Recent developments in theories for responsible innovation have focused on the importance of actively accounting for values in our technological designs. Leading among these theories is that of Value Sensitive Design which attempts to guide the design process on the basis of evaluative analysis. However, values often come into conflict and VSD has been criticized for not providing a proper method to resolve such inevitable conflicts. This paper examines three such methods and argues that although each has its merits, they (...) all fail to account for a common source of value conflicts known as value incommensurability. Drawing on literature from the field of axiology, this paper argues that by incorporating the evaluative relation of ‘parity’ each of these three methods, and the VSD framework in general, will be able to properly understand the relation which holds between conflicting design options stemming from the incommensurable of values and be able to guide designers in making rational decision in the face of such conflicts. (shrink)

This book theorizes and applies critical communication pedagogy in mediated contexts, including social justice-oriented approaches, to the use of both traditional and new media in the classroom.

On May 13, 2014, a fire due to the combustion of accumulated methane gas in the Soma Eynez Mine in Turkey killed 301 miners. This case chronicles the events on the day of the accident and investigates the factors leading up to it. It depicts the chaos and confusion resulting from missing emergency protocol, inadequate responses of major stakeholders such as safety experts in the mine, company executives, and the political leadership at the ministry and prime ministry levels. It shows (...) how the interplay of a culture of leniency towards mining safety, insufficient mining policies and even less effective inspections coupled with nepotism and the local population’s desperation for work, all led to serious neglect in a major mine resulting in needless deaths. The Soma Eynez Mine disaster highlights how corporate greed fed into breaches of mining protocol and ethical conduct, eventually leading to the bankruptcy of a mining conglomerate and the imprisonment of 14 men. (shrink)

In this paper we provide the first comprehensive insight into corporate community involvement activities of companies in Turkey. Drawing upon an extensive database compiled from corporate websites and archive documents in addition to a primary survey of 77 of Turkey’s largest companies, we examine the pattern of corporate community activities in Turkey and juxtapose these against existing evidence for other countries and distinctive elements of Turkey’s institutional environment. Our analysis highlights the historical role played by leading philanthropists in stimulating corporate (...) community involvement activities in Turkey and shows that overall giving is very heavily concentrated among the largest givers. We also highlight the concentration of giving among consumer good producers, suggesting a clear strategic rationale for the majority of CCI activity in Turkey, the very low levels of giving by foreign owned and controlled companies, and the strong orientation of CCI in Turkey to projects concerned with education, healthcare and the arts. (shrink)

Prior research has tended to focus on the influences upon how much organizations contribute to charitable or community cases paying relatively little attentionto the recipients of these donations or how firms develop preferences in respect of them. This study, in order to fill these gaps in the literature, focuses on two main aspects of CCI within 500 biggest companies situated in Turkey. Firstly, it aims to explore how companies manage their CCI activities. The type and level of the managers who (...) are the decision makers and the departments from which CCI decisions are taken will be examined. This helps to understand the potential objectives and strategic importance of giving. Also it shows whether a firm has a stable orientation to CCI, or a more ad hoc orientation. Secondly, it aims to analyze the preferences of companies in respect of the area of priorities and exclusions. We argue that institutional environments can shape the CCI activities. Exploring the local conditions of the countries can give reasons for investment in specific areas. (shrink)

Prior research that analyses the cross-firm variation in the prevalence of women on corporate boards has tended to emphasise the importance of firm and industry-level factors, such as firm size, the quality of corporate governance, and the proximity to final consumers. In contrast, very little research has explored the role of national institutional factors for this important phenomenon. In this study, we explore the relative importance of country, industry, and firm-level factors in explaining the cross-firm variation in the proportion of (...) directorships occupied by female directors. Findings indicate that while all levels of influence are significant, country-level effects are a highly-important and under-researched antecedent of the presence of women on corporate boards. (shrink)

