Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/115676

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Open Access
Multimodal prediction of psychotic-like experiences using Elastic Net modeling: external validation in a clinical sample
(2026-01) Arslan, Seda
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) represent subtle expressions of vulnerability within the psychosis continuum. Although many studies suggest that these experiences arise from multimodal factors, research comprehensively examining these factors together remains scarce. This thesis examines how different aspects of a environmental exposures, cognitive schemas, and brain structure jointly associate with PLEs in young population. It also explores model’s ability to explain psychosis in a clinical group. After applying variable selection including generalized estimating equations, correlation filtering, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator model to 741 variables (i.e., environmental factors, cognitive appraisals, clinical variables, cognitive functioning, and structural brain connectome measures), obtained PLEs predictors (N=27) and covariates (i.e., age, sex, IQ) were included in the classification model based on Elastic Net algorithm for predicting high/low PLEs in 396 healthy participants aged 14-24 (Mage=19.72±2.5). We externally validated PLE-related predictors in a clinical sample comprising first-episode psychosis patients (n=19), their siblings (n=20), and healthy controls (n=19). Important predictors of PLEs included environmental and cognitive appraisals, along with sixteen structural network properties spanning frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal regions. The model showed moderate accuracy in predicting low versus high PLEs (accuracy = 75%, AUC = 0.750) and demonstrated high specificity (84.2%) in distinguishing siblings from patients. These findings suggest that environmental burden, cognitive schemas, and brain network alterations predict PLEs and partially generalize to clinical psychosis. These variables may reflect intermediate phenotypes across the psychosis spectrum, offering insights into both vulnerability and resilience. This work forms a central empirical chapter of the present dissertation.
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Ottoman governance and justice in the pre-modern era: “ehl-i örf” and “isnad”
(2025-12) Babacan, Ülkü Zeynep
This dissertation examines the mechanisms of justice in the provincial administration of the Ottoman Empire during the pre-modern period, particularly from the late 16th to the 18th century. It focuses on the relationship between state officials known as the ehli örf and the tax-paying population, the reʿâya, under changing fiscal conditions. At the center of the study are cases of false accusations (isnad and töhmet) directed by the ehli örf against the reʿâya as a means of compensating for their declining revenues. During this period, shaped by the dissolution of the timar system, inflation, and population growth, provincial administrators who held both fiscal and administrative powers began to use these powers as a means to generate supplementary income. Through an analysis of archival sources, the dissertation investigates how these officials resorted to practices such as fabricating charges or making accusations that were difficult to disprove, thereby legitimizing additional monetary demands. The main argument of the dissertation is that the practices of isnad and töhmet, frequently described in documents with the term zulm (oppression or injustice), represent not merely moral corruption but also a structural response to the economic pressures of the period. Due to inflation and the depreciation of currency, the real incomes of state officials such as the subaşı (local military official) and muhtesib (market inspector) declined. When the tax revenues they received in return for their services became inadequate, they increasingly turned to fine revenues (cerime) to make up for the decline. In this context, the fabrication of crimes or directing allegations difficult to disprove became a practical tool for legitimizing additional demands. In response to complaints from the reʿâya, the Ottoman state developed various mechanisms to restore justice and establish financial stability in provincial governance. Initially, the state prohibited these practices as unlawful innovations (bidʿat). When this proved insufficient, the state sought to curb arbitrariness in taxation by promoting the maktuʿ system, in which tax amounts were fixed through negotiation with local communities. Ultimately, the state institutionalized imdadiyye levies, providing provincial officials with a regular and predictable source of income while simultaneously preventing arbitrary exactions from the reʿâya. Within this framework, this dissertation interprets the 17th and 18th centuries as a period of flexible, negotiated adaptation, in which the Ottoman state sought to reconcile its ideal of maintaining the "circle of justice" (daire-i adalet) with the practical fiscal necessities of a changing economic order.
