Daniel Karell

Hyphenated Turkishness: the plurality of lived nationhood in Turkey

Is Turkish nationality one singular identity that does not permit ethnic modifiers? Or can it be understood as pluralistic, with identities nested – “hyphenated” – with Turkishness? Then, are Turkish and Kurdish identities necessarily mutually exclusive? Such questions over the boundaries of Turkishness have long been framed in the civic versus ethnic dichotomy – an approach that does not ask whether Turkish nationhood is monolithic or pluralistic. In response, this article aims to advance the public and scholarly debates over nationhood in Turkey by turning to the question of ways in which Turkishness can be hyphenated with other identity categories in Turkey, most particularly Kurdishness. First, we reframe the debate over identity by using the combinatorial approach to ethnicity to outline how Turkishness and Kurdishness can be overlapping and nested, or a hyphenated identity. Second, we draw on public opinion data to show that such a hyphenated identity is both theoretically possible and potentially salient in Turkey today. Together, these steps deconstruct the primordialist understandings of Turkishness and Kurdishness, on the one hand, and the taken-for-granted civic claims of Turkishness, on the other.

Aid, exclusion, and the local dynamics of insurgency in Afghanistan:

Can developmental aid bring peace to war-torn communities? The current literature is divided on this issue. One line of reasoning suggests that aid is likely to decrease violence by improving employment and prosperity, thereby making participation in conflict more costly. Another view cites evidence showing an association between aid projects and increased insurgent activity. Addressing this contradiction, we argue that different types of aid projects lead to different outcomes, as some projects foster an unequal distribution of benefits within communities. Our reasoning draws on qualitative accounts from conflict zones, recent research on how grievances associated with exclusion can foster civil war onset, and experimental findings regarding perceived inequity and punishment. Building on this scholarship, we use a recently developed event-matching methodology to offer insight from contemporary Afghanistan. Aid projects that tend to exclude portions of the community yield more insurgent activity in their wake than more inclusive projects. These results shed light on why some aid projects reduce violence while others do not, emphasizing that efforts to ‘win hearts and minds’ can be a source of both contentment and contestation.

Does Foreign Aid Harm Local Institutions? External Subsidies, Giving Behavior, and Social Norms in a Lab Experiment

Evidence for the long-term effects of foreign aid on local communities is mixed. In a laboratory experiment, we investigate whether external subsidies, e.g. foreign assistance, promote or undermine giving. Subjects play two rounds of a dictator game followed by an elicitation of norms. In both rounds, leaders allocate earned endowments to passive recipients. With a between-subject design, we vary the presence of a subsidy and compare wealth redistribution to public good provision. We find that subsidizing public good provision increases giving, while subsidizing wealth redistribution does not. Furthermore, subsidies do not undermine giving or norms about giving in the long-term.

Ethnicity, Citizenship, and the Migration–Development Nexus: The Case of Moroccan Migrants in Spain’s North African Exclaves

Abstract In this paper, I conduct a paired comparative analysis of the Moroccan migrant communities in two Spanish cities, Ceuta and Melilla, to examine how migrants’ sub-national ethnic heritage influences their relationships with their host country and country of origin. Conducting an ecological inferential analysis of citizenship rates, I find evidence that ethnic heritage, Arab in Ceuta and Amazigh in Melilla, affects whether Moroccan migrants become Spanish citizens. As a result, I posit that ethnic heritage has the potential to affect migrants’ relationships with their host and origin countries, as well as their transnational behaviour and participation in the migration–development nexus.