Welcome!
My name is Candan Turkkan. I am an associate professor at Ozyegin University (Istanbul/TR) Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and International Relations. I am interested in the relationship between economy and politics, and I look at how this relationship unfolds in urban food politics, movement of capital, labor and commodities between urban and rural spaces, and cultural politics of food and eating.
I received my PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in political science. Though I am a political theorist by training, my work is proudly interdisciplinary and multi-method, transgressing the disciplinary boundaries of political theory, political economy and comparative politics. Most of my conversations are with food studies folks, but I also derive heavily and contribute to urban studies, women and gender studies, urban and human geography and anthropology. Political theoretical questions are at the foundation of my research and political theory remains my passion; but over the years, my work has become much more ‘flavorful’ (pun intended!).
These days, I am teaching food politics, political economy and sustainability to the future chefs of Turkey and beyond, at Ozyegin University. I am also working on a research project on the rise of a new generation of social media-savy, eco-concious, ex-urbanite ‘new farmers’ (funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, project#324K513). I am also a co-researcher/consultant in a bunch of other public and private sector funded research projects.
Follow the Publications & Research tab, and you will find a list of my contemporary articles (academic), essays (general audience), grants I received and ongoing projects. Alternatively, you can go to the Talks, Webinars, Podcasts tab, if you want to hear or watch me give a public talk.
Contact me at candanturkkan@gmail.com or candan.turkkan@ozyegin.edu.tr if you have any questions about me or my work or if you want to work together. You can also find out more about me through my profiles @ LinkedIn and Academia.edu (I would be happy send you any articles and essays should they interest you. ).
İstanbul’u Doyurmak İletişim Yayınları’ndan çıktı!
İstanbul’u Doyurmak: Gıda İaşesinin Politik Ekonomisi
İstanbul, yüzlerce yıl Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’na başkentlik yapmış, günümüzdeyse Türkiye’nin finansal kalbi olan, tarihî, kültürel ve ekonomik açıdan her zaman önemli bir şehir. İstanbul’u Doyurmak, “iaşe”nin, iktidarın kendini var etme araçlarından biri olduğu tespitinden hareket ederek söz konusu tespitin yüzyıllar içinde bu toprakların kendine has ekonomi politiğiyle nasıl dönüşüp ne gibi sosyal ve siyasi sonuçlar yarattığını ele alıyor.
Check out my new book from Brill!
Feeding Istanbul: The Political Economy of Urban Provisioning
Paperback out from Haymarket Books!
Tracing how the sovereign’s duty to provision the city and protect his subjects from hunger was gradually transferred to the market and became a responsibility of the subjects (later, citizens) alone, Feeding Istanbul makes a compelling case for situating food politics, and politics of urban provisioning in particular, at the center of the way we think about the relationship between the sovereign and the political community.
My ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7814-3146Recently Published
Beyond the Ban: Explaining How Turkey Reduced Diversion and Illicit Poppy Cultivation After 1974 (2025) International Journal of Drug Policy. URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.105053
Agroecology and Back-to-Land Migration in Turkey: Asset or Obstacle? (2025) Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 49(10), 1829–1859. URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2025.2481404
For more on publications, please see the Publications & Research tab. You can also find live updates on the most recent publications and events under the Most Recently… tab.
Candan Turkkan 