Turkish Cultural Policies in a Global World

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction: Turkish Cultural Policies in a Global World—Circulations, Territories, and Actors

   • Muriel Girard, Jean-François Polo, Clémence Scalbert-Yücel

   Pages 1-22

3. The Kemalist Legacy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

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   2. Circulation of Humanism and Classicism During the Second World War in Turkey: The Case of the Painters’ Homeland Tours (1938–1946)

      • Bengü Aydın Dikmen

      Pages 25-47

   3. Post-Ottoman Heritage(s), “Kemalist” Tourism and Cultural Policies in the Balkans

      • Olivier Givre, Pierre Sintès

      Pages 49-73

4. Cultural Policy Under the AKP’s Leadership

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

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   2. Turkish Cultural Policy: In Search of a New Model?

      • Jean-François Polo

      Pages 77-103

   3. Converted Spaces, Converted Meanings: Looking at New Cultural Spaces in Istanbul through a Cultural Policy Lens

      • Ayça İnce

      Pages 105-125

   4. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Art and Vocational Training Courses: A Matrix for Reviving Arts and Handicrafts, Constructing Local Values, and Reworking National Culture

      • Muriel Girard

      Pages 127-151

   5. “Cultural Action” as Mode of Domination: Islamic Businessmen’s International Trade Fair and Configurations of Turkey’s Cultural Model

      • Dilek Yankaya

      Pages 153-177

5. Territorial Cultural Policies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179

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   2. The Dream of a Village: The Yeşil Yayla Festival and the Making of a World of Culture in the Town of Arhavi

      • Clémence Scalbert-Yücel

      Pages 181-207

   3. Tradition Makers. The Recognition Process of a Local Dance: From the Village to the Institutions

      • Lydia Zeghmar

      Pages 209-232

   4. World Heritage Manufacture in Turkey and the Introduction of a New Public Policy System

      • Julien Boucly

      Pages 233-257

6. Back Matter

   Pages 259-264

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This book provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the production of Turkish cultural policies in the context of globalization and of the circulation of knowledge and practices. Focusing on circulations, the book proposes an innovative approach to the transfer of cultural policies, considering them in terms of co-production and synchrony. This argument is developed through an examination of circulations at the international, national, and local levels; employing original empirical data and case study analyses. 

Divided into three parts the book first examines the Kemalist legacy, before turning to the cultural policies developed under the AKP’s leadership, and concludes by investigating the production of cultural policies in the outlying regions of Turkey. The authors shed new light on the particular importance of culture to the understanding of the societal upheavals in contemporary Turkey. By considering exchanges as circulations rather than one-way impositions, this book also advances our understanding of how territories are (re)defined by culture and makes a significant contribution to the interrogation of the concept of “Westernization”. 


This book brings into clear focus the reconfigurations currently taking place in Turkish cultural policy, demonstrating that while they are driven by the ruling party, they are also the work of civil society actors. It convincingly argues that an authoritarian turn need not necessarily spell the end of the cultural scene, and highlights the innovative adaptations and resistance strategies used in this context. This book will appeal to students and scholars of public policy, sociology and cultural studies.

• cultural policy
• music festivals
• Secularized culture
• Turkish national art and culture
• Ministry for Culture
• İstanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı (İKSV)
• cultural management
• Europeanization
• globalization
• policy transfer
• post-Ottoman culture
• culture and nation building
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
• Turkish humanism
• Ottoman heritage
• ISMEK
• Turkishness
• Müsiad
• rural heritage
• turkish folk culture

• École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Marseille Member of INAMA Research Laboratory, Marseille, France

  Muriel Girard

• Sciences Po Rennes-ARENES (UMR 6051), Rennes, France

  Jean-François Polo

• Institute of Arab and İslamic Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

  Clémence Scalbert-Yücel

Muriel Girard is Associate Professor of Social and Human Sciences, Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Marseille, Laboratoire INAMA, Marseille, France, and member of INAMA research laboratory (ENSA-M).


Jean-François Polo, is Associate Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po Rennes, France, and member of ARENES (CNRS). 


Clémence Scalbert Yücel is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Arab and İslamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, where she teaches Ethnopolitics and Kurdish Studies.

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