Final Report Summary - REGIMES OF ETHNICITY (Regimes of Ethnicity: A Global Database of Ethnic Demography and Survey of State Policies on Ethnicity)
The reintegration of Dr. Sener Aktürk, the researcher in charge of the project FP7-MC-IRG 268392 with the acronym “Regimes of Ethnicity,” has been very successfully completed, thanks to the generous support provided by the European Commission.
Objectives of the project included, most importantly and primarily, the collection of current data on state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in fifteen specific policy areas in every country with a population over 250,000 through a survey of country experts, and second, the compilation of the current ethnic demographic data for all of these countries from multiple authoritative sources, to be presented to country experts who would choose the most reliable data source or provide their own estimates or sources. It was hoped that in the process of achieving these ambitious objectives, a large list of experts on ethnic politics would be created, which would constitute the pool of potential participants in the Regimes of Ethnicity project. In conclusion, 2,663 experts with expertise on 173 countries with a population above 250,000 were identified. Most importantly, 485 completed surveys covering 172 countries were received from the experts, corresponding to 99.4% of the countries included in this project.
The work performed since the beginning of the Regimes of Ethnicity project and the main results achieved can be categorized into ten separate but interrelated tasks. First, the list of names, affiliations, sample publications, and contact details of 2,663 experts on ethnic politics around the world has been compiled in an Excel sheet. This was a work-in-progress for the entire duration of the project, as new experts were added throughout four years, corresponding to a rate of adding 55 new experts to the database every month. The difficult tasks of identifying 2,663 experts and compiling their academic and biographical data were made possible with the assistance of numerous students who were assigned by the host institution as research assistants to Sener Akturk, the researcher in charge of the project.
Second, ethnic demographic information from five authoritative sources was found and compiled for 173 countries, with which 865 country-specific ethnic demographic data tables were produced. Third, for each and every country-specific survey form, the respective ethnic demographic data from five authoritative sources were copied and pasted to the Part A of the survey form. The researcher in charge of the project supervised the production of, and proofread, each of the 173 country-specific survey forms.
Fourth, 2,442 experts out of a total of 2,663 experts (91.7% of all experts in our database), with expertise in 173 countries around the world, were contacted at least once via e-mail. This corresponds to a rate of 51 e-mails per month over 48 months, although the volume of first e-mails to new experts was much higher during the last two years of the survey (87 e-mails to new experts per month). In the end, 485 completed surveys were received from experts of 172 countries, corresponding to 99.4% of the countries included in our survey. Swaziland was the only country for which the researcher did not receive any expert survey by December 2014.
Fifth, in many cases, numerous follow-up e-mails were sent for various reasons depending on the responses of the experts. Therefore, the actual number of e-mails sent for the survey was far above 2,442 initial invitation e-mails sent to the new experts. There were follow-up e-mails sent to all of those who positively responded to the survey (at least 485) but also to some of those who declined. The researcher personally sent a brief note of gratitude to every country expert who completed the survey form. Overall, a large majority of the experts who were contacted did not choose to participate in this survey. 2,442 experts were contacted in total but only 485 completed survey forms were received in the end, corresponding to an overall positive response rate of 19.9%. The positive response rate for the first reporting period was 28.2%, but the response rate in the second reporting period (18.4%) was significantly lower. Such decline in the positive response rate over time was predicted, and therefore the number of experts in the database was almost doubled in the last two years in order to complete the project.
Sixth, the researcher read in detail all the completed surveys, 485 in total, and given that there are expert opinions on 15 state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in each survey form, these completed surveys contained 7,275 policy-specific data points in total. The researcher supervised the tabulation of these 7,275 responses into a master Excel sheet with the help of research assistants provided by the host institution. The responses in the completed surveys were coded into two separate files. The first file included the information on the identity of the country experts who completed the surveys. The researcher produced a second file by removing all the personal, biographical information about the experts, and he made this anonymous file available to the general public in the website that he built for the project in 2012.
Seventh, the constitutions of all 173 countries have been collected by the team of assistants to the researcher in charge and then based on the constitutional provisions, these assistants also filled out the survey forms for all 173 countries, as an additional reliability check for the researcher's evaluations of state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in the future. The surveys completed by the student assistants were certainly not included among the 485 surveys completed by the country experts, which were discussed above.
