Saygı Tuna, M.A.

Forschungsschwerpunkte

• Türkei

• Wirtschaft

Promotionsprojekt

Civil Engineers & Capitalist Transformation: A Study on the Dynamics of the Construction Sector in Modern Turkey

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hacısalihoğlu

This doctoral project examines the long-term transformation of Turkey’s construction sector from the late Ottoman period to the 1980s through the lens of civil engineers as a strategic form of human capital. It investigates how state capacity, globalization, and sectoral dynamics interacted in shaping infrastructure development and capital accumulation.

Drawing on newly constructed longitudinal datasets, the project reconstructs engineers’ social origins, educational trajectories, and professional careers, and matches structural trends in these data with shifts in public works policy. By combining quantitative reconstruction with political economy analysis, the study seeks to move beyond narrative historiography toward a more empirically grounded account of institutional change.

Rather than treating modernization as a sequence of regime breaks, the project explores patterns of continuity and transformation in state–business relations, offering a sector-based reinterpretation of Turkey’s capitalist development.