Announcements

  • Call for Papers: How are we doing on campus? Multilayered Perspectives on Today's Universities - Volume 5 Issue 3 (2024): October

    2024-04-03

    With the Reflektif issue titled "How Are We Doing on Campus? Multilayered Perspectives on Today's Universities", we aim to think together about the academic and mental well-being of all components comprising campuses and enhancing approaches. In other words, we aim for an issue focusing on the effects of social, political, and economic macro processes on campuses. We would also like to emphasize that we are open to quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies, which we hope will include studies focused on all components of the university.

    Read more about Call for Papers: How are we doing on campus? Multilayered Perspectives on Today's Universities - Volume 5 Issue 3 (2024): October

  • Open Call for Artists: Issue 5(2)

    2024-02-16

    Reflektif Journal of Social Sciences awaits your visual works on the themes of special issues in a proportional picture format with vertical 19x24 cm dimensions, with at least 300 DPI. You can also send your short manifestos of not more than 300 words about this visual work. The Visual and the brief text-Manifest will be published on the website and the back cover of the printed journal.

    Applications for the June 2024 issue with the theme of Critical Animal Studies should be sent to the e-mail address reflektif@bilgi.edu.tr by May 15, 2024.

    Read more about Open Call for Artists: Issue 5(2)

  • Call for Papers: Critical Animal Studies - Vol. 5 No. 2 (2023): June

    2024-02-01

    Since the early 2000s, we have been witnessing a growing and highly exciting academic interest in the social sciences and humanities regarding the relationship of human and non-human animals, also referred to as "The Animal Turn," which has irrevocably transformed the theoretical and methodological landscape of the field. As both a cause and consequence of this interest, the diverse forms of agency non-human animals exhibit in our lives are being increasingly recognized. However, as noted by Steve Best in his 2007 article "The Rise of Critical Animal Studies," mainstream animal studies runs the risk of depoliticization when it becomes overly immersed in theory and detaches non-human animals from the tangible, material conditions they inhabit. Influenced by critical theory, Best distances himself critically from mainstream animal studies and calls us to engage in "critical animal studies" in which theory and practice are inseparable and intellectual production is intertwined with activism in the public sphere.

    Read more about Call for Papers: Critical Animal Studies - Vol. 5 No. 2 (2023): June

  • Reflektif TRDizin’de…

    2024-01-19

    Ekim 2020’de yayın hayatına başlayan, küresel olarak akademinin daraldığı ve sosyal bilimin önemsiz olarak görülüp göz ardı edildiği bir dönemde amacını sosyal bilimlere disiplinlerarası ve eleştirel bir bakış açısı getirmek olarak tanımlayan REFLEKTİF Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2023 yılından itibaren TRDİZİN tarafından endekslenmeye hak kazandı.

    Read more about Reflektif TRDizin’de…

  • Call for Papers: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Social Life - Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024): February

    2023-10-11

    In a period when Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly becoming widespread, Generative Artificial Intelligence is becoming an important part of social life and the daily activities of organisations and individuals. In addition to the benefits provided by these technologies, addressing the ethical and social responsibilities that these technologies bring with them is one of the most important issues of our age.

     

    AI has great potential for economic growth, social development, human welfare and security. However, there is a critical dimension that has been overlooked in the development process of this potential. The focus of AI discussions on the efficiency and profit-orientation dimension results in insufficient attention to the possible damage it may cause on the fabric of society. This deficiency creates serious gaps in society's capacity to adapt and prepare for the changes brought about by artificial intelligence and results in insufficient investments in developing individuals' talents. This leads to rapidly increasing and deepening inequalities.

    Read more about Call for Papers: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Social Life - Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024): February

  • Open Call for Artists: Issue 4(3)

    2023-06-19

    Reflektif Journal of Social Sciences awaits your visual works on the themes of special issues in a proportional picture format with vertical 19x24 cm dimensions, with at least 300 DPI. You can also send your short manifestos of not more than 300 words about this visual work. The Visual and the brief text-Manifest will be published on the website and the back cover of the printed journal.

    Applications for the June 2023 issue with the theme of Culture as a Possibility Space should be sent to the e-mail address reflektif@bilgi.edu.tr by September 15, 2023.

