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1. AURUM Journal of Social Sciences (Volume 9, Number 1) - Full Issue

Author:
Meltem Yilmaz, Büşra Alparslan, Arzu Uğurlu Kara, Mesut Özcan, and Ceyhun Ilsever
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AURUM Journal of Social Sciences
Institution:
Altinbas University
Abstract:
The first article of this issue is on the field of law. The study is titled “A Street Law Course Experience for Raising Human Rights Awareness”. This study by Meltem Yılmaz aims to examine the contribution of ‘street law’ type legal clinic courses to increase of human rights awareness among both law students and society. As a result of the study, the author finds that giving street law-type law clinics as elective courses in the last years of faculty of law education is the most efficient option; in addition, the importance of enhancing the courses in terms of active learning methods and techniques was emphasized in order to increase efficiency concerning high school and secondary school students’ achievements. The second study in this issue is “War and Peace in Game of Thrones as An Epic Narrative”. This study from the field of psychology was conducted by Büşra Alparslan. The aim of the study is to investigate to examine the war and peace themes in the TV series Game of Thrones, which can be considered as an epic a popular culture narrative. This study’s results reveals that Game of Thrones somewhat differs from traditional epic narratives. Although classical themes like “just war discourse” pops on and off throughout the show, it is also emphasized that, unlike the traditional approach, war is not a glorious act. The third study in this issue is from the field of human resources titled “Adaptation of the “Design Thinker Profile” Scale into Turkish” by Ayça Uğur and Kemal Özkan Yılmaz. As the title suggests, the aim of the study is to adopt “Design Thinker Profile” scale developed by Chesson (2017) to the Turkish and to assess its validity and reliability. The results show that the scale has validity and reliability in Turkish. Another study in our journal is titled “Development of Maritime Public Transportation in Istanbul in the Framework of Organic Transportation Approach”. The study conducted by Ceyhun İlsever and Ayşe Buse Cılız aims to make concrete suggestions for the development of urban maritime public transportation in Istanbul in line with the principles and criteria of organic transportation, which is developed as one of the approaches to integration, accessibility, and governance in transportation. As a result, the authors propose some suggestions under specific headings to increase the demand for maritime transportation in Istanbul. The last study in this issue is from the field of psychology. The article by Ecem Kıran, Yaren Erdoğdu ve Naci Can Sümengen is titled “Examining the Relationship Between Eating Attitudes and Self-Compassion”. As its title suggests, this study aimed to examine the relationship between eating attitudes and self-compassion and to investigate the prevalence of this relationship in a non-clinical sample by evaluating it in terms of chronic and psychological disorders. As a result, a statistically significant negative relationship between disordered eating attitudes and self-compassion levels is found; in addition, results shows that the self-compassion levels of participants diagnosed with a psychological disorder were significantly lower, while participants with a chronic disease had eating attitudes that were significantly disordered compared to participants without a psychological disorder. In addition to the research articles briefly summarized above, we have also included a book review in this issue. Ahmet Tuğşad Doğukan and Fatih Dağ reviewed Thomas Piketty’s “Nature, Culture et Inégalités” book. According to the reviewers, in this book, Piketty examines the complex dynamics of socioeconomic disparities, questioning traditional assumptions that can be characterized as deterministic and offering an innovative perspective on the causes and evolution of inequality. While traditional assumptions emphasize natural factors such as individual abilities or resource endowments, Piketty argues that contrary to these factors, political and social forces have been more influential in the course of inequality throughout history.
Topic:
Development, Culture, Law, Human Resources, Social Science, and Public Transportation
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus

2. History, Social Science, and the ‘Literary Conscience’

Author:
Richard Jordan
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
As social science has grown more sophisticated, so has its awareness of its own methodological shortcomings. Many of the leading journals publish extensively (sometimes, exclusively) on new devices to circumvent these difficulties. At least some social scientists, though, seem aware that they will never devise mathematical tools capable of overcoming certain ceilings on their knowledge. There is an increasing demand for other ways to ask and answer questions. As the social sciences knock vainly against these ceilings—and as they dwindle into increasing policy irrelevance—more humanistic scholars recommend a return to history. This remedy, though, is incomplete. The old saw that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” has hidden history’s most difficult problem: its lessons are not obvious. History is too contingent, and its cases too few, for the states-man to derive general lessons with any confidence. The statesman must learn from it, but what he must learn is not often clear.
Topic:
Intelligence, History, Literature, and Social Science
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Can and “should” Qualitative Research Be ValueFree? Understanding the Epistemological Tussle between Positivists and Interpretivists

