Funded by
Brazil
Professor Carlo Patti, Universidade Federal de Goiás
Dr Benoit Pelopidas, University of Bristol
Global Nuclear Vulnerability: The Effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis on British, French and Brazilian Nuclear Policies – strengthening capacity in International Relations in Brazil.
AF140175 Two-Years £74,000.00
The 1962 so-called "Cuban missile crisis" crisis is often considered the most dangerous of the entire Cold War. However, most accounts of these events remain overwhelmingly focused on the experiences of the two superpowers. The experiences of other states during the crisis remain unheard and their importance unappreciated. Using primary sources and a renewed conceptualization of security, responsibility, and alliances in an age of global nuclear vulnerability, this project will shed new light on the nuclear age, in general, and on the consequences of the 1962 global nuclear crisis on French and Brazilian nuclear histories more specifically. The project will bring benefits to the Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG), the state of Goiás and for Brazil by increasing the capacity of the incipient International Relations Programme (UFG). The UFG was considered when it was set up as a crucial tool for contributing to the development and the internationalization of the state of Goiás and of the Central-Western region of Brazil. Furthermore, an even more inclusive Brazilian federal university system is allowing students from low-income families to attend the IR undergraduate programme and to participate in international projects. The partnership between the University of Bristol and the Universidade Federal de Goiás will consequently produce high-quality research, will consolidate the IR programme, and will actively involve all the interested students from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UFG.
Dr Eliana Sousa Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Professor Paul Heritage, Queen Mary University of London
Someone to Watch Over Me: New Ways of Understanding Police, Culture and the Favela in Rio de Janeiro
AF140159 Two-Years £63,892.10
Dr Eliana Sousa Silva from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro will collaborate with Professor Paul Heritage and other colleagues from Queen Mary University of London on research into police and culture in the favela complex of Maré in Rio de Janeiro. Working with UK researchers and specialists, Dr Silva will investigate how distorted perceptions between low-income communities and the police affect the implementation of public security initiatives and consider ways in which local cultural strategies can be effective in transforming attitudes and public policy. The Fellowship will enable Dr Silva to develop her work in integrating research that emerges from organisations within Rio’s peripheral communities as part of the Federal University’s Interdisciplinary Centre of Actions for Citizenship. The collaboration with QMUL will enable the creation of an international network of scholarship and an exchange of knowledge that strengthens initiatives that Dr Silva has developed over the last decade.
Professor Pedro Duarte, University of Sao Paulo
Professor Sir David Hendry, Nuffield College
Recent History of Macroeconomics and the Large-Scale Macroeconometric Models
AF140063 Two-Years £47,150.00
Understanding the practice of using macroeconometric models to policymaking is a theme of major importance to any country, in particular to developing countries which still face important macroeconomic challenges. In Brazil, the use of large-scale macroeconometric models by the Central Bank, similar to those used by several other central banks in the world, has been a major recent advancement contributing to a healthy macroeconomic environment. Though the effectiveness of these models is still under dispute, understanding the historical origins of such practice, with the rather different type of the macroeconometric models of the 1960s and 1970s, is very important to a proper understanding of macroeconomic policymaking. This Fellowship will not only foster research in an area not much explored so far and critical for understanding the recent developments in macroeconomics and the role of macroeconometric models in policymaking, but will also promote a long-term academic relationship between Brazil and the UK that can involve the exchange of students and thus make a substantial contribution to human capital formation.
Professor Daniela Vaz, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Professor Subhobrata Mitra, Nottingham Trent University
The effect of attentional focus on movement coordination - strengthening research in Brazilian physiotherapy and rehabilitation to improve lifelong health and wellbeing.
