Fikret Adaman
Biographic Data
| ID | 207310 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fikret Adaman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fikret |
| FAMILY NAME | Adaman |
| SIGNATURE | ADAMAN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bogaziçi University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3216-7684 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 280 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Academia Under a Conservative-Authoritarian Regime in Turkey: An All-Out Kulturkampf
This article argues that, among the many reasons explaining the attacks on higher education in Turkey, the mobilization of Kulturkampf to gain cultural hegemony is a crucial one. It uses Boğaziçi University as a focal case within a broader pattern of autocratization. Grounded in debates over culturalization of politics and situated within Turkey's political history since 2002, the study traces the quest of the incumbent government to establish it…
The Surplus Idea of the University
This “Against the Day” dossier discusses the destructive impact of authoritarian and neoliberal higher education policy regimes on universities but also underlines the surprising resilience of academic communities. This question is explored through the lens of surplus, which designates a constitutive excess rather than a residual remainder. It names the impossibility of reducing the university to any single regime of valuation—whether market, sta…
Quo Vadis? Academic Autonomy and Freedom: The Case of Economics Discipline in Turkey
Caught between neoliberalism and authoritarianism, which have long mutually reinforced one another, academia at the global level is presently under serious pressure. This hostile environment weighs even more heavily on radical economics. This manuscript highlights the case of Turkey, elaborating from a historical perspective the difficulties academic life has faced in terms of safeguarding autonomy and freedom in general and radical economics in …
On “Democratic Economic Planning, Social Metabolism and the Environment
Decolonizing development economics: A critique of the late neoclassical reason
Revisiting the Calculation Debate: A Call for a Multiscale Approach
This essay provides a framework to develop policies that can both resist the capitalist system and formulate alternatives to it, by critically reviewing discussions of an ecosocialist society and its economic organization through revisiting the "calculation debate" that was started in the 1930s and is still ongoing. It underlines the importance of repoliticizing the economic sphere to reembed the economy in society rather than society being subor…
Response to Hannah Archambault and Luke Pretz, Aaron Benanav, and Ted Burczak
In responding to Fikret Adaman and Pat Devine’s essay “Revisiting the Calculation Debate: A Call for a Multiscale Approach,” Hannah Archambault and Luke Pretz, Aaron Benanav, and Ted Burczak at points reinforce the text’s positions, reinterpret arguments from different angles, complement arguments, and raise their own concerns. With gratitude, the authors here provide their own reflections on these responses, advocating for politically determined…
Clarifications on democracy and economic planning: An engagement with Robin Hahnel
Models developed by Robin Hahnel and Pat Devine both claim to rest on democratic planning in an ecosocialist society. Whereas Hahnel depends on a neoclassical framework (commensurability of goods, assumption of homo economics, reliance on marginal costs-benefits), Devine relies on knowledge in different forms as articulated at the individual, institutional, and societal levels by the social owners at each level and incorporates a transformatory d…
Authoritarian developmentalism: The latest stage of neoliberalism
We are amidst what can be termed an ongoing authoritarian turn in global politics. While Trump, one of its important examples, is no longer in office in the United States, there remain many countries under the sway of authoritarian leaders, such as Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Hungary and the Philippines. The policies of Trump, Sisi, Bolsonaro, Orban and Duterte can be characterized as authoritarian developmentalism. Although they have come to power th…
How to Create More Inclusive Economies: An Interview with Dani Rodrik
The Ecological Economics of Economic Democracy
Erdoğan’s three-pillared neoliberalism: Authoritarianism, populism and developmentalism
Neoliberal developmentalism, authoritarian populism, and extractivism in the countryside: The Soma mining disaster in Turkey
While state-society relations in Turkey have historically been top-down and coups d'état periodically interrupted democratic politics, the recent authoritarian turn under Erdoğan is remarkable. Two dynamics are especially salient. First, Erdoğan and his AKP have been particularly effective in deepening the neoliberalisation of economy and society. Their policies have created a new form of neoliberal developmentalism, where solutions to all social…
Neoliberal Turn in the Discipline of Economics: Depoliticization Through Economization
Democratisation of Economic Research and Policy by Building a Knowledge Commons: Inspiration from Cooperatives
We argue that the virtual reality of homo economicus dominates our economic theories and policies, producing inefficient and unjust outcomes and thus leading to wasteful use or/and unequal distribution of resources. Thus we believe there is need to incorporate substantive aspects of human life and well-being as well as to embrace the plurality of people’s values, priorities and rationalities. To this end, we propose the democratisation of economi…
The Effectiveness of Environmental Civil Society Organizations: An Integrated Analysis of Organizational Characteristics and Contextual Factors
A push to reverse unsustainable trends has come from environmental civil society, but its track record is somewhat inconsistent. Why are some environmental organizations able to enhance the environmental cause, while others fail to create a substantial impact in the move toward environmental sustainability? This paper considers related but disparate clusters of literature and identifies factors that have an impact on the effectiveness of civil so…
