Definitions of Turkish in‐group boundaries: national participation and essentialism as predictors of inter‐group attitudes in Turkey

The present research investigates how definitions of national in‐group boundaries predict inter‐group attitudes in Turkey. In Study 1, we explore definitions of Turkish in‐group boundaries as well as perceptions of the Turkish in‐group's relations with other groups among 64 university students. In Study 2, conducted among 324 university students, exploratory factor analyses reveal two dimensions of Turkish in‐group boundaries: national participation (a more civic definition) and national essentialism (a more ethnic definition). They also reveal four dimensions of the relations with others. Regression analyses show that national participation predicts more negative inter‐group attitudes. However, national essentialism is not found to predict the inter‐group attitudes. These results are compared with those of previous studies, mostly conducted in Western countries. The comparison suggests that conclusions about the positive role of Civic and the negative role of Ethnic/Cultural definitions in intergroup relations may be less general than is previously thought.     

Optimal Control of Structures under Earthquakes Including Soil-Structure Interaction

It is well known that the soil-structure interaction (SSI) changes the dynamic response of a structure supported on flexible soil. The analysis of optimally controlled SSI systems has certain difficulties due to the nature of the SSI and the optimal control problem. In this paper, a two-step iteration-based numerical algorithm is proposed to handle optimally controlled SSI systems under earthquakes. First, the optimal control forces are obtained by using a fixed-base system. Then, the optimal control forces are converted to the frequency domain by the Fourier transform technique to be used in the equations of the SSI system. The lateral displacement and the rocking of the foundation are obtained from the equations of the SSI system containing the optimal control forces in the frequency domain. The lateral displacement and rocking of the foundation are then converted to the time domain by the inverse Fourier transform technique, and the lateral accelerations and the rocking accelerations of the foundation are obtained by the forward finite difference method. During the second step, the optimal control forces are calculated again by using the lateral acceleration and the rocking acceleration of the foundation along with the earthquake ground motion. Using the method explained above, the optimal control forces obtained in the time domain are used in the equations of the soil-structure system from which the behavior of foundation and structure is obtained. In the final section of the paper, a numerical study is conducted for a controlled structure supported on flexible soil.     

Dead missionaries,wild Sentinelese: An anthropological review of a global media event

This article aims to shed light on the background to a media event that occupied the world press, and even more the digital media, for a few weeks at the end of last year. The trope of the violent ‘murder’ of a white missionary by one of the last ‘uncontacted tribes’ is likely to evoke a variety of Western projections. Ultimately, it is about power over images, interpretations and how we want to behave towards isolated groups of people in today’s world: leave them alone? Protect them from the culture of violence at the fringe of their territories or contact them now and support them in the long term? An anthropological reading of the case does not lead to a simple answer to this question, but it might help in getting a more informed perspective on a complex subject matter.     

Social decision-making driven by artistic explore–exploit tension

We studied social decision-making in the rule-based improvisational dance There Might Be Others, where dancers make in-the-moment compositional choices. Rehearsals provided a natural test-bed with communication restricted to non-verbal cues. We observed a key artistic explore–exploit tension in which the dancers switched between exploitation of existing artistic opportunities and riskier exploration of new ones. We investigated how the rules influenced the dynamics using rehearsals together with a model generalized from evolutionary dynamics. We tuned the rules to heighten the tension and modelled nonlinear fitness and feedback dynamics for mutation rate to capture the observed temporal phasing of the dancers' exploration-versus-exploitation. Using bifurcation analysis, we identified key controls of the tension and showed how they could shape the decision-making dynamics of the model much like turning a ‘dial’ in the instructions to the dancers could shape the dance. The investigation became an integral part of the development of the dance.     

Dendrochronology and archival texts: Dating the Ottoman fortress of Seddülbahir on the Gallipoli Peninsula,Turkey*

This paper provides the results of the dendrochronological analyses of seven wood samples from the Ottoman fortress of Seddülbahir on the Gallipoli Peninsula or Turkey. It concludes that the trees were cut in the late spring of 1656. The data collected allows the first building phase of the fortress to be securely dated. By bringing together the dendrochronological results with various archival records about the fortress, a more precise building chronology for the fortress can be reconstructed. The probable initial period of construction was between 1656 and 1661.     