Calendars, as old as humanity itself, emerged out of the attempt to break down time in units and give meaning to life and time. As far as Islam is concerned, calendar as a subject gain more importance because identifying daily and yearly rituals and performing the rituals related to time on their specific time is an essential part of Islamic religious life. With a circulation of three million yearly and more than ten million readers, the calendar printed by the Presidency (...) for Religious Affairs of Turkey is a significant instrument in forming, changing and maintaining religious perceptions. We were led to do such a study by the lack of academic studies regarding this aspect of the calendars. The study is based on the texts placed on the frontal and back sides of the calendars printed and distributed by the Presidency for Religious Affairs in the years of 2002, 2007 and 2011. The texts have been analysed by the textual analysis method and the changes in religious perceptions have been pointed out. Unlike the expected institutional continuity, when the three periods compared, it is observed that considerable perception changes have taken place; many subjects have been left out while many have been introduced into the calendars. The study found out that as the years progressed and the periods passed, the calendars also changed dramatically. The most apparent change occurred in the calendars was global understanding in choosing or replacing the subjects. This means that the 2007 and 2011 calendars have excluded some national and spiritual values that were thought to be outmoded globally but included in the 2002 calendar. This also signifies a breaking point in religious perceptions of the Presidency for Religious Affairs. (shrink)

It is important to determine the attitudes of employees towards occupational accidents and diseases and whether these events are perceived as inevitable or out of control. Inaccurate interpretation of the perception of fatalism towards occupational accidents and diseases may lead to more occupational accidents and diseases. The use of scales to determine the perception of fatalism in the context of occupational accidents and diseases allows for a quantitative assessment of these issues. This approach makes it possible to objectively measure and (...) analyze the perception of fatalism, thus paving the way for a more in-depth examination of related phenomena. This study is a scale development study to determine the level of fatalism towards occupational accidents and diseases. This methodological study was conducted between October 2021 and June 2023. The scale was shaped by taking expert opinions for the scale items prepared by making use of the literature, pre-applied and pilot applied with 75 people; Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were conducted with 242 people; and all evaluated with validity and reliability analyzes. In the exploratory factor analysis for the developed scale of fatalism towards occupational accidents and diseases, it was seen that the scale items were gathered under 4 factors and the explanatory coefficient was 53.68%. In order to measure the applicability of exploratory factor analysis for the scale, KMO value was 0.854 and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity value was χ2=1996.527; df=153, p. (shrink)

Hüseyin Atay’ın akademik çabasının merkezinde, insanı, içine doğduğu geleneğin tahakkümüne karşı akıl ve Kur’an’a dayanarak özgürleştirme ve özgünleştirme amacı bulunmaktadır. Onun temel motivasyonunu, Müslümanların içinde bulunduğu mevcut durumdan rahatsız olması ve bu duruma bir çözüm üretme amacı oluşturmaktadır. O, bu çabasıyla mevcut Müslüman düşünce geleneğinin hak ve hakikat zeminine dayanıp dayanmadığını tahkik ve tespit etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Söz konusu tahkik sürecinin metodolojisini din ile kültür ayrımı oluşturmaktadır. Bu bağlamda Atay’ın halkın, ulemanın ve Kur’an’ın dini şeklinde yaptığı tasnif, geleneksel (...) din anlayışları içerisinde meşrulaşan yanlışların tespiti ve ayıklanmasına imkân sağlayacak niteliktedir. Ona göre Kur’an, akla, ilme, fıtrata, yaşamın farklı boyutlarında insanın karşılaşabileceği problemlere çözüm sunan bir din getirmektedir. Bu yapısıyla Kur’an, insanlara akıl ve fıtrat temelinde iradi davranışlarını şekillendirmesi için doğru-yanlış, maruf-münker, sevap-günah kavramları ile belirlenmiş bir ahlak önerisinde bulunmaktadır. Akıl ile din arasında tam bir mutabakat olduğunu kabul eden Atay’ın din anlayışının sacayağını bilgi, iman ve ahlak oluşturmaktadır. Ona göre İslam’ın getirdiği tüm iyilikler ve güzellikler din, dil, renk, etnik köken, coğrafya farkı gözetmeksizin herkesi kuşatacak şekilde adalet ve hakkaniyete, hukuk ve ilkeye göre davranmayı gerektirmektedir. Kur’an’ın amacının, insan ve onun mutluluğu olduğunu belirten Atay, insanın kendini gerçekleştirmesi ve mutluluğu elde etmesinin iki boyutu olduğunu belirtmektedir. Bu boyutlardan ilki, birey olarak insanın yetkinleşmesi; ikincisi ise toplum içinde hem cinsleri ile olan ilişkisinde adalet temelinde kendi varlığını gerçekleştirebilmesidir. Atay, birey olarak insanın yetkinleşmesini, kendi varlığını borçlu olduğu yaratıcıyı bilmesi, tanıması, O’nun dışında hiçbir varlık önünde eğilmemesi ve kendisini özgür kılan Allah’ın verdiği onuru korumasına bağlamaktadır. Toplumsal boyutta insanın yetkinleşmesinin ise yaşamsal fonksiyonlarını gerçekleştirmek ve ihtiyaçlarını gidermek amacıyla insanın hem cinsleriyle ve doğayla kurduğu ilişkide adalet ilkesine uygun davranmasıyla mümkün olacağını belirtmektedir. Bu çalışma Hüseyin Atay’ın, Kur’anî ilkelerden hareketle “İslam” kelimesi üzerine bina ettiği ahlak anlayışını irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu çerçevede, Atay’ın bireysel ve toplumsal boyutuyla ahlaki özne olan insanın yapıp etmelerine yön veren, ahlakın kesişim noktasını oluşturan bilgi ve iman arasındaki ilişkiye dair görüşleri, Kur’an’da insan doğasına uygun bir formda sunulan ahlakî kök değerler çerçevesinde ele alınmıştır. (shrink)

