This book has been a long time in the making. From the beginning, it emanated from concerns that were at once political and personal. These concerns only grew over time, and the writing was shaped and buffeted by a huge amount of contemporary change. I began contemplating this book more than ten years ago in Amsterdam. Back then, I had a job waiting for me in Turkey, my home country, and I naively thought that I would spend the early years of my academic career learning to teach and writing my book. Little did I know that these years would be spent mostly on political activism. In the end, I could only begin writing after I had to flee my home country in 2017, and found myself settled in Berlin. Since then, its progress has fluctuated with the ups and downs in the political situation in Turkey, and it was finally finished under circumstances dramatically different to those in which I began writing it.
Many people and institutions have contributed to the completion of this study, and it is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge this. The dissertation that lies behind this book was supervised by Marcel van der Linden, who, among other things, taught this converted social scientist to think like a historian. His support continues to this day. The International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam provided me with office space, library facilities, and, most important of all, supportive and intellectually stimulating colleagues. Among those, sevgili hocam Touraj Atabaki has a special place in my heart.
This book has been substantially improved by the intellectual engagement provided by colleagues at re:work, where I have found a home away from home in the last five years. The pleasure of exchanging ideas and information with other scholars of labour, and the joy of watching their projects come to fruition, has greatly enriched my writing. I am especially thankful to Felicitas Hentschke for her continuous support over the years.
Without the generosity of two funding agencies, this project would have been impossible. A three-year Gerda Henkel Fellowship allowed me to begin writing; additional support came from an Einstein Stiftung Grant. I cannot thank enough the numerous librarians and archivists who provided guidance and access to the sources that form the empirical foundation of this book. I am especially indebted to Geran Özdeş Çelik, Elifcan Çoruk, Bülent Erdem, Daniella Greca, and Zeynep Ecem Pulaş. My special thanks go to Ergin and Nebahat Aygöl, Sibel Bozdoğan, İlhan Öden, Emre Öncü, Ediz and Esin Tenşi, and Turgay Tuna for the photographs they shared with me.
The book also bears the stamp of many people who contributed in diverse ways to its completion. Numerous scholars and colleagues have read and
In the wider world, the range of my gratitude is equally great. No amount of academic support, intellectual stimulation, or financial aid would have enabled me to finish this project without the nurturing I received from family and loving friends. I am grateful to my parents, Meliha and Haluk, my brother Gürcan, and my entire extended family for the unconditional love and support they showered me with. Fiti and Piti have been my rocks as always; Supurna Banerjee, Seda Cantekin, Cem Dinler, Anıl Duman, Yasemin Erensoy, Sebastian Großmann, Sevda Hamzaçelebi, Dimitra Kofti, Georg Mayer, Hakan Mıhçı, Sevinç Topuzoğlu Mıhçı, Duygu Nesli, Nico Pizzolato, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Açalya Temel, and Regina Tunke have accompanied me through the long and strange trip this book has taken me on. But there is no one to whom I am more indebted than Pieter Verstraete, who has been an unflinching supporter of my writing projects over the past few years. He not only read the several drafts, he also listened to practically every little detail that made or did not make to the final manuscript. He has also provided an enormous amount of care and love labour during the time of the writing.
I dedicate this book to my beloved grandmothers, Neriman and Sabiha, who, like most women, carried the double burden of paid work with unpaid care work, while at the same showering me and my cousins with the gift of unconditional love; and to my soulmate, Behçet, for healing the child in me during the twelve years we spent cheek to cheek, anne seni çok seviyor ömrümün baharı.