Open Access
Modern state and the elite–mass dilemma: Halide Edib Adıvar and Ali Fuad Başgil in the intellectual history of Turkish modernization
(2025-12) Kalkan, Onur
Turkish political history has been marked by recurring authoritarianisms that this thesis traces to an unresolved tension of modernization: the simultaneity of constructing the people as modern political subject and the centralized state as a form of modern power. Conceptualizing this tension as a dilemma between elite/state-led modernization and the rule of the masses—two poles understood not as fixed camps but as competing claims on modernization—the thesis examines the political thought and positionalities of Halide Edib Adıvar (1884–1964) and Ali Fuad Başgil (1893–1967). It asks whether their politically contentious and hybrid combinations of Western and local vocabularies constitute a genuine critique of, or alternative within, this dilemma. The analysis proceeds through two key issues central to both Turkish modernization and the figures’ interventions: secularism/religion and civil rights. The findings reveal that while both figures articulated significant opposition to the implementation of Turkish modernization and to its political actors, they largely remained within the power/knowledge configurations of the dilemma, falling short of articulating systematic alternatives. Furthermore, this thesis interprets Edib and Başgil as precursors of two modes of modern conservatism, namely Edib's cultural-traditionalist and Başgil's statist-moralist orientations, demonstrating that modern conservatism in Turkey emerged entangled with Western liberal-conservative vocabularies rather than as a purely local reaction. By doing so, the thesis contributes to Turkish historiography by demonstrating that transitions between political and ideological contexts reconfigure rather than resolve the dilemma, transforming the terms of contestation without eliminating the underlying tension.
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The influence of social elements on wayfinding performance and spatial learning through visual attention in a virtual environment
(2026-01) Orlu Özen, Gökçe
This dissertation investigates the how the social elements in the environment affect wayfinding and spatial learning outcomes by shaping visual attention during navigation. Grounded in the concept of social wayfinding, the study adopts a mixedmethods approach including a real-world pilot study and a controlled immersive virtual reality (iVR) experiment with integrated eye-tracking. Social presence is systematically manipulated in a large-scale airport terminal setting. Visual attention to social and non-social elements is measured using fixation proportions, and linked to wayfinding performance (task duration, travel distance, and error count) as well as spatial learning outcomes (landmark placement and pointing accuracy). The results demonstrate that social elements function as critical visual stimuli that attract attention during navigation. Increased visual attention to social elements is associated with reduced wayfinding efficiency and weaker spatial learning outcomes, indicating that social presence can introduce perceptual competition and increase attentional demand. Mediation analyses further reveal that visual attention plays a critical role in explaining the relationship between social presence and navigational outcomes. By empirically linking social presence, attention allocation, and spatial learning, this study advances current understanding of wayfinding as a dynamic process shaped by the interaction of environmental, social, and cognitive factors. It demonstrates the methodological value of combining immersive VR and eyetracking to study navigation in socially complex environments. The findings have implications for wayfinding design, emphasizing the need to manage attentional demands in socially dynamic public interiors to support effective navigation and spatial learning.
Open Access
Who is misogyny for?
(2026-01) Umul, Ayşe Seda
The recent resurgence of reactionary politics and right-wing authoritarianism, with its anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQIA+ policies, highlighted the urgency for understanding and resisting the oppression queer people and women face. Misogyny is one of the key mechanisms of patriarchy, in which this oppression is maintained. Kate Manne (2018) offered a unified, intersectional, and ameliorative feminist account in her seminal work Down Girl, which defines misogyny “as the ‘law enforcement’ branch of a patriarchal order, which has the overall function of policing and enforcing its governing ideology” (Manne, 2018, p. 63). The primary objective of this thesis is to analyse whether Manne’s framework for misogyny can live up to its goals of being unified and intersectional and whether it can accommodate the hostilities queer individuals face in navigating their social lives. By extension, if this account fails to accommodate queer experiences, what alternative framework can do the work? By drawing on insights from intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991; Collins, 2019; May, 2015), Nora Berenstain’s (2019, 2023) criticisms, and misandrogyny (Watson, 2020; Engelhardt, 2023), I argue that not only is Manne’s account fails in being intersectional and unified but also no existing framework can give a unified account of queer oppression. Ultimately, I suggest that it is necessary to develop a framework which can name and track the phenomenon that both actual and perceived queer people face daily.
