Over the past two decades, the Turkish state has transformed from an imperfect parliamentary system to a highly centralized presidential regime. State institutions are increasingly political and informal in their day-to-day operation, and unusually susceptible to the influence of business groups, religious networks, regional cliques and organized crime. In theory, the “Erdogan System” pits these networks against each other to compete in the achievement of government objectives.

How do you build theory based on empirical research? What is the relationship between theory and data collection, and how does it vary across disciplines? What is the difference between theory-building and theory-testing? What kinds of ‘theory’ are relevant for particular kinds of research? In this session, we bring together three scholars working across disciplines on a range of exciting empirical issues. Prof.

This talk is the first in DPIR's new 'Alumni Career Conversations' series, providing an opportunity for the DPIR community—current students, alumni and academics—to connect with a panel of DPIR alumni, learn about their career stories and benefit from their experience and advice. It will feature alumni speakers at varying stages of their careers and across a range of fields. Each speaker will speak about their career to date; after their short introductions, the panel will discuss and respond to questions from the meeting participants.

Organised as part of the research programme ‘Migration Diplomacy and Turkey-EU Relations’ funded by the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership