Neoliberalism and the Changing Face of Unionism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. The Increasing Relevance of the Working Class: Global Movements and the Case of Turkey

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 1-27

3. The Combined and Uneven Development of Class Capacities in Pre-Neoliberal Turkey

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 29-62

4. Turkey’s Neoliberal Restructuring and Class Capacities: A Macro-Level Assessment from a Combined and Uneven Development Perspective

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 63-91

5. A Bottom-Up Approach to the Combined Development of Working-Class Capacities in Turkey: Privatization, Flexibilization, and Union Responses

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 93-108

6. The Uneven Development of Working-Class Capacities in Turkey: Clientelism, Paternalism, and Politics of Identity

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 109-126

7. Turkey’s Social Unionism from a Combined and Uneven Development Approach: Labour Flexibility and Working-Class Identities

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 127-146

8. Conclusion

   • Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

   Pages 147-153

9. Back Matter

   Pages 155-164

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This book provides a political, economic, and sociological investigation of how neoliberalism shapes ‘working class capacities,’ or the power of the working class to organize and struggle for its collective interests. Efe Can Gürcan and Berk Mete discuss the global importance of the labor question as it pertains to Turkey. They apply the main theoretical framework of the combined and uneven development of class capacities to Turkish trade unionism. They also address Turkey’s recent history of neoliberalization and its repercussions for class capacities, as mediated by national regulations, conservative unionism, and Islamic social assistance networks. Finally, the authors explore how neoliberalism generates intra-class fragmentation through public regulatory mechanisms and cultural differentiation in the sphere of social unionism. 

• Social Movements
• Labor Unions
• Sociology
• Turkey
• Neoliberalism
• Political Sociology

• Simon Fraser University , Port Moody, Canada

  Efe Can Gürcan

• Maltepe University , Istanbul, Turkey

  Berk Mete

Efe Can Gürcan is an instructor of Sociology and a PhD candidate in Sociology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He has published over a dozen articles and book chapters on political economy, international development, and social movements.


Berk Mete is pursuing an MSc in Sociology at Maltepe University, Turkey. His thesis concerns workers' autonomy at Kazova, a recuperated textile factory in Turkey. 

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