Open Access
Rural anchors of Circassian diaspora: identity in the Circassian villages of Sinop
(2025-12) Balcı, Defne Irmak
This thesis investigates how rural diasporic identities are formed, maintained, and transformed among the Circassian communities in Sinop Province, focusing on their daily practices, family narratives, visual materials, and village-level dynamics. In addition, it also aims to demonstrate the transition from a traditional diasporic identity to a modern nationalistic one in rural spaces, mainly through visual manifestations. Built on the existing literature in diaspora studies, this thesis proposes a broad working definition of diaspora as a concept that encompasses three main analytical dimensions: varying levels of organization, orientation towards the homeland, and practices of belonging and difference. Thus, the thesis employs a qualitative research method, in which ten villages in Sinop Province were visited, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with multiple individuals of Circassian descent. The data derived from the interviews, combined with the participant observations in the field, are analyzed through thematic analysis based on the working definition of diaspora. Consequently, the villages cannot be generalized as a whole, as less organized villages in terms of formal institutions show more practice-based, traditional roots for the rural diasporic identity, whereas villages with mid- to high levels of formal organizational ties show a transition towards a modern diasporic identity. The overall findings suggest that the Circassian communities in Sinop Province are not passive transmitters of traditions and habits; rather, they are an active group in which a traditional, practice-based Circassian identity is gradually and partially emerging as a modern, ideological, and nationalist diasporic one.
Open Access
Sıkılmanın poetikası: modern Türk şiirinde kadın öznenin can sıkıntısının mekânsal öğeler aracılığıyla incelenmesi (1956–2010)
(2025-12) Akça, Pembe Berfin
Bu tez, modern Türk şiirindeki kadın öznenin konumunu irdelemek adına, "can sıkıntısı" kavramına odaklanan feminist-fenomenolojik bir okuma önermektedir. Çalışma, can sıkıntısını salt bir kayıtsızlık veya oyalanma pratiği olarak ele alan indirgemeci yaklaşımları aşarak; bu olguyu mekânsal olarak köklenen, psikolojik olarak inşa edilen ve dilsel düzlemde icra edilen derinlikli bir varoluşsal durum olarak yeniden kavramsallaştırır. Araştırmanın kuramsal çatısı; Gaston Bachelard’ın topoanalizi, Julia Kristeva’nın abject (iğrenç) ve kara güneş kavramları ile Hélène Cixous’nun écriture féminine (dişil yazı) teorisinin disiplinler arası senteziyle oluşturulmuştur. Kurulan bu model, Gülten Akın ve Birhan Keskin şiirlerinin karşılaştırmalı analizi üzerinden somutlaştırılır. İnceleme, toplumsal cinsiyetle örülü can sıkıntısının tezahür ettiği geniş spektrumu gözler önüne serer. Gülten Akın’ın erken dönem eserlerinde can sıkıntısı, ev içi mekânın sığınak vasfını yitirerek kara güneşin ağırlığı altında psişik bir mezara dönüştüğü melankolik bir içe kapanış olarak belirir. Buna mukabil Birhan Keskin şiirinde can sıkıntısı; benliğe ve toplumun sınırlarına yönelen abject bir başkaldırıya, bozucu mekânsal imgeler ve parçalanmış bir dil aracılığıyla dışa vurulan bedensel bir isyana evrilir. Sonuç olarak tez, kadın can sıkıntısının şiirsel ifadesinin, toplumsal ve varoluşsal bağlamda radikal bir eleştiri biçimi olduğunu savunur. Gülten Akın’ın içe dönük melankolisi ile Birhan Keskin’in dışa dönük ve isyankâr abjectliği arasındaki gerilimi inceleyen çalışma, kadın öznenin nüanslı deneyimlerini görünür kılar. Böylelikle; mekân, psişe ve dil arasındaki ilişkinin, cinsiyetlendirilmiş deneyimin oluşumundaki kurucu rolünü çözümlemek için bütünleşik bir kuramsal yaklaşımın elzem olduğunu ortaya koyar.
Open Access
Personal religion during the reigns of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I: testamentary evidence for the restoration of Protestantism
(2025-12) Çelik, Oğulcan
This dissertation focuses on the investigation of religious expressions and personal piety of testators through 1624 wills from the counties of Kent and Gloucestershire during the reigns of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. The sample utilised in this dissertation is collected from The National Archives, Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills in series PROB 11. Drawing upon the collected primary sources, wills, this dissertation aims to categorise the wills under Protestant, Traditional (Catholic), Ambiguous, and a recently established category by myself, Crypto-Protestant and Catholic, to provide an insight into the changing personal piety and attitudes of laymen towards the policies of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. Previous historians predominantly focused on the committal of the wills, specifically where a testator bequeths his or her soul to the entitiy, to identify possible expression of personal piety to understand the possible religious affiliations of the testators from their secret voices reflected in wills. This research expands the interpretation of possible religious expressions and provides a new and unstudied analytical lens to the field by investigating and testing a variety of elements in wills, such as the entity to which the testator entrusted his or her soul to, reference to the title Supreme Head of the Church of England, Preambles, Verbs and Nouns utilised in the comittal part, presence and omission of the title Defender of the Faith and presence and omission of Acknowledgement of Monarchs. The study of these elements demonstrates changing use of religious and legal vernacular through lexical preferences of testators across regions and monarchs. This study not only tests these new elements for possible religious expressions and the identification of personal piety but also proposes a new interpretation for understanding the secret voice of testators. This dissertation also contributes to the overall debate on the validity and reliability of wills as religious sources for religious identity in Early Modern England.
Open Access
The impact of Dionysos from paganism to Christianity (4th–7th c. CE): a confrontation of written sources with material culture
(2025-12) Şekercioğlu, Emir
This thesis aims to explain the prevalence of Dionysiac representations, which continued significantly in the context of Late Antiquity. The method applied for the research is, in its most general sense, the comparison between written sources and material culture, and in its most specific form, the comparison of both written sources and material culture within themselves. While the works such as Exhortation to the Greeks by Clement of Alexandria and the Dionysiaca by Nonnus of Panopolis are the main written sources referenced in the thesis, selected examples from material culture were determined from different archaeological sites belonging to the Eastern Mediterranean cultural geography. As a result of the research, two main reasons were revealed for the prevalence of Dionysiac representations in Late Antiquity. The first is “religious syncretism”, and the second is “conviviality”. This is the conclusion reached when the iconographic representation of the selected materials and their archaeological contexts are examined together with the historical period they belong to and the written sources they are contemporary with. Thus, the thesis attempts to shed light on a different and not-so-explored issue about the cult of Dionysus in Late Antiquity and its projection on material culture.
Open Access
The ontology of folk songs
(2026-01) Karali, Zeynep İlkim
Folk songs can have various lives across continents for centuries without a score, known authorship, a canonical recording, or even a definitive version. This raises questions about what exactly constitutes a work of folk music. The aim of this thesis is to investigate what kind of entities folk songs are. The two main topics on the ontology of musical works are the basic nature of musical works (what kind of entities they are, how they are individuated, and what kind of a relation they have to their performances), and how the ontological status of works may vary across musical traditions. In §1 of this thesis, I introduce special features of folk songs. In §2, I introduce methodological debates on the ontology of musical works, then I propose the term anchoring to refer to the way a work's identity conditions are specified, and argue that the anchor of a folk song is its genealogy. In section §3, I introduce views about the basic nature of musical works, such as simple and complex Platonism, nominalism, and other views, and discuss the ontological diversity of works in different traditions. In §4, I rule out simple Platonism as a feasible ontological framework, because treating folk songs as eternal and immutable entities ignores their special features and how they are anchored. Finally, in §5 I introduce an alternative that is suitable, Roman Ingarden’s ontological framework for artworks.
