Latest Research & Activities
Blogs, Conference Summaries, Reviews
- A summary of the conference titled: "The IPC‐Bruegel Dialogue on the Future of the Euro Zone", by Berfu Kızıltan and Derya Lawrence. Click here to read the report.
- A compelling summary and review of the IPC book launch featuring Cengiz Aktar's recent book on the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Derya Lawrence. Click here to read the event summary and review.
Istanbul Policy Center focuses on research areas under the following two main fields:
Turkey in a Globalising World
Turkey's Transformation
- Political and Social Trends in Turkey
- Social Equality and Civil Society
- Urban Transformation
- Education Reform
Turkey - EU Relations
IPC's main objectives in this area are to assist the process of Turkey's accession negotiations by providing (i) policy research support and (ii) a Europe-wide platform for civil society debate.
Given the significance of the Turkish candidacy, the project and process of "Turkey's EU Membership Observatory" has been launched as a co-operative effort of the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University and the Mediterranean Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, with the following aims and objectives:
- Promoting focused research on topics relevant to Turkey's integration in the EU, and supporting scholarly efforts in this direction.
- Bringing together policy and opinion makers from Turkey and the EU to encourage dialogue at the level of civil society and foster a common understanding of issues
- Assisting the process of negotiations by providing policy suggestions and improving the understanding of the principles, rules, instruments and policies of the European Union among a wider group of Turkish civil servants, opinion makers, businessmen and active members of relevant non governmental organisations.
In order to monitor Turkey's progress as well as provide an effective civil dialogue component to promote a better understanding of issues of mutual concern, Turkey-EU Membership Observatory Conferences have been held by IPC since 2001.
Apart from the Turkey's EU Membership Observatory Conferences, IPC aims to contribute to the Turkey - EU relations through other programs and activities.
Turkey - U.S. Relations
IPC is interested in cooperating with the academic and policy communities in the United States to promote better analysis and understanding of the political, strategic, and economic issues that are on the agenda of US - Turkish relations. The Center's activities and projects in this area seeks to develop new critical thinking about the U.S. - Turkish partnership in the wake of the changing regional security environment of Turkey following the war in Iraq, the gradual Europeanization of Turkish foreign policy resulting from Turkey's EU accession process.
The establishment of the program is also in response to the growing complexity of public policies, the political processes that give rise to them, and the organizations, which implement them.
The Turkey-U.S. Public Policy Initiative was created in May, 2006 to address public policies that have an impact on the relations between Turkey and the United States of America. The Initiative is inter-disciplinary in scope, seeks to build bridges between researchers and policy-makers, and strives to enhance the policy analysis skills of students and improve their understanding of the political and policy-making processes. In doing so, the Initiative seeks to increase Sabancı University's relevance and contribution to the Turkish, American and international policy communities through various programs and activities.
Governance
IPC has initiated a 'governance network', providing advice and support to other institutions, particularly on local government, and evaluating select draft legislation pertaining to governance issues, thus providing guidance for the government. In order to familiarize Turkish polity with multi-level governance themes, IPC has organized annual conferences. The presentations made in these conferences have been compiled and printed for wider dissemination. Please click here for the details of these conferences.
IPC has organized a national conference on the topic of "Best Practices in Local Development". The aim of the conference was to determine the best practices for local development in various regions of Turkey, that have been carried on with a participatory understanding, and reward a few of them in particular.
IPC has contributed for the Middle East and North Africa Development Forum (MDF), and has completed (together with Iran Hamyaran) a project on "Poverty Alleviation through Local Governance".
IPC has acted as project facilitator to a novel 'participative local development and strategic planning' project, in collaboration with Pendik Municipality, a district of Greater Istanbul.
IPC has acted as partner to numerous EU-related and UNDP-related projects and is a much-sought-after national and international partner.
