LSE, London 5th Dec Dr. Gul Berna Ozcan talk

You are warmly invited to the public seminar organized by LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies on Monday, 5th December 2011, in which Dr. Gul Berna Ozcan, will give a talk on “Economic Liberalisation, Class Dynamics and New Business Groups in Turkey”. 

This event will take place from 6pm to 7:45pm at the room COW1.11, Canada Blanch Room, First Floor, Cowdray House, LSE. 

Gul Berna Ozcan is Reader in International Business and Entrepreneurship at the School of Management Royal Holloway, University of London. She earned her PhD in Economic Geography from LSE.  She has also been teaching for the Gurukul Global Leadership Programme at LSE (since 2005).  Dr. Ozcan is the author of several books and numerous articles on enterprise development in post-Soviet Central Asia, the political economy of Turkey, local economic development and small and medium-sized enterprises, capital formations, entrepreneurship, and morality and business. 

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Those who might be interested are all welcome. Please find below a short abstract of the talk and also attached a detailed advert of the event as a PDF document.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
With many thanks,
Umit Sonmez
Research Officer: Turkey and European Union
Contemporary Turkish Studies
European Institute
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street WC2A 2AE
London, United Kingdom
E-mail: u.sonmez@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 6067
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7546
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LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies Research SeminarMONDAY, 5 DECEMBER 2011
18.00-19:45

Venue: COW1.11, First Floor, Cowdray House, LSE

“Economic Liberalisation, Class Dynamics and New Business Groups in Turkey”

Speaker: Dr. Gul Berna Ozcan                        Chair: Professor Sevket Pamuk

The growth of new capitalist classes transformed social stratification, multi-party politics and the international political orientation of Turkey since the 1980s.  New business groups energized by Islam have facilitated much needed class mobility. In this process, there also emerged a confrontational split in middle class positions between Islamic versus secular political outlooks. These new middle classes are engaged in promoting Islam as a strategic resource in the class politics and seek protection from the negative effects of market capitalism. More dramatically, these groups redefined the allocation of markets and the distribution of assets while they expanded opportunities for their affiliated groups at home and in foreign markets.  However, the paradox between modernity and authenticity remains unresolved for Turkey’s old middle classes and the new pious elite alike.  Turkey’s changing domestic and international standing is moving towards multiple identity formations.  Although new Islamic leaning business groups have become the winners of the new regime, they have increasingly lost their cutting edge idealism and originality. They are being “normalized” as the new establishment.