Turkey’s construction, energy and transportation driven growth model is enabled by two seemingly unrelated realms of economic activity: labor and finance. The government has been sacrificing the already rudimentary labor protection and representation laws to foster fast-paced and ruthless economic activities of businesses. This has been accompanied by liberalization of financial services facilitating portfolio investment into Turkey, increasing the indebtedness of households and thereby seemingly compensating for dismal wage and employment trends.
Not a single day passes where the repercussions of ruthless business activity causes irreparable human and environmental losses. The mining “accidents” of the past few months are just precursors of what’s more to come, especially if/once the international monetary system transitions into a tight money regime. It is therefore of utmost importance to establish the connections between labor and finance, investigate the abovementioned dynamics in greater detail and outline potential responsive action strategies disrupting these trends.
Current project:
Debt and Financialization Research Network Turkey (Project under development)