Course Code and Title: SOS 318-Rural Social Structures

Course Type: Elective
Course Level: Undergraduate
Year and Semester: Third year, Spring
Course Length: One semester, 3 hours lectures per week + village visits
Prerequisite(s): None
Language of Instruction: Turkish
Course Credits: 3 0 3
ECTS Credits: 6
Lecturer: Dr. Abdulkerim Sönmez
Course Contents: The course is organized in four parts. The first part is devoted to examining the process of transition from primitive to peasant societies. The subject matter of the second part is the economic, social and cultural organization of the peasantry within itself and in the wider division of labour in society. The third part concentrates on identifying and analysing the ways and forms in which the peasantry has been forced to transform itself to modernity and the consequences of this transformation concerning economy and society in contemporary world. Building on the general themes and issues discussed in these parts, the final part deals with the transformation and reorganization of rural social structures and agriculture in modern Turkey.   
Course Objectives: On successful completion of this course, the students understand, illustrate and discuss the emergence of rural structures and peasantry as an aspect of historical development of division of labour in societies, the ways in which rural populations and the peasantry have historically been articulated to wider contexts of culture, economy and polity, the ways in which rural-agrarian structures and the peasantry are being penatrated and transformed by forces of capitalist development and modernity, with particular reference to the case of Turkey, and develops an understanding and critical attitute towards positive and negative representations of rural life and peasantry in polity, social discourse and culture.
Teaching Method: Lectures and classroom discussions.  
Assessment Method: Written exam (two midterm exam (50 %) and one final (50 %)).
Reading List:
Akşit, Bahattin. (1985) Köy, Kasaba ve Kentlerde Toplumsal Değişme, Ankara: Turhan        Kitabevi.
İnalcık, Halil. (1993) ‘Köy, Köylü ve İmparatorluk’ Osmanlı İmparatorluğu. Toplum ve Ekonomi Üzerinde Arşiv Çalışmaları, İncelemeler içinde, (ed. H. İnalcık), İstanbul:         Eren Yayıncılık.
İslamoğlu-İnan, Huricihan. (1991) Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Devlet ve Köylü, İstanbul:      İletişim Yayınları.
Karpat, Kemal H. (1976/2003) Türkiye’de Toplumsal Dönüşüm. Kırsal Göç, Gecekondu ve     Kentleşme, (trans.by Abdulkerim Sönmez), Ankara: İmge Kitabevi.
Lindner, Rudi Paul. (2000/1983) Ortaçağ Anadolu’sunda Göçebeler ve Osmanlılar,      (trans.by Müfit Günay), Ankara: İmge Kitabevi.
Pamuk, Şevket ve Toprak, Zafer (eds.) (1988) Türkiye’de Tarımsal Yapılar (1923-2000),     Ankara: Yurt          Yayınları ve Türk Sosyal Bilimler Derneği.
Sönmez, Abdulkerim (2000) “Aile Dayanışması ve Kırsal Ekonomi: Orta Karadeniz        Bölgesinde     Fındık Üretimiyle Baylantılı Aile Dayanışması Üzerine Niteliksel Bir         İnceleme” Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 17 (1): 61-80.
Toplum ve Bilim, No. 88, s. 1-104.
Wolf, Eric R. (2000/1966). Köylüler, (trans.by Abdulkerim Sönmez), Ankara: İmge      Kitabevi.