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Digital borders: a critical discourse analysis of Turkish Twitter/X discourse around immigrants (2023–2025)
(2025-12) Buldu, Batuhan
This research explores prevailing frames on Twitter/X discussions pertaining to immigration and immigrants, with a focus on Syrian migrants in Türkiye from 2023 to 2025, and analyzes the evolution of these frames over time. For this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods (a combination of critical discourse analysis and basic computational tools such as topic modelling and sentiment profiling) were utilized. It employed a structured data collection technique, using a multi-phase eligibility funnel and a stratified purposeful sampling strategy. Analysis was based on a topic modelling of 193,813 unique tweets, generating 61 high-coherence topic clusters (with values ranging from 0.56 to 0.71) and five dominant discourse frames. Findings revealed that Turkish Twitter/X discourse was dominated by invasion, expulsion, economic burden, security, and crime threat narratives, as well as political actors’ instrumentalization of immigration as a scapegoating tool. Other but less frequent frames were calls for voluntary return, cross-cultural comparisons, religious empathy, cohesion, comedy or sarcasm, and other mixed issues. Furthermore, findings revealed that narratives about immigration evolved in tone and emphasis, peaking in hostility during the 2023 elections, declining in negativity in 2024, and developing into a more policy-focused and normalized yet still predominantly negative discourse in 2025. This research has practical implications for several stakeholders of political communication, including journalists and media communicators, educators, policymakers, and social media platforms. It also has humanitarian implications for discussing prejudice and discrimination, and for promoting a more fact-based, empathetic community in which social cohesion issues can be discussed constructively.
Open Access
On the possibility of ex-ante constrained maximization
(2026-01) Eroğlu, Çağın Tan
The problem of collective action has intuitive solutions that do not thoroughly capture the individual moral motivation of cooperating towards long-term collective goals. David Gauthier’s theory of constrained maximization presents a plausible moral account that can be incorporated into this debate. To bridge this gap, I propose ex ante constrained maximization as a rational strategy for acting first towards the production of public goods, where the necessary conditions are satisfied by the absence of a centralized resource allocation scheme. I further present ex post constrained maximization as a rational strategy and a normative contractarian obligation to sustain long-term and larger-scale cooperative outcomes.
Open Access
The Ottoman military, socio-economic and administrative order in the Lower Danube (from the mid-15th to the end of the 16th century): the cases of Vidin and Niğbolu
(2025-12) Akto, Deniz Armağan
This study examines changes in the military, socio-economic, and administrative structures of the Niğbolu and Vidin sancaks (districts) in the Lower Danube region of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th to the end of the 16th century. It argues that transformations observed in these structures in Vidin and Niğbolu sancaks from the mid-fifteenth to end of the sixteenth century reflected the fiscal-military adaptations of the Ottoman state to the changing frontier dynamics and financial pressures. While earlier studies have examined Vidin and Niğbolu sancaks primarily through the frameworks of institutional continuities and changes, this thesis offers a novel approach by exploring the evolving structures from a fiscal and frontier-focused perspective. It further argues that the Ottomans established their authority in the frontier regions through their socio-economic, military, and legal institutions. It analyzes whether the influence of the “uc beys” continued from the mid-fifteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century, by examining the changing profile of the sancakbeys (governors). Moreover, it illuminates the shift in the status of the Niğbolu and Vidin sancaks in the frontiers from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century by emphasizing the evolving payment methods of the garrison forces, which changed the status of Niğbolu sancak into an interior region, and Vidin into semi-frontier. Finally, it discusses the emergence and expansion of havass-ı hümayun revenues, as well as changes in the tahrir-timar system and tax collection methods in the sancaks of Vidin and Niğbolu, demonstrating how these systems evolved in response to financial and military shifts.
Open Access
When diplomats meet: the diplomatic corps, sociability, and China
(2025-12) Schnitzer-Skjønsberg, Astrid
This dissertation is about the sociable aspect of diplomacy. It explores the internal dynamics of the diplomatic corps in bilateral settings. It does so by looking at three inter-related questions: how diplomats socialize with each other; whether being sociable matters; and how Chinese diplomats engage with their counterparts from other countries. Anchored in practice theory, the study takes a comparative case study approach and draws on fieldwork in Ankara and Oslo from 2022 to 2024. Findings challenge stereotypes of Chinese diplomacy as uniformly assertive or reserved, highlighting variations shaped by political, economic, and cultural contexts of host countries. A multi-method approach, integrating elite interviews and observations, navigates methodological barriers and enriches understanding of China’s diplomatic practices abroad. Interviewing diverse non-Chinese elite actors proved valuable in reconstructing otherwise inaccessible practices of Chinese diplomats. Overall, the dissertation shows the value of exploring the backstage of diplomacy and underlines the potential of studying bilateral diplomacy as a barometer for broader geopolitical dynamics.