    Read more about Open Call for Artists: Issue 4(3)

  • Call for Papers: Culture as a Possibility Space - Vol. 4 No. 3 (2023): October

    2023-06-12

    In this issue of Reflektif, we will include articles presenting cultural and art oases, which examine the titles of authoritarian cultural politics and policies dedicated to making the cultural order of the "New Turkey" of power, which has left its mark on the last twenty years of the country, in the context of the struggle for autonomy of culture and art actors and trying to create an opportunity for independent existence in this climate. All over the country, cultural and artistic actors are in various pursuits to maintain their existence and the free expression of cultural and artistic expression in the public sphere. The cooperative movement developed by private theaters is an important example of these pursuits. We need to meet the readers with works that address the following questions: How do the cultural and artistic actors, who have faced concussions such as the COVID pandemic and economic crisis, and whose vulnerability has increased in the face of all these shocks in the exclusionary and polarizing environment created by the current power's stereotyping, conservative and oppressive cultural policies try to survive?  How are they trying to amplify their voices and expand access to arts and culture? How do they defend the rights of art workers? We need to uncover new approaches to the question of what kind of conceptual openings and cultural policy we need for autonomous art to survive in Turkey as an ecosystem open to the world through the production and access channels that will nurture the freedom of cultural expressions. We hope that this compilation contributes to the narrowing of the ground for cultural standardization in our country and the efforts to develop an environment in which multiculturalism, criticism and independent thought, and autonomous art can find an opportunity for free expression following the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), to which Turkey is also a party.

    Read more about Call for Papers: Culture as a Possibility Space - Vol. 4 No. 3 (2023): October

  • Call for Papers: Poverty, Inequality and the Limits of the Welfare State: In Search of a New Social Contract  - Vol. 4 No. 2 (2023): June

    2022-10-01

    In this special issue of Reflektif, contributing papers will address poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon and provide insightful discussion on the deepening inequalities in the context of overlapping crises. Authors are encouraged to consider intersectionality and life course perspectives and adopt an interdisciplinary approach in their discussions of the lived experiences of poverty and inequalities that vulnerable groups (such as women, children, youth, elders, refugees, and the disabled) are exposed to. We also encourage the contributors to address the crisis of the Turkish welfare state from a comparative and historical perspective by looking into the institutional processes, including education, health, and social services and assistance.

    The questions that the contributing papers might tackle are as follows:

    • What are the different definitions and indicators of poverty and deprivation? How do these diverse definitions identify the struggles against poverty?
    • How is it possible to identify diverse inequalities, understand their impact, and alleviate them in Turkey and worldwide?
    • What is social exclusion? How does it contribute to understanding inequalities?
    • How does intersectionality as a conceptual frame contribute to understanding the multilayered dimensions of poverty and inequality?
    • What role does the life course approach can play in demonstrating the different dimensions of poverty and inequality?
    • What are the impacts of poverty on different groups - women, children, young people, and the elderly?
    • With which conceptual frameworks might we address the poverty and inequalities experienced by NEETs youth?
    • What are the various manifestations and dynamics of the “working poor” in Turkey?
    • How does a historical analysis shed light on the discussions of poverty and inequality in Turkey?
    • What are the adverse outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for vulnerable groups?
    • What impact does climate change have on disadvantaged and vulnerable groups?
    • Is it possible to reimagine a new social contract that responds to deepening poverty and inequalities? What would be the features of such a contract?

    Issue Editors: Başak Akkan, Saniye Dedeoğlu, Pınar Uyan Semerci

    Deadline for article submissions: April 1, 2022

    Read more about Call for Papers: Poverty, Inequality and the Limits of the Welfare State: In Search of a New Social Contract  - Vol. 4 No. 2 (2023): June

  • Sorry for our loss: Professor Aydın Uğur

    2022-08-12

    With sorrow, we have to announce the death of  Professor Aydın Uğur, a member of our Advisory Board

    We are mourning the loss of our friend and lifelong teacher who made an impression on everyone he met. 

