Romani organization practice in Turkey: between social movements and civil society

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2022-6

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Akın, Tuba

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This thesis aims to understand Romani organization practice in Turkey by examining heterogeneous formations of Romani organizations within four cycles/waves of collective action/protest: the pre-organization and early organization period (2000-2009), the Romani Initiative period (2009-2015), the Romani deputy elections period (2015-2018), and the establishment of Romani youth networks/platforms (2019-present). These cycles/waves coincide with major events that initiated Roma’s mobilization and demobilization in Turkey. I suggest that Romani organization in Turkey can be productively studied in terms of the debate on the hybridization of social movements and civil society. In order to grasp these dynamics within a community traditionally closed to outsiders, I conducted 23 in-depth interviews with Romani organization members between 2019 and 2021 and ten months of ethnographic fieldwork working at a Romani NGO between January and September 2021. In my interviews and fieldwork, I focused on the structure of Romani organizations, their internal and external dynamics, collective action strategies, and inter-organizational networks. I argue that Romani organizations in Turkey exhibit hybrid formations on a spectrum between social movement organizations (SMOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), varying across different cycles/waves of collective action. Furthermore, due to the Romani community’s dependency on external resources, lack of collective consciousness, and newly developing collective action strategies and repertoires, the political opportunity structure is the main factor determining Romani organizational dynamics, strategies, and inter-organizational networks. The heterogeneity of Romani organizations in Turkey is reflected in a decentralized structure—a polycephalous network formation based on competitive, conflictual, and cooperative relationships among organizations.

Subject Keywords

Social movements, Civil society, Romani studies, Hybridization, Collective action in Turkey

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/97351

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

T. Akın, “Romani organization practice in Turkey: between social movements and civil society,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.