Academies of possibilities:|An analysis of intellectual field, social movements, and knowledge production in Turkey

Abstract

This thesis compares and contrasts the intellectual field in the 1980s and today by examining the alternative academic structures founded in these two periods. The thesis analyzes these two contexts separately and traces the influence of the increasing precarization of intellectual labor throughout the world and the historical particularities of Turkey on the transformation of the intellectual field since the 1980s. At the same time, by dwelling on the changing discourses of social movements in the world, the thesis aims to show that the organizational models of the alternative academic structures in Turkey have changed significantly since the 1980s. Lastly, the thesis aims to show the influence of these organizations on the knowledge production in the country through the space they offer for the flourishment of new ideas. The thesis argues that these structures can be regarded as “academies of possibilities” because of the promises they offer for the academic and cultural circles in the country.