    You can find his speech in the opening panel of Reflektif below:

    Prof. Dr. Aydın Uğur's REFLEKTİF Launch Panel Speech

     

    The article he wrote is also linked here:

    Is The Home of Truth Flooded? A Tour D’horizon on Science, Scientist, and University (Turkish)

    Read more about Sorry for our loss: Professor Aydın Uğur

  • Call for Papers: Right to the City, Public Space, Feminist Urbanism Vol. 4 No. 1 (2023): February

    2022-08-11

    In this special issue of Reflektif, we will include writings from various disciplines, which dwell at the intersection of urban, public space and gender studies aiming to breathe new life into the perspective of feminist urbanism and deal with discussions on the right to the city in the light of current global crises (climate crisis, epidemics and pandemics, economic crises, etc.). We expect to receive works that may be inspired by yet not limited to the questions below:

    • What are the links between sexist ideologies and gender relations and the topics like the organization of urban space, institutions, power and authority, family life, public-private space distinction, work and labor relationships, security, transportation, and housing?

    • Assuming that cities have gender identities how can we reflect on the right to the city and the problematic of justice and equality?

    • How can urban planning and design projects be tackled with in the light of gender equality?
    • What are the ways to establish a relationship between the female body and the city? What types of obstacles do women encounter in the city; physical, social, economic, and/or symbolic?

    • What kind of a relationship is there between patriarchy, women, and the city?

    • How do women’s rights movements formulate the links between violence, security issues and the city?

    • Cities and urban spaces change and get transformed. How do women find place for themselves in them? How can we think about women’s struggle to exist within changing neighborhood conceptions, mega-cities, streets, and other urban spaces?

    • How can gender-sensitive urban policies (budgeting, housing, day-care facilities, public transportation etc.) play a part in the more active participation of women in urban life?

    • What are the connections between the emancipation of women and the relationship established with the street?

    • How is women’s existence in urban space represented in cinema and/or popular culture?

    • How are the patterns embedded in the news, social media, movies and TV series related to a perception of urban space shaped by sense of danger, general insecurity, and unease?

    Issue Editors: Aslı Tunç, Feride Çiçekoğlu, Burcu Kütükçüoğlu
    Deadline for article submissions: December 5, 2022

    Read more about Call for Papers: Right to the City, Public Space, Feminist Urbanism Vol. 4 No. 1 (2023): February

  • Call for Papers: Critical Humanism and Ecology

    2022-05-29

    The age we live in has been called the Anthropocene, that is, the era of the human transformation of the earth. In this age or era, human beings have become agents penetrating the earth from all sides, changing, transforming, naming and interpreting each and every element of it.
    This needs to be questioned in every aspect, and it is imperative that this inquiry be conducted in an interdisciplinary manner, beyond the boundaries of any single discipline. Thus, in this issue, we expect to discuss the concept of the human and its relationship with nature while engaging with certain schools of thought and movements, such as posthumanism, transhumanism and ecofeminism. We expect articles from authors from diverse subject areas raising questions similar or related to the questions and issues raised below:
    • How can we problematize the idea of the human being as an autonomous, conscious, purposeful and/or rational agent?
    • How can we discuss the idea of the human being both as the constituent element of different life systems and as a being constituted by these systems, i.e. as part of the evolving ecosystem?
    • What critical positions can there be concerning the transhumanist ideas that aim at technological improvements, including extending lifespans, of the body (biology), construed as the limiting factor of human qualities?
    • Considering the human domination over nature in the age of the Anthropocene, can we further discuss this form of domination in comparison to other oppression forms among differences in gender, ethnicity, geographical mobilization, migration or age, and bring it into question at particular moments in the relationship with nature?

     

    Issue Editors: Özge Ejder, Çiğdem Yazıcı, Zeynep Talay Turner
    Submission Deadline: July 20, 2022

    Read more about Call for Papers: Critical Humanism and Ecology

  • Call for Papers : Information Disorders and Infodemics

    2022-02-01

    The concepts “fake news", "false information", "post-truth", and "alternative facts" ” have often been used by those who try to understand the World we are living in. Some of these concepts were even chosen as "word of the year". Rather than looking at these concepts in isolation seeing them as a series of “information disorders” that we face at different levels will make it easier for us to understand the problem and its social/political consequences. However, information disorders such as disinformation, misinformation, malinformation, conspiracy theories are almost simultaneous with the emergence of “news” as a Notion. These concepts became an integral part of political speeches with the rise of populist discourse and performance.