Eighth, the principal investigator prepared a proposal for a handbook on state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity around the world, titled, “The Handbook of State Policies toward Ethnic and Religious Diversity: A Global Survey,” which would be the first of its kind. In preparing his book proposal, the researcher read in detail the different, and sometimes openly conflicting, responses given by different experts about state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity in six selected countries and prepared six sample country reports evaluating the totality of state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity in each of these countries, including at least one country from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Apart from this continental variation, these six countries were chosen such that they displayed significant variation in terms of state policies toward ethnic diversity. The researcher submitted this book proposal to one of the most distinguished academic publishers worldwide in July 2014. The book proposal was deemed sufficiently promising to be sent out for review and it has been under review since then.
Ninth, the researcher built a website for the Regimes of Ethnicity project in 2012, which was linked to his personal academic website (http://home.ku.edu.tr/~sakturk/indexregimesofethnicity.htm) and he regularly uploaded the anonymous results of the survey in this website. In addition, the researcher, in collaboration with a member of the graduate student research team provided by the host institution, embarked on building another website with more visual features, as well as aggregate survey results and complete list of experts who agreed to the disclosure of their identities in the survey form. The host institution allocated the domain name and sufficient space (https://regimesofethnicity.ku.edu.tr/) while the principal investigator purchased additional features to enhance the visual capacity to communicate the survey results more efficiently.
Tenth, the researcher significantly contributed to the development of comparative study of state policies toward ethnic and religious in the host country (Turkey) and the transfer of knowledge between the host country and other countries in the European research area, as well as non-associated third countries, including the United States. Within the time frame of the project (Nov.2010- Oct.2014) the researcher has published two books focusing on topics of ethnic and religious diversity in English and in Turkish. His book in English, titled, “Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey”, which constitutes the initial theoretical and empirical framework of this project, was published by the Cambridge University Press in November 2012, and it received the 2013 Joseph Rothschild book prize given to the best book on ethnic studies and nationalism by the Association for the Study of Nationalities and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Ten reviews of this book were published in international academic journals in 2013-2014, including eight reviews in English and two reviews in Russian. The comments and criticisms of three American and European scholars about this book were published along with the researcher’s responses in a Book Symposium published in an international academic journal, Nationalities Papers, in August 2014. The researcher also published a book in Turkish in 2013, the title of which translates as “Turkey’s Identities: Religion, Language, Ethnicity, Nation, State, and Civilization.” The researcher became the first scholar employed in Turkey to publish research articles in the internationally distinguished academic journals, World Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs. He also published numerous other articles in English and in Turkish, contributed book chapters in English, Russian, and Turkish to four edited books published in Hungary, Russia, and Turkey.
The researcher was granted the rank of an Associate Professor by Turkey’s Inter-University Committee, after successfully passing the written and the oral examinations for this title, in May 27, 2013, which is a major milestone in his reintegration to Turkey. As an honorific election, the researcher was accepted as a member of the PONARS Eurasia network based in George Washington University, and as an associate editor of the Nationalities Papers.
REFERENCES:
Sener Akturk, "Passport Identification and Nation-Building in Post-Soviet Russia." Post-Soviet Affairs 26, no. 4 (2010): 314-341.
Sener Aktürk, "Regimes of Ethnicity: Comparative Analysis of Germany, the Soviet Union/Post-Soviet Russia, and Turkey." World Politics 63, no. 01 (2011): 115-164.
Sener Akturk, "Regimes of Ethnicity: Comparing East, West, and South." APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper. 2011. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1899779
Sener Akturk, Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Sener Akturk, "Politics of History in Turkey: Revisionist Historiography’s Challenge to the Official Version of the Turkish War." In Alexei Miller and Maria Lipman (eds.), The Convolutions of Historical Politics. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2012: 279-308.
Aktürk, Sener. "NATO Neden Genisledi? Uluslararasi Iliskiler Kuramlari Isiginda NATO’nun Genislemesi ve ABD-Rusya Ic Siyaseti." Uluslararasi Iliskiler 9 34 (2012): 73-97.
Aktürk, Sener. "September 11, 1683: Myth of a Christian Europe and the Massacre in Norway." Insight Turkey 14, no. 1 (2012): 1-11.
Sener Akturk, Turkiye’nin Kimlikleri: Din, Dil, Etnisite, Milliyet, Devlet ve Medeniyet (Turkey’s Identities: Religion, Language, Ethnicity, Nation, State, and Civilization). Istanbul: Etkilesim, 2013.
