Turkish Modernization

A plastic construction material, reinforced concrete, characterizes the last century and plays a leading role in the built environment. In the early 20th century Turkey, following the initial use of reinforced, reinforced concrete had been part of the modernization project in the setting up of a new Republic. Having been coincided with the spread of Modern Movement, reinforced concrete had been accepted as a material that symbolized as a fundamental break from the past. And until the mid twentieth century, there had been an intense endeavor to transfer its technology by the educators and the founders of the state. In post-war period, along with the decrease in the use of alternative building materials, reinforced concrete has become the dominant material in the building and housing industry.  The tremendous social, economic, social and political changes are, in general, identified with the decade of the 1950s, when the Democrat Party (DP) came into power replacing a 23-year-long-one-party governance. In this contextual framework, the decade of the 1950s present a multi-partite visual cultural formation providing to contact with the culture of reinforced concrete. Having been a milestone for the production of reinforced concrete, three important changes can be indicated in the decade of the 1950s: the first one is that the reflections of the governance changes (large scale investments concentrated on the urban infrastructure, cement industry and building sector in populist economic policies); the second one is that the discursive formations of ‘international style’ again dominated architectural culture in the transition oriented ‘internationalization’ in political discourses; and the third one the emergence of the reinforced concrete into the public daily life. In the new political climate of the 1950s, reinforced concrete had been ‘socially re-constructed’, institutionalized and culturally embedded in society-wide.

In this context, this study aims at investigating discursive formations in the threshold of the 1950s, lied behind the increase of the significance of reinforced concrete in the building sector. The paper compares considerable number of buildings which have a crucial role in the construction of an image in the collective memory through the representations in printed media as well as in the discourse of the social actors. The study, analyzing the publications in the media, the role of architectural writings, focuses  on the process of cultural re-composition of the reinforced concrete and its embedded meanings. First of all, tracing Certeau’s emphasis on different discursive formations in ‘strategy and tactic discussion’, the study offers a short theoretical framework. Secondly, it gives a contextual reading of the built environment as well new reinforced concrete buildings. Thirdly, it indicates
‘imaginations’ and ‘ideologies’ built in the context of the 1950s in Turkey, influencing building practices of reinforced concrete.

Studying imaginations/constructions of the reinforced concrete through the daily life may give a broader understanding of the modernity project in Turkey and in general.

ÖZET Neredeyse tüm dünyada kadınlar ataerkinin baskısı altındadırlar. Aynı şekilde kimi erkeklik biçimleri de ataerkinin karşısında zor durumdadır. Bu noktada eleştirel erkeklik çalışmaları ataerkinin taşıyıcısı olarak hegemonik erkekliği işaret etmektedir. Türkiye'deyse geç Osmanlı ve erken Cumhuriyet modernleşmesinde etkili olan düşünce ve politikalar ulus devlete de sirayet etmiştir. Bu bağlamda karşımıza kendini özel alanın dışında tanımlayan, milliyetçi – muhafazakâr değerlerle donanmış, hiyerarşik ilişkilere inanan, gücü yücelten bir egemen erkeklik hali çıkmaktadır. Bu erkeklik hali toplumda halen büyük ölçüde egemendir ve inşasında hukuk ve medya önemli rol oynamaktadır. Ancak bugün toplumsal düzenin her noktasında olduğu gibi erkeklikte de değişimler yaşanmaktadır. Çalışma kapsamında bu değişim merkeze alınmıştır. Türkiye'de hegemonik erkekliğin taşıyıcısı olan, fakat ondan kopma sürecinde yeni bir erkek grubunun nüvelerinin izlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. İlk bölümde Türk modernleşmesi ekseninde hegemonik erkekliğin öznesi ve ortak kodları tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Sonraki iki bölümde bu kodlar hukuk ve medya üzerinden ele alınmıştır. Toplumsal cinsiyet ve hukuk ilişkisi kurulurken hegemonik erkeklik kavramı bağlamında Türkiye'deki anayasal gelişmeler, temel hak ve özgürlüklerin gelişimi ile cinsiyet eşitsizliğinin en açık ifadelerini taşıyan Medeni Kanun ve Ceza Kanunu gibi temel kanunlar üzerinde durulmuştur. Medya metinleri ise ulaşılan ortak kodların tespitinde isabet oranını görmek amacıyla kullanılmıştır. Bu doğrultuda daha önce yapılan çalışmalardan yola çıkılarak ortak kodları içeren metinlerin toplumda tiraj ve reyting olarak bulduğu karşılık incelenmiştir. Son bölümde ise altı erkek ile yüzyüze görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Hegemonik erkekliğin ortak kodlarından belirli noktalarda ayrışan ve fakat avantajların konformizminden de kopamamış yeni bir erkeklik halinin izlerine rastlanmıştır.
ABSTRACT Nearly all over the world women are under the pressure of patriarchy. In a similar way some kind of masculinities are in a difficult situation against patriarchy. At this point critical masculinity studies refer 1 Bu makale, 11-13 Eylül 2014 tarihinde İzmir'de düzenlenen 1. Uluslararası Erkekler ve Erkeklikler Konferansı " Kimlikler, Kültürler, Toplumlar " 'da sunulmuş ve özeti basılmış olan bildirinin genişletilmiş halidir.

Social studies course is a pivotal course offered in the first three years of students’ primary education. Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic to the present, there have been changes in the curricula of the social studies course in accordance with the needs and expectations of the related period in Turkish Republic history. Whether these changes introduced have fulfilled the mentioned expectations is the object of interest in this essay. Having considered these issues, answers to the following questions were sought within this research: a) what sorts of changes have been introduced to overcome the shortcomings of the old curricula, b) to what extent have these changes lived up to the characteristics of the period and does the field of the object or the content meet the requirements and to what extent does the content of the course align with the features of the educational sciences? Like the primary education curricula being used since the establishment of the Turkish Republic until today, social studies course’s curricula were arranged by either the committee on education, the educational council or by a foreign educational consultant and external factors. The 1924 social studies course curriculum was in effect on a temporary basis due to being prepared quickly by the recently established Turkish Republic and it was in use only for two years. The 1926 social studies curriculum was the work of a government which just had completed its political revolution process and it was shaped around the ideas of an American educational scholar, Dewey. Next, in 1936 Turkish revolution was emphasized in the social studies curriculum, in which citizenship consciousness and patriotism was commonly stated. The 1948 social studies curriculum was in use for about 20 years and it accepted teaching knowledge as the principle idea and it created a dense amount of content by increasing the number of the chapters. In the social studies curriculum of 1968, all the objectives were set according to the student-oriented approach and it stayed in use for 30 years. The social studies curriculum of 1998 carried the features of behaviourist approach since it was created under this approach. The 2005 social studies curriculum was a constructivist one prepared with the effects of external factors, since it was made for the purpose of being compatibility with the EU norms. Both the 2009 and the 2015 curricula were used to addressed values, special occasions and weeks, explanation of educational status and evaluation themes.