     

     Although the reproduction of information disorders is not a new phenomenon in our lives, it significantly impacted the reception and production of news through digital tools. We started to be exposed to information disorders through both traditional and social media, especially when we “urgently” need information; in other words, we face the distribution of misleading information especially during a crisis or a decision-making process. There are influential factors from traditional media and ordinary social media users to algorithms, trolls, and polarization with respect to the spread of information.

     

    The epidemic of false information, conceptualized as an “infodemic”, became a new phenomenon threatening communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “infodemic” as false or misleading information during crises or critical moments. It refers to the incapability to reach truth and credible information sources in digital and physical environments. The lack of credible sources strengthens fear, concerns, discrimination, exclusionary and hate speeches, conspiracy theories, and public health problems which thrive on uncertainties in belief systems. In this sense, an infodemic causes d mistrust in various authorities and intensifies uncertainty in societies. Individuals who, with whatever motivation,  take a role in spreading information and sharing alternative facts about the coronavirus without checking the accuracy of the information create difficulties for decision-makers and healthcare professionals to find resources and the auditability of information sources while causing situations such as exhaustion and anxiety among individuals.

    Information disorders and infodemic have become a vital problem not just in the field of health, but in climate change, anti-vaccination, terrorist attacks and natural disasters such as fire and earthquakes by causing panic among people and preventing the  taking of “correct” measures.

    An infodemic may occur as a result of several different information disorders:  through the spread of misleading information without intention to cause harm; through the spread of false information to harm an actor, a group or an organization; and through the spread of accurate information to harm “well-being” by rapidly reaching masses via media channels. Therefore, a discussion on infodemic and information disorders  require understanding how their different forms are produced, how misleading information emerges from individual and societal impacts, and how intervening mechanisms can be preventive. Thus, our main aim with this issue is to scrutinize the formation, impact, societal, economic, and political consequences of an infodemic.

    This issue will contain articles that adopt an inter-disciplinary approach, looking to answer some of the following questions regarding information disorders and infodemic:

    • How do information disorders influence individual and societal “well-being”?
    • How do individuals and actors in decision-making processes experience information disorders?
    • What are the societal and political problems shaped by an infodemic?
    • What is the relationship between an infodemic and emotions?
    • What are the methods of combating infodemics? Which actors and organizations are effective?
    • What is the role of media in the production of an infodemic? What effect does media content have on the spread of misinformation?
    • What is the relationship between media systems and knowledge production?
    • What impact do approaches such as health/ media literacy have on combating information disorders?
    • What is the relationship between the “rise of populism” and information disorders?
    • What is the effect of political institutions and mechanisms on information disorders?
    • What is the meaning of information disorders in the “post-truth” era?
    • What is the relationship between conspiracy theories and information disorders?
    • How can information disorders be evaluated within “security” paradigms?
    • What are the forms and discourses of national and transnational institutions for combating information disorders?

     

    Issue Editors:

    Emre Toros, Hacettepe University

    Tuğçe Erçetin, İstanbul Bilgi University,

    Emre Erdoğan, İstanbul Bilgi University.

     

    Deadline for submission of articles. April 14th;

    Read more about Call for Papers : Information Disorders and Infodemics

  • Call for Papers : Ethics and morality in everyday life

    2021-07-16

     

    What do we mean when we talk about the “good life?” What is the relationship between “good life” imaginations and conceptualizations of “right” and “wrong?” Are there universal social rules that facilitate living together? How might we overcome potential tensions between processes of self-realization and those of the actualization of the common good? Ethics and morality have, for centuries, been investigated in philosophy and different philosophical traditions have produced diverse conceptualizations and formulae to answer these questions. Today, social sciences have allowed for a move away from some of these approaches like for example Kant’s principle whereby our rationality is supposed to guide us not only towards scientific truths about the “starry heavens” but also to discovering universal moral laws which then it is our duty to follow. More novel social scientific studies instead treat ethics and morality as based on aesthetic narratives, metaphors and everyday life experiences which are necessarily imbued with power relations.

     

    Our purpose with this issue is to ground ethics and morality on the field and to study their everyday manifestations. We wish to highlight ethics and morality as necessarily saturating the everyday, as relational, contextual and negotiated social scientific concepts and to investigate the inconsistencies and ambiguities in these processes of negotiation. As such, we look to present a social scientific contribution to the multi disciplinary study of ethics and morality.

