From social policy to labour economics and industrial relations in Turkey: a critical history of an academic discipline

Abstract

ABSTRACT Departments of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations in Turkey have their roots in social policy education in the Turkish university system dating back to a pre-republican (1923) period. The social policy discipline, which was influenced by the German and in part by the French approaches during its establishment, has over time been exposed to intense Americanization efforts, which led to the creation of departments of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations. The paper analyses this transformation in two dimensions. The first dimension is related to the historical development of the institutionalization process. The second is that under whose influence was this institutionalization process shaped? It argues that Labour Economics and Industrial Relations as an academic discipline has come to be represented by two different traditions involving four generations of academics.