Open Access
Abstract and concrete as cluster concepts
(2026-01) Tarım, Yiğit Aras
The traditional abstract–concrete distinction treats the categories as mutually exclusive, exhaustive, and absolute. Along these lines, reductionists argue that abstractness (or concreteness) can be defined in terms of a single property. While adequate for paradigmatic entities, this view fails to accommodate non-paradigmatic entities, such as impure sets, immanent universals, and musical works, that seem to instantiate incompatible properties. Eliminativist responses avoid this tension by denying the existence or essential characteristics of these entities. Instead, I propose the Property Spectrum View (PSV), which treats the abstract and the concrete categories as cluster concepts and regards abstractness (or concreteness) as a derivative property. According to this approach, entities may be abstract or concrete to varying degrees, depending on the properties they instantiate. Therefore, PSV shifts methodological priority from category membership to property instantiation and accounts for non-paradigmatic cases, which is illustrated through an examination of musical works.
Open Access
Exploring multisensory biophilic design as a salutogenic intervention to enhance mood of older adults with dementia
(2025-12) Yasin, Sameen
This thesis investigates the impact of biophilic design, using nature-based interventions such as indoor plants, daylight, ambient nature sounds, and nature’s imagery, as a salutogenic approach on the mood of older adults with dementia in daycare settings. The study took place in the activity room of Alzheimer’s Pakistan’s daycare center in Lahore, Pakistan. The study used a mixed-methods design with ten experimental conditions combining environmental conditions (indoor plants, daylight, ambient nature sounds and nature’s imagery) and task performance (regular vs. nature-based activities). The Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Scale (AD-RD) was used to gather baseline mood profiles, followed by the Smiley Faces Mood Assessment Scale (SFAS) administered to gather pre-post activity mood outcomes of participants with dementia (n = 9), in each experimental condition. Although quantitative differences were not statistically significant, conditions that included natural elements and nature-based activity showed more positive mood trends than baseline settings. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff and caregivers indicating that individual differences, sensory and cognitive decline, and uncontrolled environmental factors influenced participants’ mood. The study suggests that low-cost, nature-based, biophilic interventions can be integrated into dementia daycare environments to support the mood and well-being of older adults with dementia.
Open Access
Varieties of economic nationalism in Europe: the cases of Alternative für Deutschland and Rassemblement National
(2025-12) İmamoğlu, Ali Volkan
Economic nationalism is becoming more prevalent in European politics, as far-right parties, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of Germany and Rassemblement National (RN) of France, are on the rise and embracing economic nationalist ideologies. By examining the economic policy agendas of European far-right parties, this dissertation contributes to the study of International Political Economy and European politics by clarifying the conceptual boundaries of economic nationalism. Economic nationalism has appeared as a central component of far-right agendas, but it manifests in different forms across countries. The puzzle is especially salient and important for two of Europe’s core economies, Germany and France, where AfD and the RN have emerged as influential far-right actors. AfD and RN have different ideas about defending and advancing their national economic interests. This variation raises an important question: what are the differences between the economic nationalist ideologies of the parties that share similar political and institutional characteristics? To clarify the differences in the economic nationalist ideologies of AfD and RN, this dissertation offers a novel, comprehensive framework that identifies ii the main elements and subsets of economic nationalism: protectionism, financial nationalism, disengagement from international economic cooperation, national industrial policy, protection of domestic workers, and resistance to foreign direct investment. The dissertation employs a comparative case study design combined with qualitative textual analysis of party programmes, election manifestos, and public statements from 2012 onward. The framework enables systematic comparison of the two parties’ economic agendas and allows their ideological evolutions to be traced across the Eurozone and migration crises, both of which reshaped their political positioning. Through an analysis of the agendas of these two parties, this dissertation demonstrates that economic nationalism is not a uniform concept, and RN exhibits a much stronger form of economic nationalism than AfD.
