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.     

The Yenikapı 12 Shipwreck,a 9th‐Century Merchantman from the Theodosian Harbour in Istanbul,Turkey: construction and reconstruction

Shipwreck Yenikap? 12 was discovered in Yenikap?, Istanbul, Turkey in 2007 during rescue excavations carried out by Istanbul Archaeological Museums. The majority of the bottom of the shipwreck, found within the sediment‐filled Theodosian Harbour, is intact and part of the cargo was found in situ. According to the results of reconstruction studies, YK12 was a small merchantman working coastal waters, approximately 9.24m in length and 2.64m in breadth. The shipwreck is dated to the 9th century AD and was built with a mixed construction using the shell‐based method for the lower hull.     

The philosophy of westernisation: Ahmet Ağaoğlu on civilisation and culture

This article seeks to explore Ahmet A?ao?lu's understanding of the concepts of ‘civilisation’ and ‘culture’ and his approach to the question of Westernisation, with the aim of shedding light on the intellectual background of the westward transformation of Turkey. A?ao?lu attempted to define and describe these concepts at a time when a nation-building process was taking place in Turkey. The study traces the evolution of, and the relationship between, A?ao?lu's later Westernist and nationalist ideas which were in constant interplay with each other, and concludes that A?ao?lu saw a symbiotic relationship between one's changing civilisation and cultural enrichment.     

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.     

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.     

Making Space in Geographical Analysis

In this commentary we reflect on the potential and power of geographical analysis, as a set of methods, theoretical approaches, and perspectives, to increase our understanding of how space and place matter for all. We emphasize key aspects of the field, including accessibility, urban change, and spatial interaction and behavior, providing a high-level research agenda that indicates a variety of gaps and routes for future research that will not only lead to more equitable and aware solutions to local and global challenges, but also innovative and novel research methods, concepts, and data. We close with a set of representation and inclusion challenges to our discipline, researchers, and publication outlets.