of Greek among Turkish-nationalist communities and explores the changing meanings of home and homeland in relation to this discreet cultural heritage. The discussion interrogates the changing dynamics, modalities, and configurations of home/land in contemporary Turkey and provides us with insights into how landscapes are implicated in the way c…
Taking the matter into your own hands
This article explores the changing configurations of statehood in the Turkish context through an exploration of men’s engagements with conspiratorial narratives, vigilantism, and extralegal violence against whom they deem to be ‘subversive’ elements. Drawing on ethnographic research on nationalist communities in Trabzon, in northeast Turkey, I trace everyday encounters, imaginations, and utterances to understand how the circulation of conspiracy …
Bureaucracies under authoritarian pressure
Drawing on ethnographic research across two street-level bureaucratic institutions in Istanbul, Turkey in the late 2010s, this paper traces the causes and implications of the politicisation of bureaucrats in the context of authoritarianisation. It argues that politicisation of bureaucrats cannot solely be taken as a reflection of the erosion of bureaucratic autonomy and capacity but must be explored further to reveal how bureaucrats cope with aut…
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics
Subjectivity, Mobilization, and Everyday Politics:Insights from Reconfigurations of Conspiracy Theories in Turkey Erol Saglam (bio) conspiracy theories, no doubt, are one of the most controversial aspects of contemporary political contestations across the globe. Ranging from the ever-prevalent antisemitic accounts of secret (global) government to the belief that governments deliberately hide the existence of extraterrestrial life from the public,…
Negotiated Conformism
Despite ideological alignment, right-wing populist constituencies and civic groups may openly resist and renegotiate the anti-gender and anti-feminist stances of populist parties through a process we call negotiated conformism. To analyse this phenomenon, we draw on two qualitative datasets from Turkey: one focusing on ordinary citizens who ideologically support and vote for the populist-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP); the other…
Remembering through possessed treasures? Landscapes and memories of societal violence in contemporary Turkey
May narratives of treasures be interrelated to remembrances of past societal violence? Attending to imaginations of and hunts for treasures across seemingly natural interfaces, this article explores these practices not simply as quests for material riches but as occasions through which past societal violence is recounted in the present across human and non-human assemblages. The article engages with two interrelated domains of scholarly debates. …
Ethnographies of the Psychosocial
(Un)Earthing violence
This article and the special issue it introduces contribute to existing debates on forgetting, remembering, and reckoning with past violence by bringing them up to date with violence's materially and spatially expansive workings that recent scholarship on sovereignty and ecology has highlighted. Thinking with scholars who have considered organized violence as the maker of ‘weathers', ‘atmospheres' and ‘ecologies', we engage critically with how th…
Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices
This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories-in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science, philosophy, and social psychology-to frame conspiracy theories as productive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted through their epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and political margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropological sc…
Conspiracism, Politics, and the State in the Twenty-First Century
No longer consigned to the margins of society, conspiracy theories have been normalized as integral to public discourse and governance in many countries. But as developments in Turkey illustrate, this is not simply a matter of the masses being subjected to top-down manipulation by misinformation. Conspiratorial narratives are circulated among ordinary citizens, generating bottom-up pressures, including vigilante violence, that compel government r…
Paperwork as statecraft
Are bureaucratic institutions simply hollowed-out instruments of autocratisation, meaning they merely execute the orders of populist-authoritarian actors? If not, how do they deal with the destabilisations of autocratisation? Drawing on a study of street-level bureaucracies in contemporary Turkey, this article contributes to ongoing debates on the (un)makings of autocratisation and its limits through its focus on the role played by documents in …
Identity and (dis)owning the past
Drawing on ethnographic research on and subsequent interviews with Turkish nationalist communities who continue speaking an endangered Greek variety, this article raises a number of questions around the preservation and revitalisation efforts. It departs from the declining status of the language due to migration to urban centres, which seem to hinder intergenerational transmission, and socio-political context, the article explores the heritage co…
Conspiratorial narratives as cultural repertoires and methodological tools
This article builds on data and field work notes from two ethnographic studies conducted in two cities: Istanbul and Trabzon, Turkey. It examines the socio-political dynamics behind the prevalence and impact of conspiratorial narratives. We explore the emergence, circulation, and effects of these narratives and how they shape political orientations and mobilisation. We raise methodological questions about these narratives and propose researchers …
Embodying the State in the Margins
This article explores the reconfigurations of state making in Turkey through an exploration of men’s circulation of conspiracy theories and engagements with vigilante violence since the 2000s. Rather than readily dismissing conspiratorial narratives because of their (anti)truth qualities, I suggest reading their circulation as a social practice through which (political) subjectivities and communities are forged. In addition, I argue that their ci…
Sociology (15 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · History (8 works) · Turkey's Politics and Society (8 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (7 works) · Anthropology (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Ethnography (6 works)