Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33033
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dc.contributor.authorYalkın, Ç-
dc.contributor.authorÖzbilgin, MF-
dc.date.accessioned2026-03-24T13:13:04Z-
dc.date.available2026-03-24T13:13:04Z-
dc.date.issued2026-01-28-
dc.identifierORCiD: Mustafa F. Özbilgin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8672-9534-
dc.identifier.citationYalkın, Ç. and Özbilgin, M.F. (2026) 'Türkiye'de Bilimsel İcracılığın Eleştirel Çözümlemesi: Kamuya Bilgi Üreten Akademiden Rekabetçi Akademiye Dönüşüm', Sosyal Mucit Academic Review, 7 (1), pp. 1–22. doi: 10.54733/smar.1789997.tr
dc.identifier.urihttps://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33033-
dc.descriptionExtended Abstract: Background & Purpose: This paper critically examines the rise and diffusion of scientific performativity (bilimsel icracılık) within Turkish academia, situating it in the broader context of neoliberal transformations of higher education. Drawing on Karl Polanyi’s concepts of fictitious commodity, disembedding, and value (Polanyi, 1944; 1986), the study argues that academic labor has increasingly been commodified through market-driven performance criteria such as publication counts, citation indexes, and global rankings (YÖK, 2024a; 2024b). These metrics, while promoted as tools of accountability, efficiency, and competitiveness (Jones et al., 2020), have restructured universities into market-oriented institutions (Fleming, 2021; Mintz, 2021) and exacerbated pressures on academics. In particular, vulnerable groups—those already disadvantaged by socio-economic, political, cultural, or technological inequalities (Meliou et al., 2024)—face intensified marginalization under such systems. The purpose of the study is to illuminate how performativity reshapes knowledge production in Turkey, replacing social benefit with competitive measurement, and to explore its consequences for both institutional practices and academic subjectivities (Tülübaş and Göktürk, 2020). Research Method: The paper employs a critical conceptual and theoretical analysis rather than empirical fieldwork. It systematically reviews literature on performativity in academia (Spicer et al., 2016; Roberts, 2007), neoliberal higher education reforms (Teelken, 2015; Gendron, 2008), and Polanyian political economy (Thomasberger, 2020), integrating them to build a framework for analyzing the Turkish case. Sources include both Turkish and international scholarship (Ünal, 2017; Yılmaz and Memişoğlu, 2019) as well as national policy reports from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK, 2024a; 2024b). Through these sources, the paper assesses how global neoliberal logics become localized within Turkey’s higher education sector through performance evaluation systems, index-based promotion criteria, and university–industry linkages (Mammadov and Aypay, 2020; Vatansever and Gezici Yalçın, 2018). By using Polanyi’s notions of fictitious commodity and disembedding, the study highlights how knowledge and academic labor are detached from their social context and reduced to market instruments (Haiven, 2023; Aslan, 2014). The method is thus an interdisciplinary critical synthesis that combines political economy, sociology of education, and organizational studies. Conclusion: The study concludes that the neoliberal turn in Turkish higher education has produced a performativity culture where universities operate increasingly like market actors, prioritizing quantifiable outputs over public value (Garipagaoglu and Ozden, 2015; Selekler-Goksen and Oba, 2018). This shift fosters individualization, professional dissatisfaction, and burnout among academics (Budak and Sürgevil, 2005; Shin and Jung, 2014), while eroding traditions of solidarity, collaboration, and critical knowledge production (Winefield et al., 2003; Morrissey, 2019). Vulnerable groups, including early-career scholars, heterodox academics, and those resisting mainstream metrics, become particularly exposed to marginalization and precarity (Harding et al., 2017). Although universities attempt to mitigate these effects through ethics committees, research integrity policies, and social responsibility initiatives (Eksioglu et al., 2015), Polanyi’s framework suggests such corrective measures remain limited under the dominance of market logic (Polanyi, 1944). The paper calls for alternative value systems in academia that re-center solidarity, inclusivity, and social responsibility (Flyvbjerg, 2005; Özbilgin, 2010), and for a restructuring of performance evaluation criteria to better reflect qualitative and societal contributions. Ultimately, it argues that building collaborative networks and socially engaged knowledge practices is essential if universities are to reclaim their role as institutions serving the public good (Özbilgin and Slutskaya, 2017; Johann et al., 2024).en-US
