Nedim Karakayali
Biographic Data
| ID | 359253 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nedim Karakayali |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nedim |
| FAMILY NAME | Karakayali |
| SIGNATURE | KARAKAYALI N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bilkent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9363-3338 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 131 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
What Does 'Living Alone' Mean? Exploring the Practices of Solo-Living
The article sheds critical light on recent studies that associate living alone with various medical, psychological, and social vulnerabilities. The growing focus on the negative aspects of living alone goes parallel to its treatment as a structural trait (e.g. a “household status”) with predictable outcomes. On the basis of in-depth interviews with solo-living individuals from diverse sociological backgrounds, a different conceptualization of sol…
The normal is pathological: Semi-conscious brains, mindless habits, and the paradoxical science of mindfulness
Mood playlists, biopower, and the “functional turn” in online media: What happens when a pre-digital social control technology is transferred to the internet
In this article, we explore the transfer of functional music as a social control technology from pre-digital to digital media. Muzak, the closest ancestor of online functional music, was expert-designed to improve worker productivity. Ironically, today users themselves are creating mood playlists to enhance their work performance and to manage their emotional states in everyday life contexts. We examine the motivations and practices of users by a…
Self‐Concept
In sociology and social psychology, “self‐concept” refers to the thoughts, feelings, and evaluations of individuals about themselves. Researchers distinguish between multiple types (e.g., professional or physical) and “dimensions” (e.g., self‐identity and self‐esteem) of self‐concept, and a wide variety of “scales” are developed to measure those dimensions. The bulk of the studies in the literature focus on the correlation of self‐concept with va…
Recommendation Systems as Technologies of the Self: Algorithmic Control and the Formation of Music Taste
The article brings to light the use of recommender systems as technologies of the self, complementing the observations in current literature regarding their employment as technologies of 'soft' power. User practices on the music recommendation website last.fm reveal that many users do not only utilize the website to receive guidance about music products but also to examine and transform an aspect of their self, i.e. their 'music taste'. The capac…
Social Distance
The main idea behind the concept of social distance is that any given social relationship, in addition to other characteristics, always involves elements of “nearness” and “distance.” There is, however, a diversity of ways distance is conceptualized as a sociological notion. Most notably, social researchers emphasize the affective (e.g., how members of a group feel about “others”), normative (e.g., how “us” is distinguished from “them”), interact…
Two Ontological Orientations in Sociology: Building Social Ontologies and Blurring the Boundaries of the 'Social
The article highlights two contrasting ways in which social theorists have been trying to define the ontological boundaries of sociology since the early days of the discipline. Some (e.g. Durkheim, Weber, and critical realists) have attempted to demarcate social reality as a causally autonomous and qualitatively distinct realm in a segmented/stratified universe. Others (e.g. Tarde, Spencer, Luhmann, sociobiologists, and actor-network theorists) h…
Adapting, defending and transforming ourselves: Conceptualizations of self practices in the social science literature
Self practices – mental and bodily activities through which individuals try to give a shape to their existence – have been a topic of interest in the social science literature for over a century now. These studies bring into focus that such activities play important roles in our relationship to our social environment. But beyond this general insight we still do not have a framework for elucidating what kind of roles/uses have been attributed to s…
More Network Conscious Than Ever? Challenges, Strategies, and Analytic Labor of Users in the Facebook Environment: More Network Conscious Than Ever
As is widely observed, social network sites (SNS) constitute a new environment of interaction where users encounter various challenges that they usually do not encounter in other environments. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how users deal with the challenges in this unique environment, paying particular attention to the ways in which they examine and reflect on their social ties and networks. On the basis of 36 semistruct…
Two Assemblages of Cultural Transmission: Musicians, Political Actors and Educational Techniques in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe
In this study I aim to develop a sociological understanding of why certain techniques of cultural transmission are more easily accepted in some societies than in others. With this aim in mind, I present a comparative analysis of the contrasting approaches to music education in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire. While, as a major technique of cultural transmission music notation found relatively widespread acceptance in Western Europe at least…
Social Distance and Affective Orientations1