AF140050 Two-Years £44,086.00
The sit-to-stand task is fundamental to normal activities of daily living, and a key indicator of mobility and frailty in older adults. As such, it is also an important target in rehabilitation programmes. This project will investigate the effects of attention focus on movement coordination during the sit-to-stand task. Research on a variety of motor skills shows that focusing attention on the environmental consequences of action yield better performance than focusing internally on aspects of the coordination itself. However, our recent work indicates that, older as opposed to young adults may produce more stable postural transitions if they focus attention internally on the loading of key muscle groups. We will use dynamical systems techniques to analyse how attentional focus affects the ways in which the available mechanical degrees of freedom are used to stabilise the performance of the sit-to-stand task. Our analysis will inform our understanding of neuromotor ageing and improve design of rehabilitation protocols. More broadly, the project will add to the strength of Brazilian physiotherapy and rehabilitation research by establishing a strong link with key threads in basic motor control research. This basic research base is currently concentrated in European and North American institutions. Developing translational research and physiotherapy practice in Brazil that is informed by, and closely linked with, these areas of basic research development will be of significant benefit to both current research and practice, and also training future generations of researchers with skills that are balanced between basic and applied aspects of motor control.
Dr Fernanda Estevan, University of Sao Paulo
Dr Thomas Gall, University of Southampton
Affirmative Action in College Admission: Encouragement, Discouragement, and Social Mobility
AF140079 Two-Years £37,900.00
Transition from secondary into tertiary education has a tremendous effect on social mobility. College admission policies, generally aiming to select the fittest candidates for college, are a determinant of this transition. This has motivated policies of affirmative action in college admission. We study one such policy, giving a bonus to applicants coming from a public school and to black applicants. We will examine how the policy (1) changed the socio-economic composition of college applicants and entry classes, (2) encouraged or discouraged exam performance of students favoured or disadvantaged by the policy, and (3) changed the relationship between students' choices of course (and thus profession) and socio-economic status. We have access to a unique dataset from Brazil allowing plausible identification of policy effects. Our results will allow a policy evaluation in terms of broadening access to "elite" professions and shed light on whether occupational choice is determined by preferences or financial constraints.
Professor Erica Cristina Rocha Gorga, Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo School of Law
Professor Luca Enriques, University of Oxford
Shareholder Coalitions Across Countries: A Force for Good or Evil?
AF140097 One-Year £37,000.00
In many countries, including Brazil and Italy, shareholders coalesce to jointly control listed companies. In others, like the U.S. and the UK, they group together to force change in a company’s strategy. Despite their relevance, such shareholder coalitions are little investigated. We aim to better understand their role in corporate governance. In addition to facilitating joint investment in companies, shareholder coalitions allow voting rights coordination, a stable, long term-oriented control structure and reciprocal monitoring. But they may also be used by large investors to jointly dominate the company and engage in minority shareholder and other stakeholders expropriation. By analyzing the way coalitions organize themselves and how the law regulates them in Brazil, Italy, the UK and the U.S., we aim to investigate which arrangements and legal rules can ensure that shareholder coalitions are a force for good. Given their diffusion in Brazil, the research can shed light on Brazil’s capitalism and provide recommendations on how to enhance its capital markets’ growth.
Dr Cristina Eluf, State University of Bahia
Dr Vander Viana, University of Stirling
Corpus Linguistics and Teacher Education: New Perspectives for Brazilian Pre-service Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
AF140172 One-Year £32,665.00
Corpus Linguistics (CL) has considerably advanced our understanding of language use, but its application in education is still under-researched. Several advantages for the educational use of CL have been mentioned in the literature (e.g. the development of students’ autonomy and criticality), but few empirical studies have been conducted to check whether there is any support for these claims. This project fills this gap by investigating the use of CL in the teaching/learning of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL). To this end, ESOL undergraduates at a state university in Brazil will be introduced to CL and will be asked to devise and implement one corpus-based/driven activity in schools in their local community. In order to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of corpus-informed pedagogical practice, we will conduct interviews with (i) undergraduate pre-service teachers before and after they implement the activities and (ii) school students. Data triangulation will provide us with a grounded understanding of the potential of CL in ESOL teaching/learning.
Mexico
Dr Sergio Navarrete Pellicer, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Sociales en Antropología social, CIESAS
Dr Lucy Duran, School of Oriental and African Studies
Afro-Mexican Musical Youth in Oaxaca: Roots, Creativity, Community – promoting equal opportunities and economic development.