Dmitry Gorenburg, Sherrill Stroschein, Günes Murat Tezcür, and Sener Aktürk. "Regimes of ethnicity and nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey." Nationalities Papers 42, no. 5 (2014): 890-904.
Objectives of the project included, most importantly and primarily, the collection of current data on state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in fifteen specific policy areas in every country with a population over 250,000 through a survey of country experts, and second, the compilation of the current ethnic demographic data for all of these countries from multiple authoritative sources, to be presented to country experts who would choose the most reliable data source or provide their own estimates or sources. It was hoped that in the process of achieving these ambitious objectives, a large list of experts on ethnic politics would be created, which would constitute the pool of potential participants in the Regimes of Ethnicity project. In conclusion, 2,663 experts with expertise on 173 countries with a population above 250,000 were identified. Most importantly, 485 completed surveys covering 172 countries were received from the experts, corresponding to 99.4% of the countries included in this project.
The work performed since the beginning of the Regimes of Ethnicity project and the main results achieved can be categorized into ten separate but interrelated tasks. First, the list of names, affiliations, sample publications, and contact details of 2,663 experts on ethnic politics around the world has been compiled in an Excel sheet. This was a work-in-progress for the entire duration of the project, as new experts were added throughout four years, corresponding to a rate of adding 55 new experts to the database every month. The difficult tasks of identifying 2,663 experts and compiling their academic and biographical data were made possible with the assistance of numerous students who were assigned by the host institution as research assistants to Sener Akturk, the researcher in charge of the project.
Second, ethnic demographic information from five authoritative sources was found and compiled for 173 countries, with which 865 country-specific ethnic demographic data tables were produced. Third, for each and every country-specific survey form, the respective ethnic demographic data from five authoritative sources were copied and pasted to the Part A of the survey form. The researcher in charge of the project supervised the production of, and proofread, each of the 173 country-specific survey forms.
Fourth, 2,442 experts out of a total of 2,663 experts (91.7% of all experts in our database), with expertise in 173 countries around the world, were contacted at least once via e-mail. This corresponds to a rate of 51 e-mails per month over 48 months, although the volume of first e-mails to new experts was much higher during the last two years of the survey (87 e-mails to new experts per month). In the end, 485 completed surveys were received from experts of 172 countries, corresponding to 99.4% of the countries included in our survey. Swaziland was the only country for which the researcher did not receive any expert survey by December 2014.
Fifth, in many cases, numerous follow-up e-mails were sent for various reasons depending on the responses of the experts. Therefore, the actual number of e-mails sent for the survey was far above 2,442 initial invitation e-mails sent to the new experts. There were follow-up e-mails sent to all of those who positively responded to the survey (at least 485) but also to some of those who declined. The researcher personally sent a brief note of gratitude to every country expert who completed the survey form. Overall, a large majority of the experts who were contacted did not choose to participate in this survey. 2,442 experts were contacted in total but only 485 completed survey forms were received in the end, corresponding to an overall positive response rate of 19.9%. The positive response rate for the first reporting period was 28.2%, but the response rate in the second reporting period (18.4%) was significantly lower. Such decline in the positive response rate over time was predicted, and therefore the number of experts in the database was almost doubled in the last two years in order to complete the project.
Sixth, the researcher read in detail all the completed surveys, 485 in total, and given that there are expert opinions on 15 state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in each survey form, these completed surveys contained 7,275 policy-specific data points in total. The researcher supervised the tabulation of these 7,275 responses into a master Excel sheet with the help of research assistants provided by the host institution. The responses in the completed surveys were coded into two separate files. The first file included the information on the identity of the country experts who completed the surveys. The researcher produced a second file by removing all the personal, biographical information about the experts, and he made this anonymous file available to the general public in the website that he built for the project in 2012.
Seventh, the constitutions of all 173 countries have been collected by the team of assistants to the researcher in charge and then based on the constitutional provisions, these assistants also filled out the survey forms for all 173 countries, as an additional reliability check for the researcher's evaluations of state policies toward ethnic diversity and religion in the future. The surveys completed by the student assistants were certainly not included among the 485 surveys completed by the country experts, which were discussed above.
