In Latin America, as elsewhere in the world, regional and subregional organizations have multiplied
recently. Scholars tend to focus on the variety of regionalisms or their ever changing nature (postliberal, post-hegemonic...). This study, through a political sociology of regionalism approach, examines
Latin American regions and their actors and goes beyond the first set of questions. In this perspective,
scrutinizing the regional General Secretaries of the sub-continent is particularly useful to understand
how regional powers emerge. With a specific focus on the Southern Common Market (UNSUR), the
Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the Central
American Integration System (SICA), this research offers a more precise answer to the question of the
configuration of power within Latin American regionalisms.
Topic:
Sovereignty, Sociology, Governance, Multilateralism, Political Science, Regional Integration, and Networks
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia
Elections have been trivialized in Iran. They allow for the expression of diversity, in particular ethnical
and denominational, of historical regional identities, and prove the growing professionalization of
political life. Paradoxically, such professionalization withdraws the Republic away into the levels of
family, parenthood, autochthony, and even neighborhoods or devotional sociability, which are all
institutions that instill a feeling of proximity, solidarity, communion; close to the notion of asabiyat.
As the saying goes, the Islamic Republic has become a « parentocracy » (tâyefehsâlâri). The country’s
industrial development isn’t at odds with such ponderousness since it lies on a web of very small family
businesses. The analysis of the 2016 legislative elections in four wards reveals how important the issue of
property is in political life, indivisible as it is of the various particularistic consciences. The connections
with notables are still there, revealing lines of continuity with the old regime as well as longstanding
agrarian conflicts that have not been erased by the Revolution and that are being kept alive through
contemporary elections.
Topic:
Democratization, Politics, Sociology, Governance, Elections, Borders, Networks, and Identities
Müsiad International Fair held in Istanbul in 2014 aroused great public interest due to the strong
presence of political elites as well as to the mobilization of a large network of institutions, firms and
media partners. International exhibitions are relevant fields to explore the formation of trade circuits
and the creation of sociabilities, as well as to question the political and international issues central
to the construction of trade networks and markets. This event appears as the representation of the
Turkish state as it is formed under the AKP power. We witness a double trend of reconfiguration
and of internationalization of the state constituting processes through the phenomena of increased
interactions between private enterprise and public action on one side and the shrinkage of patronage
networks on the other. Participating to this event therefore becomes a question of legitimization
and delegitimization for private actors regarding these networks of power, the production of which
is based on the presentation of economic and industrial productions and goes together with the
creation of Imaginaries. The ethnographic study of the fair shows how industrial, cultural and symbolic
representations bring about the production of two types of Imaginary, one related to the reinvention of
the idea of the ummah across merchant networks and the other referring to the supremacy of Turkey
as the carrier of this project.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Sociology, Political Science, Networks, State, and Ethnography
The Justice and Development Party (JDP) has been in power in Turkey since 2002, consolidating its electoral support among an array of social groups ranging from broad appeal among the popular classes to business leaders and a growing middle class. The success of the JDP is a consequence of the manner in which the party inserted itself into certain economic and social sectors. While the party has internalized the principles of reducing the public sphere and outsourcing to the private sector, it has not restricted the reach of government intervention. On the contrary, it has become increasingly involved in certain sectors, including social policy and housing. It has managed this through an indirect approach that relies on intermediaries and private allies such as the businesses and associations that is has encouraged. In this way, the JDP has developed and systematized modes of redistribution that involve the participation of conservative businessmen who benefit from their proximity to the decision-makers, charitable organizations, and underprivileged social groups. These public policies have reconfigured different social sectors in a way that has strengthened the Party’s influence.
Topic:
Civil Society, Sociology, Governance, Regulation, Political Science, and Networks