     

    This issue will include articles that adopt this approach from diverse disciplines, looking to answer some of the following questions: 

     

    • How do written rules (laws, regulations, etc.) come into contact with unwritten codes (conventions, customs, etc.) in social life? How do these encounters contribute to people’s or communities’ understandings of “right,” “just” or “good?”
    • How do people who relate differently to power and who have diverse priorities negotiate or express what they think is “ethical” or “moral” as based on different contexts and contingencies?
    • How does group belonging or loyalty (to family, community, nation, region, etc.) shape people’s evaluations of ethics and morality? What kinds of conflicts arise during these processes?
    • How do people resolve ethical or moral dilemmas or conundrums; how do decision-making processes unfold in these situations?
    • What is the lexicon of the ethical and the moral on the ground, in the field? What are words or notions besides or other than “good,” “right,” “fair,” or “just” that people use to express similar evaluations?
    • How to researchers who focus on ethical and moral evaluations in society position themselves, their own subjective conceptions of the “good,” the “fair” or the “right?”

     

     

    Submission deadline: October 20, 2021

    Special issue editors: Yağmur Nuhrat, Gülay Uğur Göksel

    Read more about Call for Papers : Ethics and morality in everyday life

  • Call for Papers : Work

    2021-05-24

    Call for papers: “Work”

    Our fourth volume on “work” will be published in October 2021 from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this volume, we aim to address the theme with its different dimensions, including the process of significant change and transformation in work during pandemics.

     

    We want to approach the concepts of work/labor/occupation through articles in a framework of topics including the right to work/the right not to work; flexible work; remote work; domestic labor; precarious work; informal work; employment; transformation/change of the workforce; unchanging aspects of work; the future and the meaning of work. We believe that theoretical and field-based articles on the meaning and changing definitions of work will contribute to the debates in this area. Work-life, its legal and institutional regulations, and its consequences can be considered within a variety of dimensions. The prevalence and consequences of unregulated informal work in Turkey can also be discussed in different examples.

    Read more about Call for Papers : Work

  • Reflektif Podcast Channel is online

    2020-10-23

    Our Podcast channel, where the authors of the articles published in Reflektif will discuss their research experiences, is online ...

    First of all, Pınar Uyan-Semerci answers the questions about the article titled "Against All Winds: The Discourse of the Nationalist Movement Party on the Axis of Populism Nationalism" written by Emre Erdoğan and Pınar Uyan Semerci.

    You can access the channel here:

    Against All Winds

    Read more about Reflektif Podcast Channel is online

  • Reflektif Lansman Paneli - 18.09.2020

    2020-09-17

    Disiplinlerarası, eleştirel ve nitelikli sosyal bilimler dergisi REFLEKTİF, İngilizce ve Türkçe olarak hayata geçmek için son hazırlıklarını tamamladı.

    REFLEKTİF, eleştirel bir bakış açısına sahip çalışmalara yer vererek, kendini daimi olarak “öğrenci” gören tüm araştırmacıların ve akademisyenlerin çalışmalarını özgürce kamuoyuyla paylaşacağı bir ortam oluşturmayı hedefliyor. 

    18 Eylül 2020 Cuma günü saat 14.00’te, ilk sayıya özel olarak gerçekleştireceğimiz webinar etkinliğimize katılımınız ve öğrencilere bırakacağımız bu değerli mirasa yazılarınız ve eleştirilerinizle katkılarınızı bekliyoruz.

     

    Tarih: 18 Eylül 2020, Cuma

    Saat: 14.00

     

    Program:

     

    Açılış Konuşmaları:

    Prof. Dr. Kübra Doğan Yenisey

    Prof. Dr. Emre Erdoğan

    Panel: İlk Sayı Özel Dosya “Reflektif”

    Moderatör: Prof. Dr. Pınar Uyan Semerci

    Konuklar:

    Prof. Dr. Diane Sunar (Emeritus)

    Prof. Dr. A. İlter Turan (Emeritus)

    Prof. Dr. Alan Duben (Emeritus)

    Prof. Dr. Aydın Uğur

     

    2. Sayı: Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Şiddet 

    Doç. Dr. Gülhan Balsoy

     

    https://www.bilgi.edu.tr/tr/etkinlik/9951/reflektif-webinar/

    Read more about Reflektif Lansman Paneli - 18.09.2020