Managing Crises through Deepening Inequalities: the Neoliberal Labour Politics of the Turkish State during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Erdem Damar

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Chapter 8 Managing Crises through Deepening Inequalities: the Neoliberal Labour Politics of the Turkish State during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In: The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

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Erdem Damar

Erdem Damar
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 195–217

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747784_009

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Abstract

This chapter aims to explore state machinery’s role in ensuring neoliberalism’s resilience against crisis-ridden conditions by focusing on the Turkish state’s regulatory politics on the labour regime during the COVID-19 pandemic era. By gradually lifting its social and welfare responsibilities and empowering market and financial actors in social life, the Turkish state has played a vital role in the hegemonic restructuring of neoliberal modes of governance in the country. It is argued that the Turkish state’s active involvement in regulating labour relations to ensure the country’s competitive position in the global market under pandemic conditions intensified the neoliberal character of the labour regime. The chapter examines the transformative impact of pandemic policies on delivery services in the food and beverage sector. It is shown that these policies have paved the way for the restructuring of unequal labour relations around the logic of ‘non-responsible dependency,’ primarily through the institution of flexible employment models such as the self-employed courier. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic on Turkey’s labour regime from a critical lens to shed light on the unequal and diverse meanings that the notion of ‘flexible labour’ acquires from the perspectives of workers, companies, and states.

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The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe

Series: Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 347

Cover The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004747784

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 20 Nov 2025

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Chapter 8 Managing Crises through Deepening Inequalities: the Neoliberal Labour Politics of the Turkish State during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe

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