AF140183 Two-Years £70,662.00
Today, Afro-Mexican communities in Oaxaca, Mexico are emergent political agents in the movement for equal rights and opportunities in a multicultural nation. This project focuses on musical creativity and modes of music learning among these communities in Oaxaca and aims to document and raise awareness of the role of music among Afro-Mexican youth. It will provide a unique opportunity for Oaxaca youth to enhance their creativity and performance skills, with musical regeneration as a long-term goal. Over a period of two years, the applicant Dr Navarrete Pellicer (CIESAS), with training and participation from co-applicant Dr Duran (SOAS), will work with a specialized intercultural team, building on their ethnomusicological expertise on oral transmission in Mexico and West Africa. Fieldwork and music workshops will occur in Oaxaca, with participation from an expert Malian balafon player to introduce features of African composition and improvisation. The project will generate didactic resources for intercultural music education, short video performances for dissemination online, a documentary on the role of creativity in music and community building, and a common ground for future collaboration between the participant researchers. In the challenging environment of Afro-Mexican communities, the empowerment of youth through music workshops will improve self-esteem, and generate a positive image of African heritage, valuable for the group and for outsiders. At a regional level the possibility of transmitting the experience through the internet will be highly appreciated by all the communities in the area and will be a good cultural example to follow. The project contributes to grass-roots movements for improving equal opportunities and economic development.
Dr Abril Saldana-Tejeda, Universidad de Guanajuato
Professor Peter Wade, University of Manchester
Genomics and child obesity in Mexico: the resignification of race, class, nation and gender
AF140103 Two-Years £48,800.00
This project aims to explore medical discourses on genetics and obesity and how these work to contest or reinforce current notions of national identity, gender, class and race in Mexico. The project will interview scientists involved in medical genomics research, paediatricians, and mothers with overweight children. It will explore how geneticized explanations of obesity work in the Mexican context, where structural inequalities shape people’s food practices and their access to resources linked to health. The project will explore how the balance between social and genetic causes of health inequalities is being constructed in public health and medical genetics discourses; it will research perceptions and expectations of genomic medicine in the wider context of ideas about race, nation and health.
Dr Ines Arroyo-Quiroz, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias (CRIM), National University of Mexico (UNAM)
Dr Tanya Wyatt, Northumbria University
International Trade in Wildlife Involving Mexico: A Critical Appraisal of Wildlife Trade Dynamics between Mexico and the European Union
AF140036 Two-Years £34,860.00
This research project will investigate the supply and demand dynamics of the legal and illegal trade in wildlife specimens, products and by products (both native and non-native species) between Mexico and the European Union. It will explore the nature and extent of the trade as well as the impacts on the environment, wildlife and people involved. There is an absence of research that combines animal, environmental and human concerns as this study intends through an exploration of the legal trade, but also the poaching, smuggling, laundering and selling of wildlife. Legal and illegal wildlife trade are contributing not only to the extinction of species and environmental degradation, but also to instability, violence and unhealthy physical environments for human communities. Using a mixed-methods approach involving trade data collection, literature analysis and approximately 60 semi-structured interviews this original and highly critical investigation employs a unique interdisciplinary approach combining studies on development, economics, conservation, and green criminology.
South Africa
Dr Agostino Pietro Maria Inguscio, University of Cape Town
Professor Deborah Oxley, University of Oxford
Establishment of the Programme in Global Economic History at UCT – strengthening capacity of African economic historians in South Africa.
AF140110 Two-Years £74,000.00
South Africa continues to struggle with its historical legacy that affects social realities and policy choices in the present and likely also for the foreseeable future. The study of the history of African economies, like the growth of the economies themselves, is accelerating. This is largely due to the fact that, increasingly, African students are observing the challenges inherent in the societies in which they live and becoming aware that the study of economic history has a critical role to play in addressing these challenges. Policy makers too are often frustrated in their development efforts by the burden of shaky historical statistics. To respond to the marked increase in students studying economic history, the Department of Historical Studies at UCT is launching a new Masters and PhD programme in economic history in 2015, the key objective of which is to develop excellent African economic historians. In order to do so the Department must enhance access to archival resources and ensure that students are engaged in research questions of both national and global significance. South Africa would greatly benefit from this collaboration between UCT and Oxford University. Academically, South African students and students from across the African continent would be exposed to the highest standards of academic research and debate and have access to a network of international experts rarely accessible to students on the African continent. The systematic uncovering of local archival material and its analysis in both the national and global context will mark the beginning of a truly African perspective on economic history. Politically and socially, the country will benefit from a systematic understanding of its past, embedded in the broader understanding of the economic history discourse. A cohort of well-trained students will address the knowledge and capacity gap that the country faces in ways that will both explain the past and foster a better understanding of the ways of tackling problems in the present and future. African scholars, politicians and citizens have often expressed the view that the discipline of economic history driven from the developed world and academic agendas emanating in the north have failed to adequately understand the local context. It is therefore crucial to train a new generation of economic historians that is both embedded in the local context and also engaged in international debates.