The Decimation and Displacement of Development Economics
Contemporary mainstream development economics is an overdetermined product of three historical processes: the late neoclassical turn within mainstream economic theory; transformations within the institutional-discursive matrix of development, from growth-centred policies to poverty alleviation- and good governance-oriented policies; and a broader transition from post-war Keynesian developmentalism (with its variants in the second and third worlds…
Health policy for the poor: An exploration on the take-up of means-tested health benefits in Turkey
Environmentalism of the malcontent: Anatomy of an anti-coal power plant struggle in Turkey
This paper introduces the concept of the 'environmentalism of the malcontent' to characterise a type of environmental activism that is increasingly common in Turkey. It illustrates its argument by analysing the resistance movement against the proposed Gerze coal power plant. By so doing, it problematises the relationship between class and environmental consciousness as well as the ability of the existing literature to accurately characterise the …
Landscapes of development: The impact of modernization discourses on the physical environment of the eastern Mediterranean
Engaging with Social Networks: The Bourdieu-Becker Encounter Revisited
Economic implications of social networks are of great importance and economic motives may well play crucial roles in network formation and dissipation. Although historically speaking the mainstream economics' attention to the subject had rather been limited, in the previous couple of decades, the economics discipline developed its own branch of social network analysis and incorporated in their analysis individuals' networking decisions based on a…
Neoliberal Reason and Its Forms: De‐Politicisation Through Economisation
This paper offers a historically contextualised intellectual history of the entangled development of three competing post‐war economic approaches, viz the Austrian, Chicago and post‐Walrasian schools, as three forms of neoliberalism. Taking our cue from Foucault's reading of neoliberalism as a mode of governmentality under which the social is organised through “economic incentives”, we engage with the recent discussions of neoliberal theory on th…
Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win‐win solutions
In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over‐reliance on payments as win‐win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly amo…
New Organs Within Us: Transplants and the Moral Economy
New Organs Within Us: Transplants and the Moral Economy." Turkish Studies, 14(1), pp. 179–180
Environmental organisations in Turkey: Engaging the State and Capital
Throughout the world, unfettered capitalism and the obsession with economic growth have led to the destruction of many ecologically important sites, and generated sharp conflicts between the state and civil society actors concerned to protect the environment. Some optimists about the role of civil society actors gloss over the power dynamics in which they are embedded, and their economic and political contexts. The roles civil society organisatio…
Neoliberal developmentalism, authoritarian populism, and extractivism in the countryside: The Soma mining disaster in Turkey
While state-society relations in Turkey have historically been top-down and coups d'état periodically interrupted democratic politics, the recent authoritarian turn under Erdoğan is remarkable. Two dynamics are especially salient. First, Erdoğan and his AKP have been particularly effective in deepening the neoliberalisation of economy and society. Their policies have created a new form of neoliberal developmentalism, where solutions to all social…
Erdoğan’s three-pillared neoliberalism: Authoritarianism, populism and developmentalism
Authoritarian developmentalism: The latest stage of neoliberalism
We are amidst what can be termed an ongoing authoritarian turn in global politics. While Trump, one of its important examples, is no longer in office in the United States, there remain many countries under the sway of authoritarian leaders, such as Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Hungary and the Philippines. The policies of Trump, Sisi, Bolsonaro, Orban and Duterte can be characterized as authoritarian developmentalism. Although they have come to power th…
Environmentalism of the malcontent: Anatomy of an anti-coal power plant struggle in Turkey
This paper introduces the concept of the 'environmentalism of the malcontent' to characterise a type of environmental activism that is increasingly common in Turkey. It illustrates its argument by analysing the resistance movement against the proposed Gerze coal power plant. By so doing, it problematises the relationship between class and environmental consciousness as well as the ability of the existing literature to accurately characterise the …
Neoliberal Reason and Its Forms: De‐Politicisation Through Economisation
This paper offers a historically contextualised intellectual history of the entangled development of three competing post‐war economic approaches, viz the Austrian, Chicago and post‐Walrasian schools, as three forms of neoliberalism. Taking our cue from Foucault's reading of neoliberalism as a mode of governmentality under which the social is organised through “economic incentives”, we engage with the recent discussions of neoliberal theory on th…
Health policy for the poor: An exploration on the take-up of means-tested health benefits in Turkey
Reinstituting the Economic Process: (Re)embedding the Economy in Society and Nature
Polanyi argued that the project of creating a fully self-regulating market was utopian, in the sense of impossible. However, movement towards this utopia, the ever greater but never completed process of disembedding the economy from both society and nature, creates growing dislocations and tensions which call forth a counter movement. This double movement may be thought of as successive changes in the way in which the economic process is institut…
