State, Space, and Politics in the Global South: the making of the construction boom in contemporary Turkey
Funding period: 1 January 2020 – 1 July 2020
Type of funding:
International Fellowship
Dr Melih Yeşilbag is a lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Ankara, Turkey. His research examines the political economy of the construction boom in Turkey under the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi– Justice and Development Party) rule. Situating the Turkish case into a world-historical setting, he offers an analytical framework that addresses the causes and the consequences of the construction drive. Through an examination of the structures, mechanisms and actors of the built environment scene onto the macro-political canvas of the AKP years, he investigates the complex interplay between state, space, and politics in the Global South. His research is both informed by and contributes to various cross disciplinary debates on the spatial organization of contemporary capitalism, financialization and neoliberal authoritarianism.
As a USF International Fellow, Dr Yeşilbag will spend six months working with Professor Manuel Aalbers in the Division of Geography and Tourism at KU Leuven.