Dr Deborah Seddon, Rhodes University
Dr Andrew van der Vlies, Queen Mary University of London
An Arc to the Future: Preserving and Promoting Orature in the South African Literary Imaginary – achieving education and development of intercultural literacy amongst students and township residents in Grahamstown/Makhanda.
AF140051 Two-Years £74,000.00
This project engages with South African orature (oral literature) with the following aims: to produce scholarly outputs tracking historical change and reciprocal transnational influences between South African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Black British poets after 1960; to research the potential structure and content for an online archive of South African oral and performance poetry accessible to local and international scholars of South African literature, history, and culture, but also community groups, schools, and university students locally; to promote recognition of orature’s importance and to facilitate its preservation and wider dissemination. The project unites pedagogical and scholarly commitments with a community engagement project, and requires the collaboration of a UK partner institution in developing the necessary archival expertise, as the first step towards the creation of a digital archive of South African orature to serve as a resource for researchers and teachers, revising conceptions of the national literary canon and influencing curriculum development. It will develop knowledge in an area consistently ignored in textual criticism and in the design of curricula and expose the work of Eastern Cape poets to a wider audience in a country where attention to artistic activity tends to focus on major city centres. The anthology, and the on-going production of an online literary archive of South African oral poetry, will provide much needed educational and research resources on South African orature. The overarching purpose is education and the development of intercultural literacy, both of which are crucial to the reconstruction and development of South Africa. The project works to overcome the racial, class, and cultural barriers that still exist in South African society particularly amongst township residents, who see education and the development in their literary and poetic skills as a means of moving out of the desperate economic circumstances in which they live. The community engagement partnership is designed to provide regular access to academic expertise and facilities at Rhodes University, which dominates the landscape in this small Eastern Cape town but, because of the psychic and socio-political legacy of apartheid, is often viewed as a place where they are not welcome.
Professor Geo Quinot, Stellenbosch University
Professor Sue Arrowsmith, University of Nottingham
Developing the Scholarship of African Public Procurement Regulation
AF140117 Two-Years £74,000.00
Public procurement is the process by which governments acquire – usually from the private sector – the goods and services they need. Many African countries have neither the legal framework nor the capacity to implement legislation that is necessary for developing an effective corruption-free procurement system, nor the academic capacity to support its development. There is accordingly a dire need to develop this capacity. This project aims to strengthen collaboration between the University of Nottingham’s Public Procurement Research Group and Stellenbosch University’s African Public Procurement Regulation Research Unit. The purpose is to continue the work started under the British Academy UK-Africa Academic Partnerships scheme, which led to the creation of the African unit, in creating capacity for African scholars to research and teach in this field. It will also provide information and awareness of issues facing Africa to enable scholars and policy makers from outside Africa to take these into account.
Professor Stephanus Jacobus van Zyl Muller, Stellenbosch University
Dr Jonathan Eato, University of York
South African Jazz Cultures and the Archive – contributing to the preservation and appreciation of South African Heritage.
AF140152 Two-Years £72,816.00
Jazz is acknowledged as a central expression of South Africa’s musical heritage, with current developments in jazz constituting some of the most significant musical explorations of contemporary South Africa. Following the exodus of many significant South African jazz musicians for Europe in the 1960s and 1970s the locus of the musical heritage is split between these two centres. The project aims to facilitate a critical engagement with current archival initiatives across a range of stakeholders for South African jazz by organizing and documenting a series of interdisciplinary discussion days (in both South Africa and the UK) and also address a significant lacuna in the archive by documenting a series of interviews with musicians that focuses on musical thinking and priorities, rather than socio-historical information. It will focus research and archival sensibilities towards fecund musical practices as indigenous and cosmopolitan practices, contributing to the preservation and appreciation of this music as South African heritage. Two fully funded masters studentships will be created to work on South African jazz at Stellenbosch University and assist in the interviewing process, to be jointly supervised by the applicant and co-applicant. Training on various aspects of archival documentation will be provided for the masters students, whilst staff and academics associated with the Documentation Centre for Music at Stellenbosch will be assisted in bringing jazz into their remit. Video and print outputs relating to archival policy for jazz will be produced and research building on the interview material gathered. In facilitating the movement of researchers and the holding of discussion days in both the UK and South Africa this project has the potential to address a significant geographical rupture in South African musical heritage.