In this study the relationship between philosophy and literature is explored by means of an examination of ideas about language, the subject and ethics in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Musil and Oğuz Atay.

The present article discusses the Department of Kalam, its foundation, academic structuring, philosophy, and contribution to religious thought at the national and international level since the establishment of Ankara University Faculty of Divinity. The process regarding the field of Kalam since the establishment of Ankara University Faculty of Divinity in 1949 has been studied over two historical periods. The first is the period from its being taught as a course under the Chair of the History of Islam and Sects during (...) the establishment of the Faculty of Divinity to 1974 when it turned into an independent chair, and the second is the process from 1974 to the present. Higher religious education was continued in the Faculty of Theology, established under the Istanbul Dārulfunūn, which was constructed in the western style instead of the madrasahs that were closed in accordance with the Law of Unification of Education (Tawhid Tadrisāt) adopted on March 3, 1924.The faculty in question was closed in 1933 due to the shortage of students. Until Ankara University Faculty of Theology, which started its teaching activities in November 1949, was opened, there was no higher religious education for 16 years in Turkey. During this time, the need for experts trained in the field of religion emerged. In order to meet this need, Ankara University Faculty of Theology was opened. In the newly opened faculty, it is aimed to train theologians with versatile knowledge and perspective by teaching philosophy, psychology, sociology, foreign languages, as well as teaching disciplines related to the field of theology. One of the chairs in the faculty’s academic structure opened for this purpose was the chair of History of Islam and Sects. In Ankara University Faculty of Theology, where the academic structuring was organized according to the chair system, the science of Kalam was taught as a course within the Chair of the History of Islam and Sects until 1974. Within this chair, the teachings of Principles of Islam, the history of Islamic sects, and Kalam lessons were carried out. The first instructor of the chair was Prof. Yusuf ZiyaYörükân. Although there were changes in the academic staff during the process, one of the important names that contributed to the field of kalam until 1974 was Muhammad Tavît al-Tanji. These scholars not only made significant contributions to the field of Kalam in terms of method and content with their own studies but also taught scholars to work in this field after them.The doctoral advisor of HüseyinAtay, who is the founder of the Kalam Chair/Department, is M. Tavît al-Tancî. In 1974, when HüseyinAtay became a professor, the Kalam course was separated from the Chair of Islam and Sects and gained the status of an independent chair. HüseyinAtay is the architect of the transformation of Kalam from a lecture to a chair.As a result of Atay’s efforts, being a theologian in Turkey has turned into an identity rather than being a member of an academic discipline. In the studies carried out by Yörükân, Tancî, Atay and the academicians taught by them in Ankara University Faculty of Theology Department of Kalam, the emphasis on the Quran and reason, the importance of critical thinking in the field of theology, the human-centered theological thought, the effort to find solutions to current problems, the researches on Mu‘tazila and Maturidism, the study and translation activities that are carried out to bring the classical theology to the present day come to the fore. In the essence of academic studies conducted within this framework, the importance of correctly determining the distinction between the divine and human in the analysis of religious thought is emphasized. In addition, it is aimed to give a perspective on the meaning and value of human life. In the Department of Kalam, where the human-centered understanding of kalam is systematically dealt with on the basis of individual, responsibility, and morality, the science of kalam is structured not only as a system of thought consisting of abstract fictions but a discipline that has the function of developing and gaining a perspective on what is happening around us and in the World. (shrink)