dc.description.abstractNeoliberal dönüşümün Türkiye’deki akademik kurumlar üzerindeki etkilerini ve bilimsel icracılığın kırılgan gruplar üzerindeki sonuçlarını eleştirel bir biçimde inceleyen bu makalede Karl Polanyi’nin fiktif meta, çözülme ve değer kavramları çerçevesinde, akademik emeğin piyasa odaklı performans ölçütleri aracılığıyla metalaştırılması tartışılmaktadır. Çalışma, icracılığın bilgi üretimini toplumsal fayda yerine rekabetçi endeksler ve atıf kültürü üzerinden değerlendirdiğini; bu durumun akademisyenler arasında bireyselleşme, motivasyon eksikliği, mesleki tatminsizlik ve tükenmişlik yarattığını ortaya koymaktadır. Ayrıca, akademideki icracı dönüşümün kırılgan grupları daha savunmasız hale getirdiği ve üniversitelerin toplumsal rollerinden uzaklaşarak giderek daha fazla piyasa aktörleri gibi işlediği ileri sürülmektedir. Sonuç olarak, toplumsal dayanışmayı ve kamusal bilgi üretimini önceleyen alternatif değer sistemlerinin geliştirilmesi gerektiği savunulmakta; akademik performans değerlendirme sistemlerinin daha kapsayıcı, adil ve toplum yararına odaklanacak şekilde yeniden yapılandırılması önerilmektedir. Bu makale, neoliberal dönüşümün Türkiye’deki akademik kurumlar üzerindeki etkilerini ve bilimsel icracılığın kırılgan gruplar üzerindeki sonuçlarını eleştirel bir biçimde incelemektedir. Karl Polanyi’nin fiktif meta, çözülme ve değer kavramları çerçevesinde, akademik emeğin piyasa odaklı performans ölçütleri aracılığıyla metalaştırılması tartışılmaktadır. Çalışma, icracılığın bilgi üretimini toplumsal fayda yerine rekabetçi endeksler ve atıf kültürü üzerinden değerlendirdiğini; bu durumun akademisyenler arasında bireyselleşme, motivasyon eksikliği, mesleki tatminsizlik ve tükenmişlik yarattığını ortaya koymaktadır. Ayrıca, akademideki icracı dönüşümün kırılgan grupları daha savunmasız hale getirdiği ve üniversitelerin toplumsal rollerinden uzaklaşarak giderek daha fazla piyasa aktörleri gibi işlediği ileri sürülmektedir. Sonuç olarak, toplumsal dayanışmayı ve kamusal bilgi üretimini önceleyen alternatif değer sistemlerinin geliştirilmesi gerektiği savunulmakta; akademik performans değerlendirme sistemlerinin daha kapsayıcı, adil ve toplum yararına odaklanacak şekilde yeniden yapılandırılması önerilmektedir.tr
dc.description.abstractThis article critically examines the impacts of neoliberal transformation on academic institutions in Turkey and the consequences of scientific performativity on vulnerable groups. Within the framework of Karl Polanyi’s concepts of fictitious commodity, disembedding, and value, the commodification of academic labor through market-oriented performance criteria is discussed. The study demonstrates that performativity evaluates knowledge production not in terms of social benefit but through competitive indexes and citation culture, thereby generating individualization, lack of motivation, professional dissatisfaction, and burnout among academics. Furthermore, it is argued that the performative transformation in academia renders vulnerable groups even more defenseless, while universities operate increasingly like market actors, distancing themselves from their social role. Ultimately, the article contends that alternative value systems prioritizing social solidarity and public knowledge production must be developed, and proposes that academic performance evaluation systems be restructured in a more inclusive, equitable, and socially oriented manner.en-US
dc.format.extent1–22-
dc.format.mediumElectronic-
dc.languagetr-
dc.language.isotrtr
dc.publisherDergi Park on behalf of Uşak: Erhan Aydıntr
dc.subjectbilimsel icracılıktr
dc.subjectneoliberalizmtr
dc.subjectkırılgan gruplartr
dc.subjectTürkiye akademisitr
dc.subjectKarl Polanyitr
dc.subjectscientific performativityen-US
dc.subjectneoliberalismen-US
dc.subjectvulnerable groupsen-US
dc.subjectTurkish academiaen-US
dc.titleTürkiye'de Bilimsel İcracılığın Eleştirel Çözümlemesi: Kamuya Bilgi Üreten Akademiden Rekabetçi Akademiye Dönüşümen-US
dc.title.alternativeScientific Performativity in Türkiye: A Critical Analysis of the Shift from Public Knowledge Production to Competitive Academia-
dc.typeArticleen-US
dc.date.dateAccepted2025-11-06-
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.54733/smar.1789997-
dc.relation.isPartOfSosyal Mucit Academic Review-
pubs.issue1-
pubs.publication-statusPublished online-
pubs.volume7-
dc.identifier.eissn2718-1081-
dcterms.dateAccepted2025-11-06-
dc.contributor.orcidÖzbilgin, Mustafa F. [0000-0002-8672-9534]-
Appears in Collections:Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management Research Papers *

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