Mirrors of Modernization: the American Reflection in Turkey
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey Begum Adalet University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Adalet, Begum, "Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1186. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1186 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1186 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey Abstract This project documents otherwise neglected dimensions entailed in the assemblage and implementations of political theories, namely their fabrication through encounters with their material, local, and affective constituents. Rather than emanating from the West and migrating to their venues of application, social scientific theories are fashioned in particular sites where political relations can be staged and worked upon. Such was the case with modernization theory, which prevailed in official and academic circles in the United States during the early phases of the Cold War. The theory bore its imprint on a series of developmental and infrastructural projects in Turkey, the beneficiary of Marshall Plan funds and academic exchange programs and one of the theory's most important models. The manuscript scrutinizes the corresponding sites of elaboration for the key indices of modernization: the capacity for empathy, mobility, and hospitality. In the case of Turkey the sites included survey research, the implementation of a highway network, and the expansion of the tourism industry through landmarks such as the Istanbul Hilton Hotel. Social scientific interviews, highway machinery, and hotel lobbies were less external sites of implementation for modernization theory than laboratories where it was manufactured and enacted. While such microcosms were designed to scale down competing visions of modernization and technical expertise to a manageable size, their implementation was offset by the resilience of recipient subjects, as well as anxieties and hesitations on the part of practitioners. The projects of the social scientists, technical experts, and policymakers were not tantamount to a straightforward process of Americanization; rather techniques of knowledge production and corresponding visions of development were dynamic and subject to strategies of translation that reworked the inevitabilities their creators imagined. Based on multi-sited archival research spanning government agencies, private corporations, and the published work and private papers of key social scientists, the project traces the history and concrete enactment of a political theory, one whose imprint continues to guide current debates on political and economic development. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Political Science First Advisor Anne Norton Subject Categories History | Political Science This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1186 MIRRORS OF MODERNIZATION: THE AMERICAN REFLECTION IN TURKEY Begüm Adalet A DISSERTATION in Political Science Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Supervisor of Dissertation: Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science Graduate Group Chairperson: Matthew Levendusky, Associate Professor of Political Science Dissertation Committee: Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science Robert Vitalis, Professor of Political Science Timothy Mitchell, Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies MIRRORS OF MODERNIZATION: THE AMERICAN REFLECTION IN TURKEY COPYRIGHT 2014 Begüm Adalet For Rüheyla Öngen, My grandmother iii Acknowledgments This dissertation was written with the help of many debts incurred over the course of travels across research sites and homes between Turkey and the United States. My advisor Anne Norton’s elegance as a teacher, scholar, and writer has been a constant source of inspiration from the time I arrived at Penn. She has lent me considerable support throughout the various phases of my studies, and the dissertation’s better turns of phrase invariably belong to her. Over the course of the years, Bob Vitalis has housed me, nourished me with food and books to read, and taught me to appreciate finding aids and the importance of intellectual history. While he also made me cry on more than one occasion, I am grateful for his insistence that I write a dissertation that I believe in. Even though Timothy Mitchell was a late addition to the committee, I hope that his imprint on the project and his insightful feedback are discernible in the pages that follow. Archival research, as I soon came to learn throughout my trips, is by no means a solitary process. I would like to thank the staff at the National Archives in College Park, the Seely Mudd Library at Princeton University, the Institute Archives and Special Collections at MIT, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, as well as the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. The staff at the Grand National Assembly Archives, the National Library in Ankara, and the Beyazit State Library in Istanbul were exceptionally patient with my often unreasonable demands for books, newspapers, and periodicals. Dr. Mark Young at the Hospitality Industry Archives in Houston was a most resourceful host, and shared with me delightful anecdotes about several generations of the Hilton family. Gülçin Manka and Figen Aydoğdu put up with me for weeks at the Department of Highways in Ankara, encouraged me to make as many photocopies as I wished, and shared their tea breaks with me. Marina Rustow put me in touch with Margrit Wreschner-Rustow, who opened up her home to me, shared my enthusiasm about her late husband’s life and work, and introduced me to gefilte fish, among other things. During the research and writing phases of the project, as well as conference presentations, I benefited from conversations and email exchanges with several people who suggested novel directions of research, and did not hesitate to share helpful documents and suggestions with me. These are Mustafa Baskıcı, Sibel Bozdoğan, Deniz Çakır, Frederick Frey, Renata Holod, Toby Jones, Reşat Kasaba, Matthew Moore, Thomas Naff, Amy Offner, Cangül Örnek, Haluk Pamir, Frank Plantan, Jim Ryan, Emmanuelle Saada, Ilhan Tekeli, Eve Trout Powell, Derya Yorgancıoğlu, and Gizem Zencirci. Long after the conferences were over, Omar Cheta, Evren Savcı, and Selim Karlıtekin kept me sane and entertained through our online correspondences. I was fortunate enough that research trips also allowed me to spend time with family and loved ones. In Istanbul, my aunt Sehran Özer gave me access to her library, which contains a rich documentation of Turkish intellectual history. My uncle Emre Özer’s curiosity about the project was a wonderful addition to our raki meals. Meeting Dicle Şarman in Taksim was the best ending to a long day at the library. In Ankara, Zafer and Kerem Adalet kindly put me in touch with various “guesthouses” and friends who hosted iv me during many trips. I also relied on the generosity of Kerem Ozer and Jennifer Tate in Austin, Julian di Giovanni in DC, Stella Kyriakopoulos and Sonal Shah in New York, and Benjamin Schultz in Somerville. Ben was also the enthusiastic recipient of hour-long phone calls detailing various archival visits across the ocean, and I am grateful for his help with document titles, his companionship, and support over several years. I have acquired professional and personal debts at various institutions. The research for the project was funded by a Penfield Dissertation Research Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania and two summer research grants from the Department of Political Science. The last year of writing was supported by a generous ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship. At the University of Pennsylvania, I benefited from the support, assistance, and advice of Peter Agree, Jeffrey Green, Nancy Hirschmann, Pat Kozak, Matt Levendusky, Ian Lustick, Brendan O’Leary, and Rudy Sil. Before coming to Penn, I was lucky to receive mentorship from Nick Xenos, Barbara Cruikshank, Jillian Schwedler, Amel Ahmed, and Peter Haas at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At 3440 Market, I was lucky to share conversations, brainstorming sessions, and lunch breaks with Willie Gin, Meredith Wooten, Emmerich Davies, Tim Weaver, Murad Idris, Samah ElHajibrahim, and above all, Marcia Dotson. Stephan Stohler provided the best study breaks around the office, cast a sympathetic, social scientific eye over my writing, and supported me in all manners over many email exchanges. Aniruddha Jairam has become my most challenging interlocutor at workshop presentations, flailing only during our informal conversations about Arundhati Roy and B.R. Ambedkar, or so I tell myself. Ian Hartshorn and Jon Argaman are among my oldest friends in the program, and wonderful writing buddies to boot. Thea Riofrancos has read almost every word of the dissertation, keeping me disciplined, and helping pinpoint the connections I kept missing: the project and my years in the program benefited immeasurably from our friendship.