Click to read the article in Turkish
As part of "Turkey Beyond Borders: Critical Voices, New Perspectives" project, Prof. Aykut Çoban has talked about the ecological destruction in Turkey in a two-part vodcast at Sweden's Lund University.
Composed of seminar and vodcast series on selected themes and subjects, the project has hosted several academics since March 2020.
In the most recent video podcast of the project, Prof. Çoban has discussed the question of "Can we find similarities among the activities leading to ecological destruction?" In doing so, he has also talked about a series of other concepts such as commodity, labor and needs.
Titled "Understanding Ecological Destruction in Turkey Through Gold Bullion", the vodcast took place on December 7, 2020:
In the second part of the podcast, the academic has then moved on to focus on commodity fetishism, the capital and the state as the facilitator of the capital. He has also referred to the struggle of rights defenders against mining activities within this context.
While the videos with English subtitles can be reached on the website and YouTube account of the project, they can also be listened on Spotify.
About Aykut Çoban
Prof. Aykut Çoban was a faculty member at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences. On February 7, 2017, he was discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree on the grounds that he signed the Academics for Peace declaration of "We will not be a party to this crime."
About the project
The project briefly introduces itself as follows:
"Over the past four years, there has been a severe restriction of academic freedoms in Turkey. Academics have been dismissed, imprisoned, suffered administrative penalties, and been forced to operate within an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. This project aims to foster collaboration between academics in Sweden and scholars from Turkey whose academic freedoms are implicitly or explicitly curtailed and violated.
"The project is composed of a seminar and vodcast series on selected themes and subjects. Seminars will take place at Lund University, and vodcasts will be openly accessible to the public through this website and other social media platforms. The project is led by Dr. Pinar Dinc (Lund University), co-facilitated by Dr. Ömer Turan (İstanbul Bilgi University), and supported by an advisory board composed of academics from/based in Turkey, Sweden, and the rest of Europe." (EMK/SD)
