What started as a unresolved discussion between two colleagues (Bahar Aykan and myself) on whether or not a particular TV product (kamu spotu), occupying commercial breaks of TV channels in Turkey, could be considered a propaganda material, ended up to being a two-year research project funded by Marmara University (2013-2015). And what we thought was going to reveal a picture of a triptych composed of media-centralized control-authoritarianism instead took us to the risk governance strategies in post-millenial Turkey: indirect control & governance at a distance, de-centered responsibilization, and ontologies of the milieu.
Three co-authored articles came out of this research:
Circuits of Security: Debating the Political Rationality of Neoliberal Governmentality in Contemporary Turkey
Responsibilizing Individuals, Regulating Health: Debating Public Spots, Risk, and Neoliberal Governmentality in Contemporary Turkey
Public Spots as a Neoliberal Governmental Risk Strategy in Contemporary Turkey
Sanem Güvenç 