Most groups have social distance norms that differentiate "us" from "them." Contrary to a widespread assumption in the sociological literature, however, these normative distinctions, even when they are collectively recognized, do not always overlap with the affective orientations of group members in a uniform manner. Relations between normatively close members of a group are not always warm and friendly, and normatively distant groups can sometim…
Duality and Diversity in the Lives of Immigrant Children: Rethinking the “Problem of the Second Generation” in Light of Immigrant Autobiographies
À la lumière d'autobiographies d'immigrants écrites dans l'Amérique du Nord du XXe siècle, l'auteur de cet article étudie la thèse très répandue selon laquelle les enfants des immigrants sont pris entre leur communauté parentale et leur société hôte, et, par conséquent, qu'ils constituent un « groupe problème ». Les autobiographies fournissent une image plus complexe que ce que décrit ce modèle, indiquant non seulement une existence « ambivalente…
The Uses of the Stranger: Circulation, Arbitration, Secrecy, and Dirt
Little attention has been paid to the role of strangers in the social division of labor that is otherwise a key concept in sociological theory. Partly drawing upon Simmel, this article develops a general framework for analyzing the 'uses' of 'the stranger' throughout history. Four major domains in which strangers have often been employed are identified: (1) circulation (of goods, money, and information); (2) arbitration; (3) management of secret/…
Reading Bourdieu with Adorno: The Limits of Critical Theory and Reflexive Sociology
Scholarly activity presupposes a certain distance from the concerns of everyday life, which has both liberating and crippling effects. Bourdieu's reflexive sociology hopes to undo these crippling effects by making the scholar aware of the limits of his/her 'liberation'. Through his emphasis on the practical content of social life, Bourdieu provides a powerful alternative to theoretical critiques of contemporary society advanced by sociologists su…
Metamorphoses of the “Stranger: Jews in Europe, Polish Peasants in America, Turks in Germany
The increase in population of wood and mountain barbarian tribes on one hand, and the increasing demand for labor in the developing culture areas on the other created, with increasing wealth, numerous lower or unclean services. When the local resident population declined to take them over, these occupations fell into the hands of alien workers of foreign origin who were permanently lodged in urban areas but retained their tribal affiliations (Max…
Social Distance and Affective Orientations1
Most groups have social distance norms that differentiate "us" from "them." Contrary to a widespread assumption in the sociological literature, however, these normative distinctions, even when they are collectively recognized, do not always overlap with the affective orientations of group members in a uniform manner. Relations between normatively close members of a group are not always warm and friendly, and normatively distant groups can sometim…
Recommendation Systems as Technologies of the Self: Algorithmic Control and the Formation of Music Taste
The article brings to light the use of recommender systems as technologies of the self, complementing the observations in current literature regarding their employment as technologies of 'soft' power. User practices on the music recommendation website last.fm reveal that many users do not only utilize the website to receive guidance about music products but also to examine and transform an aspect of their self, i.e. their 'music taste'. The capac…
The Uses of the Stranger: Circulation, Arbitration, Secrecy, and Dirt
Little attention has been paid to the role of strangers in the social division of labor that is otherwise a key concept in sociological theory. Partly drawing upon Simmel, this article develops a general framework for analyzing the 'uses' of 'the stranger' throughout history. Four major domains in which strangers have often been employed are identified: (1) circulation (of goods, money, and information); (2) arbitration; (3) management of secret/…
Reading Bourdieu with Adorno: The Limits of Critical Theory and Reflexive Sociology
Scholarly activity presupposes a certain distance from the concerns of everyday life, which has both liberating and crippling effects. Bourdieu's reflexive sociology hopes to undo these crippling effects by making the scholar aware of the limits of his/her 'liberation'. Through his emphasis on the practical content of social life, Bourdieu provides a powerful alternative to theoretical critiques of contemporary society advanced by sociologists su…
Two Ontological Orientations in Sociology: Building Social Ontologies and Blurring the Boundaries of the 'Social
The article highlights two contrasting ways in which social theorists have been trying to define the ontological boundaries of sociology since the early days of the discipline. Some (e.g. Durkheim, Weber, and critical realists) have attempted to demarcate social reality as a causally autonomous and qualitatively distinct realm in a segmented/stratified universe. Others (e.g. Tarde, Spencer, Luhmann, sociobiologists, and actor-network theorists) h…
Adapting, defending and transforming ourselves: Conceptualizations of self practices in the social science literature
Self practices – mental and bodily activities through which individuals try to give a shape to their existence – have been a topic of interest in the social science literature for over a century now. These studies bring into focus that such activities play important roles in our relationship to our social environment. But beyond this general insight we still do not have a framework for elucidating what kind of roles/uses have been attributed to s…
