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Social Work and Social Exclusion in Turkey: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Berna Yazıcı
Berna Yazıcı*
Affiliation:
The Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Boğaziçi University, Bebek, İstanbul 34342, berna.yazici@boun.edu.tr
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Abstract

This paper discusses state-sponsored social work and its relation to social exclusion in contemporary Turkey. Linking state-sponsored social work to the dynamics of social exclusion, this discussion points to two contrasting sets of practices within the Turkish social work system. First, I focus on the contemporary reform of the child protection system: I examine the current restructuring of institutional care for children, showing its link with the neoliberal agenda of reducing state social spending and shifting social care from state to familial resources. The current emphasis on and the specific implementation of the policy of transforming institutional care perpetuate the processes of exclusion as experienced by the women and children who are the major clients of the social work system. Yet, examples of the ways in which social work can address social exclusion do exist in the system, and I try to offer a glimpse into these limited benefits which at least some clients receive through the system. I conclude by suggesting that, in order to better address the negative results of social exclusion, both the redistributive and interpretive underpinnings of the Turkish state social work system should be subject to critical scrutiny.

Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 38: Special Issue on Poverty and Social Exclusion , Spring 2008 , pp. 107 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2008

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