Eighth, the principal investigator prepared a proposal for a handbook on state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity around the world, titled, “The Handbook of State Policies toward Ethnic and Religious Diversity: A Global Survey,” which would be the first of its kind. In preparing his book proposal, the researcher read in detail the different, and sometimes openly conflicting, responses given by different experts about state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity in six selected countries and prepared six sample country reports evaluating the totality of state policies toward ethnic and religious diversity in each of these countries, including at least one country from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Apart from this continental variation, these six countries were chosen such that they displayed significant variation in terms of state policies toward ethnic diversity. The researcher submitted this book proposal to one of the most distinguished academic publishers worldwide in July 2014. The book proposal was deemed sufficiently promising to be sent out for review and it has been under review since then.
Ninth, the researcher built a website for the Regimes of Ethnicity project in 2012, which was linked to his personal academic website (http://home.ku.edu.tr/~sakturk/indexregimesofethnicity.htm) and he regularly uploaded the anonymous results of the survey in this website. In addition, the researcher, in collaboration with a member of the graduate student research team provided by the host institution, embarked on building another website with more visual features, as well as aggregate survey results and complete list of experts who agreed to the disclosure of their identities in the survey form. The host institution allocated the domain name and sufficient space (https://regimesofethnicity.ku.edu.tr/) while the principal investigator purchased additional features to enhance the visual capacity to communicate the survey results more efficiently.
Tenth, the researcher significantly contributed to the development of comparative study of state policies toward ethnic and religious in the host country (Turkey) and the transfer of knowledge between the host country and other countries in the European research area, as well as non-associated third countries, including the United States. Within the time frame of the project (Nov.2010- Oct.2014) the researcher has published two books focusing on topics of ethnic and religious diversity in English and in Turkish. His book in English, titled, “Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey”, which constitutes the initial theoretical and empirical framework of this project, was published by the Cambridge University Press in November 2012, and it received the 2013 Joseph Rothschild book prize given to the best book on ethnic studies and nationalism by the Association for the Study of Nationalities and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Ten reviews of this book were published in international academic journals in 2013-2014, including eight reviews in English and two reviews in Russian. The comments and criticisms of three American and European scholars about this book were published along with the researcher’s responses in a Book Symposium published in an international academic journal, Nationalities Papers, in August 2014. The researcher also published a book in Turkish in 2013, the title of which translates as “Turkey’s Identities: Religion, Language, Ethnicity, Nation, State, and Civilization.” The researcher became the first scholar employed in Turkey to publish research articles in the internationally distinguished academic journals, World Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs. He also published numerous other articles in English and in Turkish, contributed book chapters in English, Russian, and Turkish to four edited books published in Hungary, Russia, and Turkey.
The researcher was granted the rank of an Associate Professor by Turkey’s Inter-University Committee, after successfully passing the written and the oral examinations for this title, in May 27, 2013, which is a major milestone in his reintegration to Turkey. As an honorific election, the researcher was accepted as a member of the PONARS Eurasia network based in George Washington University, and as an associate editor of the Nationalities Papers.
REFERENCES:
Sener Akturk, "Passport Identification and Nation-Building in Post-Soviet Russia." Post-Soviet Affairs 26, no. 4 (2010): 314-341.
Sener Aktürk, "Regimes of Ethnicity: Comparative Analysis of Germany, the Soviet Union/Post-Soviet Russia, and Turkey." World Politics 63, no. 01 (2011): 115-164.
Sener Akturk, "Regimes of Ethnicity: Comparing East, West, and South." APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper. 2011. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1899779
Sener Akturk, Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Sener Akturk, "Politics of History in Turkey: Revisionist Historiography’s Challenge to the Official Version of the Turkish War." In Alexei Miller and Maria Lipman (eds.), The Convolutions of Historical Politics. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2012: 279-308.
Aktürk, Sener. "NATO Neden Genisledi? Uluslararasi Iliskiler Kuramlari Isiginda NATO’nun Genislemesi ve ABD-Rusya Ic Siyaseti." Uluslararasi Iliskiler 9 34 (2012): 73-97.
Aktürk, Sener. "September 11, 1683: Myth of a Christian Europe and the Massacre in Norway." Insight Turkey 14, no. 1 (2012): 1-11.
Sener Akturk, Turkiye’nin Kimlikleri: Din, Dil, Etnisite, Milliyet, Devlet ve Medeniyet (Turkey’s Identities: Religion, Language, Ethnicity, Nation, State, and Civilization). Istanbul: Etkilesim, 2013.
Dmitry Gorenburg, Sherrill Stroschein, Günes Murat Tezcür, and Sener Aktürk. "Regimes of ethnicity and nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey." Nationalities Papers 42, no. 5 (2014): 890-904.