‘I am here’: women workers’ experiences at the former Cibali Tekel Tobacco and Cigarette Factory in Istanbul

This study presents oral history research which investigated the experiences of surviving women workers from the former Cibali Tekel Tobacco and Cigarette Factory in Istanbul, Turkey. For most of its history, the factory was home to thousands of workers, many of who were women and, at times, outnumbered men two to one. While the site is now known for the university that it houses, photographs and archival records from the early twentieth century reveal the centrality of women in the process and production of tobacco and cigarettes until the factory completely shut down in 1995. Using oral history methods, we recorded the memories of 17 women who worked in the factory. A multi-faceted analysis reveals the gendered nature of the space at the time as well as the importance of the factory as a place in the lives of these women.     

The Location of Services in the Urban Hierarchy and the Regions of the United States

We use regression and factor analyses to explain intermetropolitan variation in the proportion of jobs in disaggregated service sectors in American metropolitan areas. Central place theory postulates of centrally located establishments serving a surrounding complementary region partially explain the positive relationship between metropolitan size and the proportion of jobs in an area in services. Regional variation in demand following several decades of substantial shifts in population and economic output is an additional influence. Intermetropolitan clustering of service sectors is also occurring. A factor analysis of employment proportions in twenty-two disaggregate service sectors identified five intersectoral service clusters. The factor analysis accounted for substantially more variance than the regression equations. We interpret this result as evidence of the emergence of service-based spatial industrial complexes. We argue that agglomeration of information-intensive intermediate services is driven by an attraction to labor markets endowed with pools of skilled professionals who can flexibly apply their talents in a variety of sectors. Unusual demographic characteristics of some metropolitan areas probably explain clusters of final demand services.     

Intergovernmental managerialism: Appropriating the universities

A number of recent writings from federalist scholars have been critical of the coordinate approach to Australian federalism adopted by Commonwealth and state authorities since the Special Premiers’ Conference of 1990. The likely outcome of a coordinate rather than concurrent stance, they suggest, is dominance by one government in a policy sphere and the attenuation of many of the positive and creative elements offered by a federal structure. This article involves a case study of higher education which supports the concerns of the federalists. It is argued that since the introduction of a coordinate framework in 1987–88, buttressed by managerialist principles, the Commonwealth has succeeded in gaining almost complete control over a policy arena that was previously shared with the states. One consequence of this outcome has been a deterioration in the quality of policy formulation and implementation.     

Reviews

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