Duality and Diversity in the Lives of Immigrant Children: Rethinking the “Problem of the Second Generation” in Light of Immigrant Autobiographies
À la lumière d'autobiographies d'immigrants écrites dans l'Amérique du Nord du XXe siècle, l'auteur de cet article étudie la thèse très répandue selon laquelle les enfants des immigrants sont pris entre leur communauté parentale et leur société hôte, et, par conséquent, qu'ils constituent un « groupe problème ». Les autobiographies fournissent une image plus complexe que ce que décrit ce modèle, indiquant non seulement une existence « ambivalente…
Metamorphoses of the “Stranger: Jews in Europe, Polish Peasants in America, Turks in Germany
The increase in population of wood and mountain barbarian tribes on one hand, and the increasing demand for labor in the developing culture areas on the other created, with increasing wealth, numerous lower or unclean services. When the local resident population declined to take them over, these occupations fell into the hands of alien workers of foreign origin who were permanently lodged in urban areas but retained their tribal affiliations (Max…
More Network Conscious Than Ever? Challenges, Strategies, and Analytic Labor of Users in the Facebook Environment: More Network Conscious Than Ever
As is widely observed, social network sites (SNS) constitute a new environment of interaction where users encounter various challenges that they usually do not encounter in other environments. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how users deal with the challenges in this unique environment, paying particular attention to the ways in which they examine and reflect on their social ties and networks. On the basis of 36 semistruct…
Two Assemblages of Cultural Transmission: Musicians, Political Actors and Educational Techniques in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe
In this study I aim to develop a sociological understanding of why certain techniques of cultural transmission are more easily accepted in some societies than in others. With this aim in mind, I present a comparative analysis of the contrasting approaches to music education in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire. While, as a major technique of cultural transmission music notation found relatively widespread acceptance in Western Europe at least…
What Does 'Living Alone' Mean? Exploring the Practices of Solo-Living
The article sheds critical light on recent studies that associate living alone with various medical, psychological, and social vulnerabilities. The growing focus on the negative aspects of living alone goes parallel to its treatment as a structural trait (e.g. a “household status”) with predictable outcomes. On the basis of in-depth interviews with solo-living individuals from diverse sociological backgrounds, a different conceptualization of sol…
Mood playlists, biopower, and the “functional turn” in online media: What happens when a pre-digital social control technology is transferred to the internet
In this article, we explore the transfer of functional music as a social control technology from pre-digital to digital media. Muzak, the closest ancestor of online functional music, was expert-designed to improve worker productivity. Ironically, today users themselves are creating mood playlists to enhance their work performance and to manage their emotional states in everyday life contexts. We examine the motivations and practices of users by a…
Metamorphoses of the “Stranger: Jews in Europe, Polish Peasants in America, Turks in Germany
The increase in population of wood and mountain barbarian tribes on one hand, and the increasing demand for labor in the developing culture areas on the other created, with increasing wealth, numerous lower or unclean services. When the local resident population declined to take them over, these occupations fell into the hands of alien workers of foreign origin who were permanently lodged in urban areas but retained their tribal affiliations (Max…
Reading Bourdieu with Adorno: The Limits of Critical Theory and Reflexive Sociology
Scholarly activity presupposes a certain distance from the concerns of everyday life, which has both liberating and crippling effects. Bourdieu's reflexive sociology hopes to undo these crippling effects by making the scholar aware of the limits of his/her 'liberation'. Through his emphasis on the practical content of social life, Bourdieu provides a powerful alternative to theoretical critiques of contemporary society advanced by sociologists su…
The Uses of the Stranger: Circulation, Arbitration, Secrecy, and Dirt
Little attention has been paid to the role of strangers in the social division of labor that is otherwise a key concept in sociological theory. Partly drawing upon Simmel, this article develops a general framework for analyzing the 'uses' of 'the stranger' throughout history. Four major domains in which strangers have often been employed are identified: (1) circulation (of goods, money, and information); (2) arbitration; (3) management of secret/…
Duality and Diversity in the Lives of Immigrant Children: Rethinking the “Problem of the Second Generation” in Light of Immigrant Autobiographies
À la lumière d'autobiographies d'immigrants écrites dans l'Amérique du Nord du XXe siècle, l'auteur de cet article étudie la thèse très répandue selon laquelle les enfants des immigrants sont pris entre leur communauté parentale et leur société hôte, et, par conséquent, qu'ils constituent un « groupe problème ». Les autobiographies fournissent une image plus complexe que ce que décrit ce modèle, indiquant non seulement une existence « ambivalente…