Participatory planning as a deliberative democratic process: A response to Hodgson's critique
This paper is a response to Hodgson's recent critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated co-ordination. His critique focused on four issues: the coherence of our distinction between market exchange and market forces; our understanding of tacit knowledge; the scope for innovation in our model; and the alleged problems of information overload and cognitive limitations. In this response we argue that Hodgson misinterprets our …
The promise of participatory planning: A rejoinder to Hodgson
This note is a rejoinder to Hodgson's second attempt at a critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated coordination. The rejoinder is organized under four headings: market exchange and market forces/negotiated coordination; subsidiarity and pluralism; innovation, entrepreneurship, and tacit knowledge; and autonomy and self-government. We consider Hodgson's characterization of our position to be a travesty and rebut his asser…
Societal Context of Labor Union Strategy: The Case of Turkey
This article questions the societal context of labor union strategy for the case of Turkey, where the legacy of the military junta of 1980—1983 is still vivid. The results by and large indicate a clear rupture between unionized and nonunionized workers, a fact that highlights the significance of innovative union strategies directed at expanding membership in a way to include atypical workers so as to resist union decline. This rupture also points…
A Reconsideration of the Theory of Entrepreneurship: A participatory approach
The aim of this paper is to further the understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial success and organisational form. The role of entrepreneurship in the neoclassical, Austrian and competence theory approaches is analysed and five recurring themes are identified: the tacit nature of knowledge relevant for entrepreneurial activity; the presence of tacit knowledge at both the individual and organisational levels; the articulation of ta…
Environmental organisations in Turkey: Engaging the State and Capital
Throughout the world, unfettered capitalism and the obsession with economic growth have led to the destruction of many ecologically important sites, and generated sharp conflicts between the state and civil society actors concerned to protect the environment. Some optimists about the role of civil society actors gloss over the power dynamics in which they are embedded, and their economic and political contexts. The roles civil society organisatio…
Social Exclusion in the Slum Areas of Large Cities in Turkey
The aim of this article is to analyze the results of a survey conducted in the slum areas of six metropolitan cities in Turkey— Adana, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, İstanbul and İzmir—in order to unveil the multifaceted aspects of social exclusion processes as experienced by their inhabitants. The evidence documented in this study suggests that a significant number of people living in these areas are distanced from jobs, income, education, and t…
Decolonizing development economics: A critique of the late neoclassical reason
The Decimation and Displacement of Development Economics
Contemporary mainstream development economics is an overdetermined product of three historical processes: the late neoclassical turn within mainstream economic theory; transformations within the institutional-discursive matrix of development, from growth-centred policies to poverty alleviation- and good governance-oriented policies; and a broader transition from post-war Keynesian developmentalism (with its variants in the second and third worlds…
Engaging with Social Networks: The Bourdieu-Becker Encounter Revisited
Economic implications of social networks are of great importance and economic motives may well play crucial roles in network formation and dissipation. Although historically speaking the mainstream economics' attention to the subject had rather been limited, in the previous couple of decades, the economics discipline developed its own branch of social network analysis and incorporated in their analysis individuals' networking decisions based on a…
Is Corruption a Drawback to Turkey's Accession to the European Union
The paper focuses on the question of whether or not the current level of corruption in Turkey constitutes a major drawback for European Union (EU) membership. After elaborating the different types of corruption in Turkey, the paper argues that a full-scale anti-corruption strategy should include not only policing-type regulations and improved institutional structures, but also systemic reforms to deal with patron–client networking, informality an…
The Political Economy of the Environment in Turkey
This paper aims to propose a political economy framework to analyze environmental problems in Turkey. A political economy approach seems to be the appropriate way of investigating environmental issues, as not only are economy and the environment interwoven entities, changes in one affecting the other, but also collective actions are almost always required in dealing with such problems. With this integrated approach one can thus better understand …
An inquiry on introducing a minimum income scheme in Turkey: Alternating between cost efficiency and poverty reduction
Turkey is one of the few countries in Europe without a minimum income scheme. In an effort to simulate the potential economic impact of introducing such a scheme in Turkey, data from the 2007 Statistics on Income and Living Conditions were used to consider various policy scenarios with regard to eligibility conditions and benefits. The impact of a minimum guaranteed income scheme on the extent of poverty, income distribution and the proportion of…
The Economics-Environment Relationship: Neoclassical, Institutional, and Marxist Approaches
