Varieties of Nationalism Study

The Varieties of Nationalism Study aims to understand how “the nation” is understood among the Turkish populace. More specifically, the project explores the microfoundations of nationalist attitudes, asking whether and why nationalism has qualitatively distinct forms in the public opinion field. The Principal Investigator of the project, Dr. Tuna Kuyucu, along with Turgut Keskintürk (Duke University), conducts a nationally representative survey as part of this project.

Using a variety of statistical procedures (including, but not limited to, structural equation and mixture models), the project aims to show that (a) there are distinct and empirically identifiable nationalist classes in Turkey, (b) these classes are differentiated according to the class members’ social network compositions and key psychological metrics, and (c) this classification has relevance for understanding political opinion and behavior among the Turkish population.

In the long run, the project aims to expand this work to understand the public opinion field in Turkey, with particular emphasis on political and economic belief systems.