Dr Lauren Graham, University of Johannesburg
Professor Andy Furlong, University of Glasgow
Youth Transitions to Work in South Africa: Evaluating the Role of Youth Employability Programmes
AF140164 Two-Years £55,450.56
In South Africa (SA) youth unemployment is a social and economic issue. It is predominantly caused by high skills demand in the labour market (1) and the inability of many young people to enhance skills by entering formal post-secondary education and training. In this context youth employability programmes (YEPs) play a key role in skills development. Yet little is known about their reach, their nature and their contribution to enhancing employability. This study seeks to evaluate such programmes. Evaluation of these programmes, which are constantly adapting and innovating, requires evaluation methodologies that go beyond traditional approaches. The proposed project brings together contextual, in-depth knowledge on youth employment and YEPs in South Africa, with expertise on youth transitions and evaluation research from the United Kingdom. By doing so, this research will additionally contribute to the development of theories of youth transitions that are appropriate in a developing country context.
Dr Chandre Gould, Institute for Security Studies
Professor Brian Rappert, University of Exeter
Cataloguing Secrets, Transforming Justice: An Innovative Manuscript and an Interactive Archive
AF140059 One-Year £24,339.20
Between 1981-1995, the South Africa Apartheid military maintained a secret chemical and biological warfare programme. This project builds upon foundational research conducted by the applicant to document the programme; and on primary research undertaken by the applicant and co-applicant to understand how and why the programme has become a non-issue in the Biological Weapons Convention and for the scientific community in South Africa. The outputs will be a book to inspire new thinking about the process of investigating and telling secrets, and a detailed and academically informed concept for an interactive on-line archive in collaboration with other institutional partners. Both products will serve as learning tools for students and practitioners across a wide range of fields. They will inform debates about transitional justice and the responsible conduct of science, facilitate inquiry about how else we might reckon with the past, and provide the basis for a novel approach to archive.
Turkey
Dr Lucas Thorpe, Bogazici University
Dr Sasha Mudd, University of Southampton
Agency and autonomy: Kant and the normative foundations of republican self-government – enriching political discourse in Turkey.
AF140071 Two-Years £74,000.00
The dominant understanding of democracy in Turkey is majoritarian and the Turkish political classes have a serious interest in political theory and philosophy. Kant is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to republican political thought, which offers a promising but as yet underexplored alternative to dominant liberal conceptions of democractic freedom. On the republican view, such freedom is the chief political value and consists in independence from arbitrary power. But what is arbitrary power and what does it mean to be independent from it? Moreover, why is independence of this kind ultimately good? The proposed research project will answer these questions, becoming the first project of its kind. The project consists of a two-year research collaboration between Dr. Lucas Thorpe and Dr. Sasha Mudd and their respective networks. It will give rise to an ambitious program of international activities and events, eight distinct research outputs, and the legal charter of a Turkish Kant Society. These activities will help to enrich Turkish political discourse. It is hoped that the republican conception of democracy, which stresses democratic control and contestability, will reach a broader audience and help foster a healthier understanding of democracy and the value of democratic institutions. The establishment of a Turkish Kant Society as well as the envisaged training schools will help create a more integrated academic community within Turkey. This will be especially important for academics and students at smaller departments, who are often isolated. These links will lead to greater co-operation between philosophy departments within the country and between different disciplines.