The importance of the environment for economic activity and, in turn, the impact of economic activity on nature, have motivated economists to include the analysis of the relationship between economics and the environment in their research agenda since economics became a discipline. Given the existence of different schools of thought within economics-at times complementary and at times conflicting-the debate over the way in which this relationship…
Socialist Renewal: Lessons from the “Calculation” Debate
The crisis of confidence confronting socialists today has various causes. The most insistent, immediate reason is the historic failure of the Soviet model, with the attendant disintegration of country after country formerly within the Soviet sphere of influence, and the precipitate attempts of the ruling elites in these countries to restore or create some form of capitalism
On “Democratic Economic Planning, Social Metabolism and the Environment
Revisiting the Calculation Debate: A Call for a Multiscale Approach
This essay provides a framework to develop policies that can both resist the capitalist system and formulate alternatives to it, by critically reviewing discussions of an ecosocialist society and its economic organization through revisiting the "calculation debate" that was started in the 1930s and is still ongoing. It underlines the importance of repoliticizing the economic sphere to reembed the economy in society rather than society being subor…
Clarifications on democracy and economic planning: An engagement with Robin Hahnel
Models developed by Robin Hahnel and Pat Devine both claim to rest on democratic planning in an ecosocialist society. Whereas Hahnel depends on a neoclassical framework (commensurability of goods, assumption of homo economics, reliance on marginal costs-benefits), Devine relies on knowledge in different forms as articulated at the individual, institutional, and societal levels by the social owners at each level and incorporates a transformatory d…
Democratisation of Economic Research and Policy by Building a Knowledge Commons: Inspiration from Cooperatives
We argue that the virtual reality of homo economicus dominates our economic theories and policies, producing inefficient and unjust outcomes and thus leading to wasteful use or/and unequal distribution of resources. Thus we believe there is need to incorporate substantive aspects of human life and well-being as well as to embrace the plurality of people’s values, priorities and rationalities. To this end, we propose the democratisation of economi…
Socialist Renewal: Lessons from the “Calculation” Debate
The crisis of confidence confronting socialists today has various causes. The most insistent, immediate reason is the historic failure of the Soviet model, with the attendant disintegration of country after country formerly within the Soviet sphere of influence, and the precipitate attempts of the ruling elites in these countries to restore or create some form of capitalism
A Response to Professor Foss
We are grateful to Nicolai Foss for his comment on our article. Although we do not agree with his argument and consider it to be based on a fundamental misconception, his comment nevertheless raises an important point and gives us the opportunity to clarify our position on the role of institutions in the coordination of investment in a capitalist economy
On the Economic Theory of Socialism
The political revolutions of 1989–91 in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have created a new historical conjuncture in which the very future of the socialist project has been called into question. Socialists of all varieties have been affected by a profound loss of confidence
The Political Economy of the Environment in Turkey
This paper aims to propose a political economy framework to analyze environmental problems in Turkey. A political economy approach seems to be the appropriate way of investigating environmental issues, as not only are economy and the environment interwoven entities, changes in one affecting the other, but also collective actions are almost always required in dealing with such problems. With this integrated approach one can thus better understand …
State Structures: Coercion versus Co-ordination. Some Lessons for Turkey
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Participatory planning as a deliberative democratic process: A response to Hodgson's critique
This paper is a response to Hodgson's recent critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated co-ordination. His critique focused on four issues: the coherence of our distinction between market exchange and market forces; our understanding of tacit knowledge; the scope for innovation in our model; and the alleged problems of information overload and cognitive limitations. In this response we argue that Hodgson misinterprets our …
Economic Decentralization: Some Guidelines for Turkey
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A Reconsideration of the Theory of Entrepreneurship: A participatory approach
The aim of this paper is to further the understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial success and organisational form. The role of entrepreneurship in the neoclassical, Austrian and competence theory approaches is analysed and five recurring themes are identified: the tacit nature of knowledge relevant for entrepreneurial activity; the presence of tacit knowledge at both the individual and organisational levels; the articulation of ta…
The Economics-Environment Relationship: Neoclassical, Institutional, and Marxist Approaches
The importance of the environment for economic activity and, in turn, the impact of economic activity on nature, have motivated economists to include the analysis of the relationship between economics and the environment in their research agenda since economics became a discipline. Given the existence of different schools of thought within economics-at times complementary and at times conflicting-the debate over the way in which this relationship…
Social Capital and Corruption during Times of Crisis: A Look at Turkish Firms during the Economic Crisis of 2001