IPC and Darmstadt University organized a program to enhance cooperation between Sabancı University and Darmstadt University, and to encourage research between German and Turkish students on local governance. The program started on April 4-11, 2008 in Darmstadt University, the second and the third programs took place at the Sabancı University Campus on September 3-10, 2008 and September 13-19, 2009 respectively.
IPC has been involved with several initiatives which take a Conflict Resolution approach into consideration. IPC Executive Board members have been active members of the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission and Greek-Turkish Forum. In addition, IPC regularly collaborates with Sabanci University’s Conflict Analysis and Resolution graduate program to provide opportunities to upcoming academics and researchers. This includes preparing them to facilitate events and mentoring them through their dissertation processes.
For detailed information about the Conflict Resolution Program, please click on the following activity links:
- Greek - Turkish Forum
- International Conference on Reconciliation Models
- An Introduction to the Open Space Large Group Facilitation Methodology
- Alternative Lens to Conflict Resolution Conference
- Overcoming Challenges to Turkey - US Relations
- Learning Conflict Resolution and Producing Peace
Political and Social Trends in Turkey
The Political and Social Trends in Turkey program aims to understand and explain the root causes of the political and social transformation in Turkey. The program monitors the impact of religiosity, ethnic identity and democratization on the contemporary Turkish politics. The research generated through the program provides insight into the opportunities and challenges facing Turkey as a global actor and European Union candidate country.
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SURVEY PROGRAM (ISSP)
IPC represents Turkey as a member of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). ISSP is a comparative data collection program, which aims to answer scientific questions on social phenomena in 43 countries. It uses a standard questionnaire framework and sampling procedure which guarantees the integrity of the study and their quality. The main objective of the ISSP members is to develop questionnaires that enable similarities as well as the differences between countries by asking meaningful and comprehensive questions.
Survey research was conducted on religiosity in 2008 and the report was presented to TUBITAK, the funding agency of the project in March 2009. The research continued with the themes of social inequality in 2009 and the environment in 2010. The main aim of IPC in this project is to integrate Turkey into the ISSP framework. This will bode well for Turkey as ISSP is one of the world’s most prominent institutions in terms of comparable data collection in the social sciences.
The report "Religiosity in Turkey: An International Comparison" was finalised by March 2010. The findings of the research report were shared with the public in a press conference held on November 17th, 2009.
The "Social Inequality in Turkey" field study was finished in 2009 and its findings have been reported in the report presented to the public through a press meeting that took place on May 25, 2010.
Social Equality and Civil Society
The Social Equality and Civil Society program focuses its research on the status of minority groups in Turkey and the responsibility of NGOs in their integration into mainstream. The program values and promotes balanced and thorough research to better understand the issues facing minority groups and civil society organizations in Turkey. It also offers policy analyses conducive to greater participation of women, religious and ethnic minorities in policy making, as well as strategies to improve the roles of NGOs in this process.
Urban Transformation
Urban transformation in Anatolian cities is a major driver behind the rapid economic growth in Turkey and the acceleration of its democratization process. Cognitive of the impact of this phenomenon on Turkish domestic and foreign politics, IPC has designed a program that tracks the current trends of development in a range of Turkish cities. The program seeks to assess the impact of economic growth and good governance on the democratization efforts and civic engagement in rural Turkey.
Education Reform
Education Reform Initiative (ERI) is a project launched within the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University to improve education policy and decision making through research, advocacy and monitoring. ERI is committed to quality K-12 education for all.
Education reform is an urgent necessity and priority in Turkey. The increasingly complicated relationship between education policy and question of citizenship, the needs of an economy integrated with Europe and demographic trends that can be turned into an advantage through education for social and economic development are the key issues that Turkey must address. A major goal of the project is to contribute to a paradigmatic shift in the Turkish political culture that will in turn help sustain an open society.
ERI also attempts to serve as an example as to how policy dialogue should be conducted within a contemporary democratic framework by bringing together concerned civil society groups and the relevant state agencies to catalyze an innovative collective thought process for education reform policy.
For more information about the Education Reform Initiative, please visit the ERI website.