Dr Tevfik Emre Serifoglu, Bitlis Eren University
Dr Naoise Mac Sweeney, University of Leicester
Vanishing Landscapes: The Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey
AF140119 Two-Years £72,000.00
The Göksu river valley (Mersin Province, Turkey) runs between the Anatolian plateau and the Mediterranean, and has been a crucial channel of communication from prehistory to the present. The valley is rich in archaeological remains, bearing witness to travel, interaction, and continuity over the centuries. These remains are soon to be lost, submerged with the construction of a hydroelectric dam. This project aims to document the archaeological heritage of the Göksu valley before it vanishes, preserving records for posterity. It also aims to address the issue of community heritage in the flood zone. In order to accomplish the former we will employ a range of techniques, including using satellite images, intensive surface survey, geophysics, and the sampling of ceramics. To accomplish the latter we will organise a community heritage programme, to include an interactive website, workshops, and an exhibition at the local museum. The project is a unique opportunity, both to document a vanishing archaeological landscape, and to explore the social experience of losing this landscape.
Dr Mehmet Kurt, Bingol University
Professor Penelope Jane Green, Queen Mary University of London
Islamist Radicalisation, Civil Society and the State in Southeastern Turkey
AF140114 Two-Years £71,586.00
The project is an inquiry into the processes and drivers of Islamist radicalisation in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Employing an ethnographic method, Islamist organisations with a history of radicalism will be selected and members interviewed. The study will be concerned to examine the rise of Kurdish Islamist radicalism in Turkey and the ongoing recruitment of young Kurdish men to Islamic State (IS) and Al Nusra in Syria and Iraq. The research will not only explore the personal, political and ideological motivations of radicalised Islamists but will importantly be contextualised in terms of the Turkish state's ongoing conflict with the Kurdish insurgent group the PKK and the interplay between Islamist civil society, Kurdish nationalism and Turkish state violence.
Dr Gunder Varinlioglu, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
Professor Sam Turner, Newcastle University
New Approaches to Historic Landscapes: Bogsak in Isauria
AF140007 Two-Years £69,840.00
This Fellowship will enable a collaboration focused on the applicant’s existing landscape archaeology project in southern Turkey focused on the island of Bogsak, a now deserted early medieval settlement. The Fellowship will enable the applicant and her team to learn and apply cutting-edge digital humanities techniques, including GIS-based landscape characterisation and digital building analysis using terrestrial laser scanning and digital photogrammetry. Applying these methods will have four key areas of benefit:
- The Fellowship will enable the Turkish team to acquire a new range of skills and expertise
- The collaboration will enable the UK team to promote techniques developed in its research and engage with stakeholders in Turkey
- The team will create a new understanding the landscape archaeology of Bogsak and its region
- The team will promote new methods for cultural heritage management that will facilitate implementation of the European Landscape Convention in Turkey
Dr Engin Volkan, Istanbul Bilgi University
Dr Mehmet Pinar, Edge Hill University
Designing Composite Indices for Risk Factors and Risk Avoidance: International Capital Flows and World Income Inequality
AF140068 Two-Years £59,226.00
Neoclassical economic theory suggests that there should be more capital investment to poor countries compared to rich ones as their rate of return to investment and growth prospects are higher. However, in reality capital flows to poor countries are not only small in size but also predominantly allocated to those that grow less than others. Literature explains this puzzle either through fundamental differences or capital market imperfections, mainly from the host country’s point of view. Our project will contribute by studying the role of the host and the investing country in shaping capital flows and deriving composite indices for investing and host countries. These indices will identify factors that trigger the investing country’s risk aversion and provide guidance to the host country to attract higher capital flows. The indices will be constructed using Stochastic Dominance Efficiency analysis, a nonparametric approach, and will be used in regression analysis to explain the role of different indices in shaping patterns of capital investment, and to develop policy implications.
Dr Elif Alkay, Istanbul Technical University
Professor Craig Alexander Watkins, University of Sheffield
Construction, Economic Development, and Planning Policies: Investigating the Causal Links
AF140121 Two-Years £52,020.00
The construction sector seems to be increasing its importance in Turkey’s economy since 2004. The development rate of it in GNP was 4.9% in 2000 and this increased to 14.1% in 2004. Although periodical decreases have experienced, it has continued to increase and reached 18.3% in GNP in 2010. So far, these increases in figures are explained as a result of economic growth. In order to evaluate the role and function of construction in the process of economic growth, it is important to identify the nature and direction of the causal relationship between the two. This research aims to understand the inter-play between construction and the economy by employing a range of methods that are expected to provide key insights to policy makers regarding the potential for construction to support growth. Further, investigating the role of planning in this space will provide direction to planning policy. In drawing on the expertise of the top accredited planning school in the UK, the researcher will develop knowledge on theories and analysis methods that will be of individual and collective benefit.