This contribution investigates whether lack of trust among business people towards the business community, as well as towards the general public, is conducive to more corruption in Turkey. Based on a survey study conducted in 2001, we establish a link between trust and corruption. Accepting the claim that corruption plays a role in the emergence and persistence of economic--and political--crises, we suggest that the latest crises that hit Turkey …
Reinstituting the Economic Process: (Re)embedding the Economy in Society and Nature
Polanyi argued that the project of creating a fully self-regulating market was utopian, in the sense of impossible. However, movement towards this utopia, the ever greater but never completed process of disembedding the economy from both society and nature, creates growing dislocations and tensions which call forth a counter movement. This double movement may be thought of as successive changes in the way in which the economic process is institut…
La planification participative contre le Grand Marché (économie, nature et société)
The promise of participatory planning: A rejoinder to Hodgson
This note is a rejoinder to Hodgson's second attempt at a critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated coordination. The rejoinder is organized under four headings: market exchange and market forces/negotiated coordination; subsidiarity and pluralism; innovation, entrepreneurship, and tacit knowledge; and autonomy and self-government. We consider Hodgson's characterization of our position to be a travesty and rebut his asser…
The European Union and Turkey: Who Defines Environmental Progress
[European Union] EU environment policy aims to promote sustainable development and to protect the environment for present and future generations. It is based on preventive action, the polluter pays principle, fighting environmental damage at source, shared responsibility and the integration of environmental protection into other EU policies. The acquis comprises over 200 major legal acts covering horizontal legislation, water and air quality, was…
Social Exclusion in the Slum Areas of Large Cities in Turkey
The aim of this article is to analyze the results of a survey conducted in the slum areas of six metropolitan cities in Turkey— Adana, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, İstanbul and İzmir—in order to unveil the multifaceted aspects of social exclusion processes as experienced by their inhabitants. The evidence documented in this study suggests that a significant number of people living in these areas are distanced from jobs, income, education, and t…
Hospital Choice: Survey Evidence from Istanbul
This paper analyzes the patient characteristics that affect the choice between public and private health care providers in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to socioeconomic variables, such as insurance status or income, which have often been considered in the previous literature, we also focus on another factor, the availability of social networks, which might determine ease of access to hospital services in developing countries. The analysis is bas…
Societal Context of Labor Union Strategy: The Case of Turkey
This article questions the societal context of labor union strategy for the case of Turkey, where the legacy of the military junta of 1980—1983 is still vivid. The results by and large indicate a clear rupture between unionized and nonunionized workers, a fact that highlights the significance of innovative union strategies directed at expanding membership in a way to include atypical workers so as to resist union decline. This rupture also points…
Valuation languages in environmental conflicts: How stakeholders oppose or support gold mining at Mount Ida, Turkey
Is Corruption a Drawback to Turkey's Accession to the European Union
The paper focuses on the question of whether or not the current level of corruption in Turkey constitutes a major drawback for European Union (EU) membership. After elaborating the different types of corruption in Turkey, the paper argues that a full-scale anti-corruption strategy should include not only policing-type regulations and improved institutional structures, but also systemic reforms to deal with patron–client networking, informality an…
An inquiry on introducing a minimum income scheme in Turkey: Alternating between cost efficiency and poverty reduction
Turkey is one of the few countries in Europe without a minimum income scheme. In an effort to simulate the potential economic impact of introducing such a scheme in Turkey, data from the 2007 Statistics on Income and Living Conditions were used to consider various policy scenarios with regard to eligibility conditions and benefits. The impact of a minimum guaranteed income scheme on the extent of poverty, income distribution and the proportion of…
Power Inequalities in Explaining the Link between Natural Hazards and Unnatural Disasters
Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win‐win solutions
In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over‐reliance on payments as win‐win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly amo…
New Organs Within Us: Transplants and the Moral Economy
New Organs Within Us: Transplants and the Moral Economy." Turkish Studies, 14(1), pp. 179–180
Environmental organisations in Turkey: Engaging the State and Capital
Throughout the world, unfettered capitalism and the obsession with economic growth have led to the destruction of many ecologically important sites, and generated sharp conflicts between the state and civil society actors concerned to protect the environment. Some optimists about the role of civil society actors gloss over the power dynamics in which they are embedded, and their economic and political contexts. The roles civil society organisatio…
Landscapes of development: The impact of modernization discourses on the physical environment of the eastern Mediterranean
Political science (35 works) · Economics (31 works) · Law (23 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Politics (22 works) · Law (21 works) · Economic Theory and Institutions (13 works) · Political economy (12 works) · Neoclassical economics (11 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (10 works)