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Research

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My research is concerned broadly with the political economy of development in the global South. Specifically, I investigate how states and indigenous social forces produce, manage, and contest ‘development’ projects in the Middle East and North Africa. My earlier archival research on the historical sociology of capitalist development explored this puzzle by documenting how nation-state building projects were shaped not only by the expansion of the capitalist world market and ‘great power imperialism’, but also by the changing forms of domestic property and class relations in the fin de siècle Middle East.

Most recently, I completed a multi-year project on authoritarian neoliberalism in the Middle East, whereby I mapped out the ways in which economic liberalisation policies in Turkey and Egypt have strengthened authoritarian rule. I documented that the two states have increasingly relied on ‘executive centralisation’, and on coercive state apparatuses to marginalise popular mobilisations and socio-economic grievances produced by liberalisation policies.

My current focus is on investigating the subaltern politics of energy transitions and infrastructure development in the Middle East and North Africa, and mapping out the ways in which state-led climate ‘adaptation’ strategies are resisted by grassroots actors.

Books

2019Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Philosophies, Practices, Contestations (eds. with Ian Bruff). Routledge.
2017States of Discipline: Authoritarian Neoliberalism and the Contested Reproduction of Capitalist Order (ed.). Rowman & Littlefield International.

Research Articles

2024‘Reproducing Socio-ecological Life from Below: Towards a Planetary Political Economy of the Global Majority.’ Review of International Studies. With Lisa Tilley.
2021‘Colonial Lives of the Carceral Archipelago: Rethinking the Neoliberal Security State.’ International Political Sociology 15(3): 415–439. With Sabrina Axster, Ida Danewid, Asher Goldstein, Matt Mahmoudi, and Lauren Wilcox.
2020‘The Shape of “Rising Powers” to Come? The Antinomies of Growth and Neoliberal Development in Turkey.’ New Political Economy 25(5): 791–812.
2019‘Neoliberalism and the Antagonisms of Authoritarian Resilience in the Middle East.’ South Atlantic Quarterly 118(2): 287–305.
2019‘Reproducing Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Turkey: Urban Governance and State Restructuring in the Shadow of Executive Centralization.’ Globalizations 16(3): 320–35.
2018‘Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Democratic Backsliding in Turkey: Beyond the Narratives of Progress.’ South European Society and Politics 23(2): 197–217.
2016‘Geopolitics, Social Forces and the International: Revisiting the “Eastern Question”.’ Review of International Studies 42(3): 492–512.
2016‘The Enduring Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital.’ Journal of International Relations and Development 19(3): 420–47. With Andreas Bieler, Sümercan Bozkurt, Max Crook, Peter Cruttenden, Ertan Erol, Adam David Morton, and Elif Uzgören.
2015‘Deafening Silence? Marxism, International Historical Sociology and the Spectre of Eurocentrism.’ European Journal of International Relations 21(1): 76–100.

Special Issues & Symposia

2021A Necessarily Historical Materialist Moment? Forum on Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis (ed.), International Relations 35(1).
2019Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Philosophies, Practices, Contestations (eds. with Ian Bruff), Globalizations 16(3).
2018Decoding the Repertoires of Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Turkey (ed.), South European Society and Politics 23(2).
2018Revolution and Counter-revolution in Egypt: Debating Gramsci on Tahrir (ed.), Review of African Political Economy 45(155).

Review Articles & Symposium Contributions

2021‘Historical Materialism and International Studies: Theorising the Politics of Struggle in the Everyday World.’ International Relations 35(1): 147–52.
2019‘Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Trajectories of Knowledge Production and Praxis.’ Globalizations 16(3): 233–44. With Ian Bruff.
2018‘Passive Revolutions and the Dynamics of Social Change in the Peripheries.’ Review of African Political Economy 45(155): 115–24.
2018‘Revolution and Counter-revolution in Egypt.’ Review of African Political Economy 45(155): 85–90. With Brecht De Smet.
2015‘The Politics of Contemporary Capitalism in Turkey (and the Politics of its Interlocutors).’ Development and Change 46(3): 570–84.
2013‘Breaking the Eurocentric Cage.’ Capital & Class 37(2): 299–307.

Book Chapters

2018‘Ties That Bind: Popular Uprisings and the Politics of Neoliberalism in the Middle East.’ In Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East: Political Encounters after the Arab Spring, H. Işıksal & O. Göksel (eds.). Springer, 65–79.
2017‘Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Towards a New Research Agenda.’ In States of Discipline: Authoritarian Neoliberalism and the Contested Reproduction of Capitalist Order, C. B. Tansel (ed.). Rowman & Littlefield International, 1–28.
2017‘Batımerkezcilik Tartışmaları Işığında Marksizm ve Uluslararası Tarihsel Sosyoloji.’ In Tarihsel Materyalizm ve Uluslararası İlişkiler: Temel Tartışmalar ve Kavramlar, F. Yalvaç (ed.). İmge, 309–331.

Essays & Commentary

2021‘Theorising “the International” with Historical Materialism.’ Progress in Political Economy (1 April).
2019‘National neoliberalism in Turkey.’ Dissent 66(3): 48–56.
2018‘Decoding the repertoires of authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey.’ Progress in Political Economy (24 July).
2016‘Blair’s defence of the Iraq War shows that the Middle East is still grossly misunderstood.’ Progress in Political Economy (27 July).
2016‘Reflections on Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry.’ Progress in Political Economy (4 April).
2016‘Immigration, refugees and the politics of crisis: A response to Wolfgang Streeck.’ SPERI (10 October). With Joe Turner.
2015‘Anger over Ankara response is a product of Turkish government’s past record.’ The Conversation (14 October).
2014‘For a Marxist critique of Eurocentrism, or refusing to throw the baby out with the bath water.’ Progress in Political Economy (16 November).
2014‘Defining the terrain of struggle in Taksim.’ Jadaliyya (19 June).
2014‘Reports of Turkey’s authoritarianism are not greatly exaggerated.’ openDemocracy (27 March).
2013‘The Gezi Park occupation: confronting authoritarian neoliberalism.’ openDemocracy (2 June).

Policy Reports

2023The UK’s Response to the SDGs in 2023. Bond International. With Kipp Mann Benn, John Davies, Neil Gumbs, Gabrielle Joyce, Graham Long, and Ayush Poolovadoo.