The 'neoliberal' economic policy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP Party, which has delivered extraordinary growth in Turkish GDP over the last decade, has been one of the foundations of the party's popular appeal. Here, a group of experts on Turkish political economy show how these policies have also had a detrimental impact on the environment, sustainability and the long-term health of the Turkish economy. Taking the two main sectors of growth during the past decade-energy and construction-as its primary focus, the book engages broadly with the political economy of inequality and sustainability in contemporary Turkey. Ultimately, the authors argue that 'environmental conflicts' in Turkey are not merely about the environment but intersect with contemporary politics of religion, ethnicity, gender, and class within the context of top-down, modernising economic development. Neoliberal Turkey and its Discontents marks an important contribution to debates around the economic growth of Turkey and the future of the AKP's long-term economic plan.

Exploring the divergent aspects of the rule of neoliberalism in Turkey since 1980s, each chapter in this book highlights a specific dimension of this socio-economic process and together, these essays construct a thorough examination of the whirlwind of changes recently experienced by Turkish society. With particular focus on the new ways in which social power operates, expert contributors explore new discourses and subjectivities around environmentalism, health, popular culture, economic policies, feminism and motherhood, urban space and minorities, class and masculinities. By questioning the primary influence of the state in these micro-political matters, they engage with concepts of neoliberalism and governmentality to provide a fresh, grounded and analytical perspective on the routes through which social power navigates the society. This sustained examination of the new axes of power and subjectivity, with a particular eye on the formation of new political spaces of governance and resistance, deepens the analysis of Turkey’s experiment with neoliberal globalization.

In Challenging Neoliberalism at Turkey's Gezi Park, Gürcan and Peker explore the events of May 31, 2013, when what began as a localized demonstration against the demolition of Gezi Park, a public park in Istanbul turned into a nationwide protest cycle with an unprecedented form and scale never before seen in Turkey's history.

Today's Turkey little resembles that of recent decades. Newfound economic prosperity has had many unexpected social and political repercussions, most notably the rise of the AKP party and President Erdogan. Despite unprecedented electoral popularity, the conduct of the AKP has faced growing criticism: Turkey has yet to solve its Kurdish question; its foreign policy is increasingly fraught as it balances relations with Iran, Israel, Russia and the EU; and widespread protests gripped the country in 2013, as did an unsuccessful coup in 2016. The government is now perceived by many to be corrupt, unaccountable, intimidating of the press and intolerant of political alternatives. Has this once promising democracy descended into a tyranny of the majority led by a charismatic leader? Is Turkey more polarised now than at any point in its recent history? These are among the questions at the heart of The New Turkey and Its Discontents, which traces Turkey's evolution under Erdogan's leadership, and assesses the likely consequences at home and abroad.

Turkey’s new presidential regime, promoted and shaped by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has become a global template for rising authoritarianism. Its violence intensifi es the exigency for critical analysis. By focusing on neoliberal authoritarian, hegemonic and Islamist aspects, this book sheds light on long- term dynamics that resulted in the regime transformation. It presents a comprehensive study at a time when rising authoritarianism challenges liberal democracies on a global scale. Reaching from critical political economy and state theory to media, gender and cultural studies, this volume covers a range of studies that transcend disciplinary boundaries. These essays challenge the narrative of an "authoritarian turn" that splits the AKP era into democratic and authoritarian periods. Hence, recent transformation is analyzed in a broad historical framework which is sensitive to both continuities and shifts. Studies that explore moments of resistance and relate the political development in Turkey to rising authoritarianism and the crisis- driven trajectory of neoliberalism on a global scale are included in this effort. Since the advancement of neoliberal policies in conjunction with the religious project that is pushed forward by the AKP suggests that the ongoing transformation may well advance into a more totalitarian regime, this book strives to inform struggles that are trying to resist and reverse this development. By reviewing the dynamics and impacts of recent authoritarian developments, it calls on critical scholars to further seek out potentials and dynamics of opposition in the current authoritarian era.

Islamist capital accumulation has split the Turkish bourgeoisie and polarized Turkish society into secular and religious social groupings, giving rise to conflicts between the state and political Islam. By providing a long-term historical perspective on Turkey's economy and its relationship to Islamism, this volume explores how Islamism as a political ideology has been utilized by the conservative bourgeoisie in Turkey, and elsewhere, to establish hegemony over labor. The contributors analyze the relationship between neoliberalism and the political fortunes of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), and examine the similarities and differences amongst new factions in the secular and Islamic middle class that have benefited economically, socially, and culturally during the AKP's reign. The articles also investigate the impact of the G�len Movement and the role of the media in shaping the contours of intra-class struggle within contemporary Turkish political and social life.

Turkey Reframed documents the first decade of the 2000s, a period of radical change in Turkish society and politics, which has been marked by the major economic crisis of 2001 and the coming to power of ex-Islamist cadres organised under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The contributors analyse this period of radical change, with its continuities and breaks, and its main actor, the AKP, in relation to the creation of a neoliberal hegemony in post-1980 Turkey. They look at the conflictual, turbulent and painful history of neoliberal hegemony and the contested stabilisation strategy of the AKP government. Turkey Reframed is a cutting-edge guide for students, scholars and other interested readers who want to understand this period in Turkey's recent history and its social tensions.