Open Access
Civil society and transitional justice: an actor-based explanation of transitional justice outcomes in Peru, Chile and Tunisia
(2025-12) Akın, Aslıhan
Transitional justice is a process that accounts for past human rights abuses through reparatory and retributive measures during political transitions. Achieving a successful transitional justice outcome is important because it makes conflict recurrence and the repetition of gross human rights abuses less likely. Although transitional justice is widely practiced with similar mechanisms around the world, these processes often produce different results. To explain this variation, it may be necessary to analyze the role of actors instead of the mechanisms used. In this research, I argue that domestic civil society is an essential actor of transitional justice for limiting state dominance and achieving success. Through mechanisms of representation, formal and informal legitimacy, and transnational networks, domestic civil society can influence the transitional justice process in a positive direction. Active civil society participation in transitional justice and civil society cohesiveness can make success more likely. Through a comparative case study of transitional justice processes in Peru, Chile and Tunisia, I have found that civil society participation and civil society cohesiveness make the process more comprehensive, inclusive and consistent, and its accomplishments more enduring.
Open Access
Exploring the influence of the physical environment on mindfulness practices in secular retreat context
(2025-12) Yurttaş, Damla
The benefits of mindfulness on the well-being of people have now been established across disciplinary fields. Likewise, the physical environment’s capacity to restore attention and reduce stress has also been evidenced through research. Nature-based mindfulness interventions have started to investigate the inner-outer relationship of the person. However, the synergy between mindfulness practices and the physical environment in general has received much less attention. This study took the ‘retreat experience’ as a focus of study setting and explored how mindfulness practitioners and teachers perceive the impact of the physical environment- natural and built- upon their formal and informal mindfulness practices. In this study, in addition to the meditation hall where formal meditation took place, the natural, open outdoor space, the dining hall, and the accommodation areas were also investigated. The justification for this study was that retreat experiences, where the primary intention for both the instructor and the retreatants is to cultivate mindfulness moment by moment, were impacted by the physical context. Each moment, together with the spatial setting that accompanies it, lays the groundwork for the next, collectively forming a coherent and continuous narrative. Study I was conducted in two retreat settings through participant observation by the researcher, a pilot questionnaire administered to 16 retreatants, and interviews with the mindfulness instructor and the center operators. The results provided us with insights into the nature of the relationship between the inner and outer worlds, pointing to the significance of multisensory experiences, spatial interrelations, and the dynamic relationship between formal and informal practices. Afterwards, Study II was conducted across a broader range of retreat centers, both local and international, involving a larger number of participants. In total, data were collected from 53 retreatants, 4 mindfulness instructors, and 2 center operators through online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation methods. The results further reinforced the findings of Study I, highlighting how multisensory and spatial elements within retreat environments significantly shape and enhance or hinder mindfulness experiences.
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Adapting the semantic discontinuity detection method to interior design processes: an approach to improve user involvement and designer–user communication
(2025-11) Gümüşay Özbek, Büşra
In contemporary design processes, a primary goal is to create a coherent alignment between users’ expectations and the design solutions proposed by professionals. Despite designers’ best efforts to address user needs, communication gaps often occur, resulting in inconsistencies between the experiences designers intend to create and the perceptions users ultimately form. To tackle this ongoing challenge, this study introduces a communication-driven methodological framework that enhances user participation and systematically integrates user feedback into the design process. The proposed method builds upon the Semantic Discontinuity Detection (SDD) framework and combines both qualitative and quantitative user evaluations to identify, interpret, and resolve mismatches between design intent and user experience. The framework operates iteratively, allowing designers to incorporate user assessments at successive design stages and revise proposals based on identified “semantic discontinuities”, the differences between what designers express and what users perceive. Additionally, the method utilizes virtual reality (VR) simulations as a communicative and diagnostic tool, facilitating immersive user participation and providing more accurate feedback on spatial impressions. Through iterative refinement, discontinuity maps are generated and communicated back to designers, guiding them toward improved alignment between conceptual objectives and experiential outcomes. The findings indicate that a communication-centered approach not only reduces experience-related inconsistencies but also strengthens user engagement and fosters more meaningful design dialogues. As a result, this study demonstrates that integrating structured user feedback loops and VR-based evaluation tools into the design process leads to more responsive, user-aligned, and experientially coherent interior design outcomes.