Some Discussions on Data-Driven Testing of Ground-Motion Prediction Equations under the Turkish Ground-Motion Database

Data-driven testing of ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) can help researchers in the ranking and selection of GMPEs for seismic hazard assessment. This paper presents and discusses the details of the major features of well-known testing methods which employ likelihood and Euclidean distance concepts. A set of local, regional, and global GMPEs are assessed under a ground-motion database. The data-driven testing of GMPEs is supported by thorough residual analyses under the database, providing valuable insights into the testing of GMPEs. The researchers are advised to evaluate all options together instead of focusing on a specific tool to build well-structured ground-motion logic trees.     

A TURNING POINT IN THEORY OF HISTORY: THE PLACE OF HAYDEN WHITE IN THE HISTORY OF METAHISTORY

This article intends to place Hayden White's reflection on the basic principles of meaning-construction in history into the historical context of modern historical studies. It first presents the self-understanding of professional historians in which they emphasize the academic (wissenschaftlichen) character of the discipline. In this way of reflection, the traditional (premodern) interpretation of history as a part of rhetoric was pushed back and replaced by methodological argumentation about the rules of research (with an emphasis on source critique). Historiography, or the presentation of the results of research in a narrative form, was not completely neglected, but was not widely recognized. After the analytical insight into the narrative form of historical knowledge, significant discussion of the principles of historical thinking dramatically changed from the issue of research to that of representation (historiography). Hayden White's Metahistory (1973) marked this change paradigmatically. It turned the shift from rhetoric to science in its contrary direction: a new turn to rhetoric was proclaimed. This new anti-turn set off a hitherto unanswered question as to how research methodology should be treated. Source critique was not refuted but did not attract significant attention. The research procedure of interpretation, in contrast, was met by a new understanding and interest: it was identified as representation by the linguistic procedures of meaning-construction. Its role as a part of historical method, however, was completely ignored. The article ends with a still unresolved problem of metahistory, namely the relationship between interpretation and representation. They are not identical, but are closely related. Their synthesis and their differences have to be systematically inquired into and reflected upon if metahistory is to step forward and engage in this task. Then the merits of White's return to rhetoric will be appreciated as well as its one-sidedness criticized, before a further step is taken.     

Politics of Engagement: Gender Expertise and International Governance

This article studies the experiences of gender experts in international institutions of governance and examines their interactions with multiple actors in the governance system as they negotiate their authority to act as experts. Moving beyond binaries, such as those on the inside of hegemonic institutions versus those on the outside, or co-optation versus activism, the analysis uses processes of instrumentalization as a vantage point to lay out the multiple paths emerging in these politics of engagement. The article frames politics of engagement in terms of micropolitical tensions, ambivalences and contradictions that unfold in these interactions. It first argues that the boundaries that exist between inside and outside institutions are not clear cut because actors circulate between them. The study shows how gender experts instrumentalize their own life and career trajectories, navigating between advocacy and governance, to enhance their power in current institutional settings. It then focuses on instrumentalist discourses and traces their emergence in unequal negotiations. It demonstrates how gender experts can become part of the processes that they also critique. Finally, the study analyses strategies in which experts instrumentalize institutional inequalities to their advantage to produce diverse political possibilities with open-ended outcomes.     

State Stigmatisation in Urban Turkey: Managing the “Insurgent” Squatter Dwellers in Dikmen Valley

This paper contributes to the accounts of territorial stigmatisation by examining the state role in it in the case of Turkey, a country that suffers from growing state power. The existing debates are mainly restricted to its function as an economic strategy paving the way for capital accumulation through devaluing working-class people and places. Drawing on textual analysis of political speeches, local newsletters and mainstream national newspapers and fieldwork material that include interviews and observations in Dikmen Valley where some squatter communities mobilised against the state-imposed urban transformation project, I demonstrate that state conceptualisation of “problem people” targets the “insurgent” rather than the “unprofitable” groups. Stigma in urban settings functions in inciting the desire to meet the patterns deemed appropriate by the state, rather than the market. Moving from that, I argue that stigma is used as a state-led political strategy, which is integral to the growing authoritarianism in Turkey.