Transformation of the professions: Doctors and lawyers (2022, Turkish)
Medicine and law have always been prestigious professions in Türkiye. Both have corresponded to high social standing in terms of income, status, and authority. Yet over the past two decades, the social conditions surrounding these professions, both from outside and within, have been changing. New generations entering the professions no longer encounter the social benefits promised by their established images. This study offers a sociological perspective on the transformation of the professions. It traverses the layers of contemporary change—from the faculty process to skill development, from internal hierarchies to the proletarianization of labour regimes. It sheds light on how professional inequalities are shaped at the intersection of demographic and economic dynamics with structures specific to the professions. In addition to in-depth interviews with practitioners of both fields, Koytak draws on quantitative data and develops a series of concepts throughout the analysis: the professional tunnel, professional knot, the asymmetric and permeable structures of the professions, professional pressure, professional dissolution, and professional state of mind. A foundational contribution to the emerging field of the sociology of professions in Türkiye.
Hekimlik ve avukatlık Türkiye’de her zaman gözde meslekler oldu. İki meslek de gelir, statü ve otorite anlamında yüksek bir toplumsal konuma tekabül etti. Ancak son yirmi yılda iki mesleği dışarıdan ve içeriden saran toplumsal şartlar dönüşüyor, mesleğe yeni giren kuşaklar mesleğin yerleşik imajının vadettiği toplumsal nimetleri bulamıyor. Bu çalışma, mesleklerin dönüşümüne sosyolojik bir bakış sunuyor. Fakülte sürecinden beceri gelişimine, meslek içi hiyerarşilerden emek rejiminin ücretlileşmesine güncel dönüşümün katmanlarını dolaşıyor. Demografik ve ekonomik dinamiklerle mesleklere özgü yapıların kesiştiği yerde meslek içi eşitsizliklerin nasıl şekillendiğine ışık tutuyor. İki meslekten katılımcılarla yapılan derinlemesine mülakatların yanı sıra nicel verileri kullanan Koytak, analiz boyunca meslek olgusuna dair bir dizi kavram geliştiriyor: Meslek tüneli, meslek düğümü, mesleğin asimetrik ve geçirgen yapıları, meslek basıncı, meslek çözülmesi ve mesleki halet-i ruhiye. Türkiye’de yeni gelişen bir alan olan meslek sosyolojisi adına kurucu bir eser.
The outlook of society 2022: Post-pandemic society (2023, English)
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has been the overwhelming agenda of the world from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2022, is gradually wiped off the face of the earth. While concepts such as lockdown, isolation, mask, distance, contact, and dose are left behind, it is now necessary to evaluate the pandemic’s social, economic, and institutional dimensions in a multidimensional way, besides the medical dimension. The question is simple but challenging: In what direction is society moving in all areas, from marriage to aging, from law to urbanization, after the pandemic? What have we learned from the pandemic? What should we learn?
The Outlook of Society 2022 report was prepared in response to this question under the theme of Post-Pandemic Society. The experience of the pandemic and the dynamics that emerged in the transition to the post-pandemic period are examined through key indicators in 16 different categories. In addition, detailed analyses prepared by experts on health, family, education, working life, and inequalities sheds light on the multidimensional nature of the social reality. With its key findings and recommendations, The Outlook of Society 2022 report evaluates the post-pandemic transition from a datadriven perspective for researchers, policymakers, civil society, and industries.
ISBN: 978-625-8350-49-4
Kendini yazan habitus: Cemal Süreya şiirinin sosyolojisi (2025, Turkish)
“Self-writing habitus: The sociology of Cemal Süreya’s poetry”
Can poetry be explained through a sociological lens? Is the emergence of a new poetic form merely the outcome of internal poetic debates and aesthetic ruptures? How can the social forces be traced within poetry’s most opaque and deeply subjective dimensions?
Focusing on Cemal Süreya, one of the most widely read poets in Türkiye, this study examines the formation of Second New (İkinci Yeni) poetry from a sociological perspective. Moving back and forth between Süreya’s poems written throughout the 1950s and his social experiences, the book situates the poet within the political and cultural climate of the period, as well as within the network of relationships he formed with other poets. In doing so, it proposes a new theoretical framework that reads the reciprocal processes through which field, habitus, and literary work shape one another.
Bringing together multiple layers of social reality, from the social profile of Mülkiye students to the rhetorical devices employed in poetry, the book demonstrates how poetry, as a form of social action, can become a mode of self-writing in tension with sociopolitical determinations. By re-engaging with the concept of habitus, widely used in contemporary sociology, the study offers an original and illuminating contribution. It is intended not only for social scientists and literary scholars, but also for all readers interested in poetry and in the work of Cemal Süreya.
Link here
Elyesa Koytak 