Social Distance and Affective Orientations1
Most groups have social distance norms that differentiate "us" from "them." Contrary to a widespread assumption in the sociological literature, however, these normative distinctions, even when they are collectively recognized, do not always overlap with the affective orientations of group members in a uniform manner. Relations between normatively close members of a group are not always warm and friendly, and normatively distant groups can sometim…
Two Assemblages of Cultural Transmission: Musicians, Political Actors and Educational Techniques in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe
In this study I aim to develop a sociological understanding of why certain techniques of cultural transmission are more easily accepted in some societies than in others. With this aim in mind, I present a comparative analysis of the contrasting approaches to music education in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire. While, as a major technique of cultural transmission music notation found relatively widespread acceptance in Western Europe at least…
More Network Conscious Than Ever? Challenges, Strategies, and Analytic Labor of Users in the Facebook Environment: More Network Conscious Than Ever
As is widely observed, social network sites (SNS) constitute a new environment of interaction where users encounter various challenges that they usually do not encounter in other environments. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how users deal with the challenges in this unique environment, paying particular attention to the ways in which they examine and reflect on their social ties and networks. On the basis of 36 semistruct…
Adapting, defending and transforming ourselves: Conceptualizations of self practices in the social science literature
Self practices – mental and bodily activities through which individuals try to give a shape to their existence – have been a topic of interest in the social science literature for over a century now. These studies bring into focus that such activities play important roles in our relationship to our social environment. But beyond this general insight we still do not have a framework for elucidating what kind of roles/uses have been attributed to s…
Two Ontological Orientations in Sociology: Building Social Ontologies and Blurring the Boundaries of the 'Social
The article highlights two contrasting ways in which social theorists have been trying to define the ontological boundaries of sociology since the early days of the discipline. Some (e.g. Durkheim, Weber, and critical realists) have attempted to demarcate social reality as a causally autonomous and qualitatively distinct realm in a segmented/stratified universe. Others (e.g. Tarde, Spencer, Luhmann, sociobiologists, and actor-network theorists) h…
Social Distance
The main idea behind the concept of social distance is that any given social relationship, in addition to other characteristics, always involves elements of “nearness” and “distance.” There is, however, a diversity of ways distance is conceptualized as a sociological notion. Most notably, social researchers emphasize the affective (e.g., how members of a group feel about “others”), normative (e.g., how “us” is distinguished from “them”), interact…
Recommendation Systems as Technologies of the Self: Algorithmic Control and the Formation of Music Taste
The article brings to light the use of recommender systems as technologies of the self, complementing the observations in current literature regarding their employment as technologies of 'soft' power. User practices on the music recommendation website last.fm reveal that many users do not only utilize the website to receive guidance about music products but also to examine and transform an aspect of their self, i.e. their 'music taste'. The capac…
Mood playlists, biopower, and the “functional turn” in online media: What happens when a pre-digital social control technology is transferred to the internet
In this article, we explore the transfer of functional music as a social control technology from pre-digital to digital media. Muzak, the closest ancestor of online functional music, was expert-designed to improve worker productivity. Ironically, today users themselves are creating mood playlists to enhance their work performance and to manage their emotional states in everyday life contexts. We examine the motivations and practices of users by a…
Self‐Concept
In sociology and social psychology, “self‐concept” refers to the thoughts, feelings, and evaluations of individuals about themselves. Researchers distinguish between multiple types (e.g., professional or physical) and “dimensions” (e.g., self‐identity and self‐esteem) of self‐concept, and a wide variety of “scales” are developed to measure those dimensions. The bulk of the studies in the literature focus on the correlation of self‐concept with va…
The normal is pathological: Semi-conscious brains, mindless habits, and the paradoxical science of mindfulness
What Does 'Living Alone' Mean? Exploring the Practices of Solo-Living
The article sheds critical light on recent studies that associate living alone with various medical, psychological, and social vulnerabilities. The growing focus on the negative aspects of living alone goes parallel to its treatment as a structural trait (e.g. a “household status”) with predictable outcomes. On the basis of in-depth interviews with solo-living individuals from diverse sociological backgrounds, a different conceptualization of sol…
Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works)