Dr Ceyhun Elgin, Bogazici University
Dr Cem Oyvat, University of Greenwich
Wage-Led vs. Profit-Led Growth: A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis
AF140092 Two-Years £46,000.00
Whether economic growth is led by increases in wages or profits is an important and popular topic of research in economic policy. However, several country-based studies in the existing literature obtained contradictory findings. In this project we intend to make a comprehensive analysis and utilize a large panel data set of wages, profits and growth. We will construct large time-series data sets for a large number of countries and then investigate on a country-by-country basis whether growth is wage-led or profit-led. Then in the next step of the analysis, in a cross-sectional and panel data setting we will also look for various economic, social, cultural, institutional and political factors that affect growth being led by wages or profits.
Dr Fitnat Banu Demir Pakel, Bilkent University
Professor Beata Javorcik, University of Oxford
Using Processing Trade to Facilitate Innovation in Response to a Competitive Shock – exploring implications for Turkey’s economy.
AF140056 Two-Years £45,950.00
This project proposes to examine firm-level responses to increased competition in international markets in Turkey, an important and policy-relevant issue, as such responses have a direct impact on growth rates in their home economies. It will investigate whether/when increased competition induces firms to upgrade product quality and whether a better access to imported inputs affects their decision. Establishing a close collaboration with a leading academic institution in Turkey will facilitate transfer of knowledge to the partner country. The Economics Department at Bilkent runs a well-established and well-known graduate program with graduates placed in other Turkish universities or government institutions. Thus they use their knowledge either to train future economists or to design policies in various areas. Graduate students in the economics department at Bilkent will benefit from the transfer of knowledge and expertise of scholars through seminars and mini courses in international trade. Continued collaboration between the applicant and the Ministry of Customs and Trade on various policy issues and delivery of short courses on data analysis methods will benefit policy-makers in Turkey and contribute to the capacity building efforts at the Ministry.
Dr Gorkem Akgoz, Hacettepe University
Dr Nicola Pizzolato, Middlesex University
Back into the factory: writing theory and practice of the industrial workplace into 21st century history and social theory – exploring implications for labour market and educational policies.
AF140124 Two-Years £20,700.00
This research project aims to put the history of the factory as a site of production and of social relations of production back in the centre of historical and social inquiry in Turkey, a country where the debate on workers' living and working conditions have been stifled and which is characterised by a comparatively high number of work related accidents and deaths. The core case study of the project is a single Turkish textile factory, of which the applicant studies the managerial practices, dynamics of exploitation, workers resistance, both cultural and politically organised as well as the way ideology is embedded in practice. The fellowship would allow the applicant to broaden the study in a comparative way to disseminate her research on factory conditions, (in historical perspective but leading to the present) to a larger audience within Turkey to support the efforts of those who wish to put the question of the nature of factory work, including workers' rights, more at the centre of the public debate and of university education.
Dr Banu Kavakli Birdal, Istanbul Kemerburgaz University
Professor Dominic Abrams, University of Kent
Perception of and Attitude towards the Syrian Refugees in Turkey
AF140184 One-Year £36,980.00
This project aims to explore and analyze the determinants of the local population’s perceptions of and attitude towards the Syrian refugees in Turkey. Since April 2011 approximately one and a half million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey. Whereas only about one sixth of the Syrian population in Turkey is settled in the refugee camps established near the border, the majority are dispersed throughout the country. This influx led to a series of issues, and this project is concerned with how these issues are reflected in the attitudes of the local population towards the refugees. Incoming refugees triggered the already existing prejudice against Arabs among Turkey’s population. Employing a multi-method approach, this research aims to explore the dynamics of the prejudice and discrimination against Syrian refugees in Turkey; develop policy recommendations to be employed by local and central government agencies that will undermine prejudice and discrimination against Syrian refugees; and, promote international and interdisciplinary collaboration between Turkey and the UK.