The Turkishness Contract
Published on 10. October 2025
Book
Hardback
290 pages
978-1-4399-2472-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Turkishness Contract places Critical Race Theory in conversation with literature on Turkey and nation-state making via a historical study enriched by in-depth interviews. In this new English-language edition, Baris UEnlue makes a number of comprehensive changes to his widely read and much discussed 2018 Turkish book, including a new preface and a new sweeping and theoretical introduction.
UEnlue uses Critical Race Theory to present a historical-sociological model to examine not only the historical constitution and contemporary functioning of the Turkish nation-state, but also the affective and bodily modalities of being Turkish. He also develops a framework for rethinking the complex relations between the socio-genesis of the Turkish nation and state and the psycho-genesis of the Turkish people, their cognitive habits and emotional orientations, and the structural privileges and unconsciousness strategies of Turkishness.
The Turkishness Contract addresses broader theoretical concerns including histories of colonialism, ethnic/racial social contracts, privilege, Armenian Genocide and the Kurdish question, as well as the unraveling of Turkey's social contract at a moment of contemporary right-wing authoritarianism.
In the series Critical Race, Indigeneity, and Relationality
UEnlue uses Critical Race Theory to present a historical-sociological model to examine not only the historical constitution and contemporary functioning of the Turkish nation-state, but also the affective and bodily modalities of being Turkish. He also develops a framework for rethinking the complex relations between the socio-genesis of the Turkish nation and state and the psycho-genesis of the Turkish people, their cognitive habits and emotional orientations, and the structural privileges and unconsciousness strategies of Turkishness.
The Turkishness Contract addresses broader theoretical concerns including histories of colonialism, ethnic/racial social contracts, privilege, Armenian Genocide and the Kurdish question, as well as the unraveling of Turkey's social contract at a moment of contemporary right-wing authoritarianism.
In the series Critical Race, Indigeneity, and Relationality
Reviews / Votes
"Baris UEnlu?'s The Turkishness Contract changes our understanding of how, through everyday practices of thinking, feeling, and acting, Kurds and other minorities are by definition excluded from the Turkish social contract. The best books make the invisible visible through a seemingly simple yet deeply impactful and profound intervention that makes one wonder how she did not see it before. The Turkishness Contract is one such book, an almost artistic intervention in critical Turkish studies."- Esra OEzyu?rek, Sultan Qaboos Professor in Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values at the University of CambridgeMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Philadelphia PA
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
503 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4399-2472-3 (9781439924723)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Baris UEnlue is Assistant Professor, General Faculty, in the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia.