Navigating precarity: the case of the publishing sector in Turkey

It is well documented that many hybrid regimes worldwide have witnessed an authoritarian turn in recent years. Incumbents in these regimes have sought to consolidate and extend their power through the use of legal institutions, as opposed to direct suppression. Using the rhetoric of liberal-democratic principles such as “the rule of law” and “free and fair elections,” leaders meanwhile have weakened the mechanisms of accountability and the independence of the judiciary. Meanwhile, despite the erosion of freedom of expression, life in many hybrid regimes is marked by an upsurge in civil society activism. Yet, almost no effort has been made to understand the puzzle of how a vibrant society can coexist with the suppressive power of government.
The thesis addresses this gap by studying the lived experience of the publishing sector in Turkey with reference to the threat of criminal prosecution. The thesis traces the evolution of post-Ottoman Turkey as a hybrid regime, describes the political legacy that the current regime inherited and re-shaped, and shows how repeated political turmoil has molded the publishing world. It follows by an examination of the contradictions apparent in contemporary Turkey: a dynamic industry that is producing a variety of publications yet operating with a widespread sense of fear lurking behind; and although there is a persistent anticipation of criminalisation of their work, it is not matched by the actual scale of criminal prosecutions.
Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including direct observation of political trials, study of a publishing house, and in-depth interviews with authors and publishers, the thesis contends that the legal and political environment of precarity generated by the state on the one hand, and the strategies authors and publishers adopt to navigate and push the permissible political boundaries, on the other, form the core of these disparities. The socio-psychological impact of arbitrary use of anti-terror and defamation laws that are often invoked but do not result in imprisonment and fear of a mere possibility of being subjected to criminal proceedings is examined.
The thesis then focuses on how different groups in the publishing sector experience precarity and navigate “red lines.” Because the industry is not uniform, the perceptions of various groups are scrutinised, ranging from one that is close to the regime ideologically or in other ways to another extreme that is in open defiance against the state’s suppression of freedom of expression. The final section of the thesis offers a typology of the impacts of precarity on the industry, ranging from acquiescence to resistance. Overall, this dissertation argues that generating precarity allows governments in hybrid regimes to create a silencing effect, even while making democratic claims. However, that contradiction itself creates a space for the expression of dissent, although it is controlled. Lived experiences in the publishing industry show that active, strategic, and defiant social actors mitigate the extent to which a hybrid regime can shape everyday life.

Keywords: lived experiences of precarity
bureaucratisation of violence
criminalisation of dissent
courts
hybrid regimes
autocratic legalism
silencing effect
activism
resistance
the publishing sector
intelligentsia
Advisor: Kurkchiyan, M