THE EMERGENCE OF THINK TANKS AND MEDIATOR INTELLECTUALS IN TURKEY BURHAN FINDIKLI İSTANBUL ŞEHİR UNIVERSITY JUNE 2015 THE EMERGENCE OF THINK TANKS AND MEDIATOR INTELLECTUALS IN TURKEY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF İSTANBUL ŞEHİR UNIVERSITY BY BURHAN FINDIKLI IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGY JUNE 2015 ABSTRACT THE EMERGENCE OF THINK TANKS AND MEDIATOR INTELLECTUALS IN TURKEY Fındıklı, Burhan. MA, Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Alim Arlı June 2015, 145 pages This study examines the rise and development of think tanks in Turkey over the past five decades from a field-analytical perspective. In spite of the rapid growth and increasing effects of think tanks, few case studies have been conducted on the historical and current influences of these institutions in Turkey. Based on fourteen in-depth interviews with staff members of various think tanks, first hand observations, secondary resources, and descriptive statistical data, this dissertation aims to fill the void by presenting both a historical outline and present day landscape of the think tank field. As distinct from the large part of the existing literature on think tanks in political science and international relations, this analysis presented here also attaches particular importance to understand the dynamics of knowledge production as well as the modes of intellectual intervention that think tanks undertake, relocating the issue in the sociology of intellectuals. The historical analysis argues that although the earliest think tanks outcropped in the 1960s, think tanks began to exhibit field-like properties in the mid-1990s. It follows that the proliferation of think tanks was accompanied by the emergence of a specific kind of intellectual conduct, the “mediation”, along with the rise of a particular type of knowledge production, the “policy knowledge”. Keywords: Think Tank, intellectual, field, mediation, intellectual production, policy. İV ÖZ TÜRKİYE’DE DÜŞÜNCE KURULUŞLARININ VE ARABULUCU ENTELEKTÜELLERİN DOĞUŞU Fındıklı, Burhan. MA, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Alim Arlı Haziran 2015, 145 sayfa Bu çalışma Türkiye’de düşünce kuruluşlarının ortaya çıkışını ve gelişimini alan analizi perspektifinden ele almaktadır. Düşünce kuruluşlarının hızla yayılmasına ve etkilerinin artmasına karşılık, Türkiye’de bu kurumların gerek tarihsel gerekse günümüzdeki etkileri üzerine çok az vaka çalışması yapılmıştır. Düşünce kuruluşu araştırmacılarıyla yapılan on dört derinlemesine mülakat, birinci elden gözlemler, ikincil kaynaklar ve tasviri istatistiksel veri seti gibi kaynaklara dayanan bu tez, hem düşünce kuruluşlarının tarihsel gelişimiyle ilgili açıklayıcı bir çerçeve çizmeye hem de alanın günümüzdeki manzarasını betimlemeye çalışarak önemli bir boşluğu doldurmayı hedeflemektedir. Siyaset bilimi ve uluslararası ilişkiler alanlarında çalışan araştırmacıların bu alanda yaptığı araştırmaların kahir ekseriyetinden farklı olarak, bu çalışmada geliştirilen yaklaşım düşünce kuruluşları alanındaki bilgi üretiminin dinamikleri ve entelektüel müdahalelerin analizine özel bir önem atfederek nesnesini entelektüeller sosyolojisi bağlamında kurmaya çalışmaktadır. Söz konusu tarihsel analize göre, ilk düşünce kuruluşları 1960’larda ortaya çıksa da, bu kuruluşların alan benzeri bir uzam karakteri kazanmaları 1990’ların ortalarına tekabül etmektedir. Düşünce kuruluşları alanının doğuşunun aynı zamanda kendine has bir entelektüel icra tarzı (arabuluculuk) ve muayyen bir bilgi üretim faaliyetinin (siyasa bilgisi) ortaya çıkışıyla eş zamanlı olarak gerçekleştiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Düşünce kuruluşu, entelektüel, alan, arabuluculuk, entelektüel üretim, siyasa. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation owes much to the contributions of a great number of people. Without the help and support of them, this study would have been impossible. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assist Prof. Alim Arlı for his generous help, wise counsel, patient encouragement, active criticism, and understanding throughout the research. Without his excellent guidance and tremendous attention, the value of this study would have been significantly less. I am highly indebted to the members of my dissertation defense committee, Prof. Mesut Yeğen and Assist. Prof. H. Murat Köse, for their valuable comments, generative suggestions, challenging questions, and constructive criticisms. In addition, I wish to thank Emrah Göker for giving the helpful advice in the early phases of research process. I am also grateful to each of the faculty member at the Sociology Department of Istanbul Şehir University since they provided a kindly supportive and intellectually inspiring environment to develop my sociological understanding and imagination. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank to my friends at Şehir University for their company and moral support. My immense gratitude goes to Prof. Aykut Çelebi who carefully read the large part of my drafts and gave insightful suggestions. I also owe enormous thanks to him for his intellectually stimulating and thought-provoki ng conversations with me at Mülkiye and beyond. As a great scholar and teacher, he has been and will always be a profound inspiration for me in my academic life. Vİ Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to my family for their unconditional love and encouragement. I dedicate this study to them. Vİİ TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract...................................................................................................iv Öz............................................................................................................v Acknowledgements................................................................................vi Table of Contents..................................................................................viii List of Tables...........................................................................................x List of Figures.........................................................................................xi Abbreviations.........................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................1 1.1. Design and Method.......................................................................2 1. 2. The Sociology of Intellectuals.......................................................7 1. 3. Different Perspectives on Think Tanks.......................................15 1. 4. Think Tanks in Turkish Academic Discourse..............................20 2. HOW TO THINK ABOUT THINK TANKS?.........................................25 2. 1. The Problem of Definition..........................................................25 2. 2. The Problem of Location...........................................................30 2. 3. Constructing the Object: A Field-Analytical Approach to Think Tanks..................................................................................37 2. 4. The Field of Think Tank as a Space between Fields................46 3. THE GENESIS OF THINK TANKS IN TURKEY.................................54 3. 1. Think Tanks in the Making: An Attempt for Explanation.............54 3. 2. A Brief History of the Proto-Field, 1961-1993............................60 4. EXPLORING TERRA INCOGNITA: PECULIARITIES OF A STRANGE FIELD..................................................................................79 4. 1. Think Tanks on the Rise: From Mid-1990s to the Present..........79 Vİİİ 4. 2. Crystallization of the Field: Signals of Relationality....................91 4. 3. The Rules of the Game: Think Tanks and Policy Research.......95 4. 3. 1. Financial Dependency of Think Tanks...........................97 4. 3. 2. Think Tanks and Politics: Between Involvement and Detachment............................................................................101 4. 3. 3. Think Tanks and the Media: A Mutualistic Relationship...........................................................................105 4. 3. 4. The Dynamics of Knowledge Production outside the University................................................................................110 5. CONCLUSION: THINK TANK INTELLECTUALS AS MEDIATORS.......................................................................................116 Appendix.............................................................................................126 List of Interviews.................................................................................130 Bibliography........................................................................................131 İX LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Dimensions of the contrast between the conventional concept of the field and its revised version..........................................................49 Table 3.1 The three phases in the emergence and formation of think tanks in Turkey.............................................................................78 X LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 The space of think tanks......................................................52 Figure 4.1 Tripolar structure of the think tanks proto-field.....................85 Figure 4.2 Quadrupolar structure of the think tank field........................86 Figure A.1 Research staff characteristics in terms of educational background....................................................127 Figure A.2