Author:
Dayyab Gillani
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Political Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
This paper seeks to address the question of value-free research in qualitative methods. The primary argument of the paper is that qualitative research is not value-free because it is not intended to be as such. It analyzes this question by tracing the roots of qualitative research at the ontological and epistemological level. It argues that qualitative research tradition has evolved out of constructivism and interpretivism both of which prioritize people’s interpretation and discount objectivity in social science research. Furthermore, the paper argues that social science research cannot be value-free because of strong ethical considerations. All the cases presented in the paper will fundamentally try to show that all qualitative research is essentially subjective not just because of the impediments but because it is not designed to be value-free.
Topic:
Ethics, Constructivism, Ontology, Social Science, Qualitative Research, Subjectivity, Epistemology, Interpretivism, and Objectivity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. An Eclectic Methodological Approach in Analyzing Foreign Policy: Turkey’s Foreign Policy Roles and Events Dataset (TFPRED)

Author:
Ismail Erkam Sula
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This article describes the steps in developing an eclectic coding scheme that utilizes the Role theory framework. Role theory proposes that foreign policy is conducted with an attempt to fulfill the role conceptions that decision-makers formulate. Studies utilizing this framework usually identify national role conceptions (NRCs) in the foreign policy speeches of decision-makers with various research techniques. Following the literature, this article first explains how to use content analysis in identifying the most frequently referred NRCs in Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP). Then, unlike the literature, it takes a step further and offers event data analysis to look at the performance of these NRCs as well. With such an approach, it develops the Turkish Foreign Policy Roles and Events Dataset (TFPRED). The TFPRED is a dataset that is the product of a combination of ‘hand-coded content analysis’ with ‘computer-assisted event data analysis’. The article presents a detailed explanation of the steps in using content analysis and event data analysis to build the TFPRED. It also explains the development of the eclectic methodological approach and gives an assessment of the author’s experiences in combining the two methods.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Research, Data, Content Analysis, and Social Science
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. On the Very Idea of Transitional Justice

Author:
Jens David Ohlin
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
The phrase “transitional justice” has had an amazingly successful career at an early age.1 Popularized as an academic concept in the early 1990s in the aftermath of apartheid’s collapse in South Africa, the phrase quickly gained traction in a variety of global contexts, including Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone.2 A sizeable literature has been generated around it, so much so that one might even call it a sub-discipline with inter-disciplinary qualities.3 Nonetheless, the concept remains an enigma. It defines the contours of an entire field of intellectual inquiry, yet at the same time it hides more than it illuminates. No one is exactly sure what it means. One reason might be its combination of two very different kinds of words in a single phrase. “Justice” is perhaps the greatest of moral values, with a history that extends back to the moment man started criticizing the conduct of his fellow man. It is meant to evoke a universal, normative goal. “Transitional,” on the other hand, defines a particular situation, an exceptional and limited moment that stands in contrast to the universal goal. So the second term limits and qualifies the first in some important way, but how is totally unclear. Is transitional justice some other kind of justice, fundamentally different from justice during non-transitional moments? Or is it simply ordinary justice, a familiar end-state that remains elusive because a society has been ripped apart by genocide or some other ethnic conflict?4 If it is the latter, the field is about how to achieve, in a very pragmatic way, the usual goals of justice in difficult times. If it is the former, the field fundamentally re-conceives our understanding of justice in the face of radical social violence. 5 One is largely an exercise in social science, the other an exercise in moral philosophy. The current field of transitional justice straddles this distinction, and does so, I shall argue, in a somewhat uncomfortable way. Although the concept now dominates international affairs as an umbrella under which these problems are investigated, it remains fundamentally misunderstood. Specifically, the term “transitional justice” betrays a deep tension between two approaches to justice that goes to the heart of the burgeoning program of international criminal justice.
Topic:
Transitional Justice, Justice, Social Science, and Moral Philosophy
Political Geography:
Global Focus