ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 examines the literature on Turkish politics over the last two decades and lays out the theoretical framework. This chapter offers a critique of the identity politics that has dominated recent literature on Turkey. Alternatively, the critical political economy is proposed as a theoretical framework. The critical political economy framework concentrates on the material while not neglecting discursive efforts and identity. Borrowing from the early feminist critique of neoclassical economics, the critical political economy framework identifies the gender biases embedded in the current economic system. Chapter 1 then discusses the AKP’s construction of gender and demonstrates the similarities and differences with the construction of gender in earlier periods. The chapter highlights the AKP’s construction of gender as located between neoliberalism and conservatism. The critical political economy framework allows synthesis between the two, arguing that, at the fundamental level, neoliberalism and Islamic conservatism share a similar gender bias despite their different origins.
