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- Demirag, Istemi, et al.
(author)
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In search of accountability: Interconnectivity for health, economy, and democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
- 2021
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In: International Research Society for Public Management Annual Conference 2021. - Virtual.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study is chiefly concerned with identifying and understanding how diverse accountability mechanisms can support or hinder government policies to cope with crisis and unexpected events. Drawing on Foucauldian concept of governmentality and Koppel’s concept “Multiple Accountability Disorder”, this study aims to explain how health, economics and democratic issues unfold and shape the citizens expectations in different ways and in turn how this affect governments’ policies in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching research question which we address here is; “How did the Turkish Government attempt to find a balance between restrictions, prohibitions, and rights (democracy domain) while maintaining viable economic conditions for businesses and at the same time dealing with the rapid spreading of the pandemic?” In order to address this question, we explore the governance of COVID-19 pandemic in these three domains which are constructed to contest with each other with different and contrasting expectancies. This is an important research question not only because, to the best knowledge of the authors, prior studies have not addressed these three concepts together, but also theoretically it helps to understand the chameleon and conflicting nature of accountability in crisis situation. Empirical case presented in this paper is the government policies on lock-down and other restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 global pandemic in Turkey. Data is collected from the publicly available documents including presidency briefs, parliamentary and ministerial press releases, central bank reports, strategic healthcare investment plans, relevant laws, decrees and NGO reports and news articles. The collected data has been analyzed by the constructed nodes with the NVivo software. The findings suggest that while the government is responsible to balance among these three domains, it faces challenges of meeting different expectations of various stakeholders resulting in the construction of a contextual space in which the reproduction of governable citizens is possible. The findings suggest that the governance of COVID-19 pandemic has brought about meeting multiple accountabilities which can support and/or contest each other and that the accountability may not be fully discharged. In this respect, the study contributes to the accountability literature by extending discussion on the role of crisis situations on constructing multiple, supporting and/or contesting accountabilities.
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| 2. |
- Demirag, Istemi, et al.
(author)
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Managing expectations with emotional accountability: making City Hospitals accountable during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
- 2020
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In: Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. - 1096-3367. ; 32:5, s. 889-901
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose - This paper explores the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in the financial and parliamentary accountability mechanisms of public-private partnership (PPP) “City Hospitals” in Turkey. Diverse and changing accountability mechanisms are explored regarding budgetary, affordability and emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach - This is a case study of City Hospitals in Turkey. Empirical data are collected and analyzed qualitatively from publicly available government and related sources, Turkish National Audit reports (Sayistay), strategic healthcare investment plans, relevant laws, decrees and NGO reports and news articles. Findings - Existing accountability mechanisms for arranging and/or delivering value-for-money (VfM) in Turkish PPP hospitals are weak. This provided policy makers with more flexibility to manage expectations of its citizens in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. Political decision makers, through PPPs, created political capital for themselves by engaging in emotional accountability at the expense of better financial and parliamentary accountability. Originality/value - This article contributes to the literature by articulating how roles of accountability change in crisis and introduces the concept of emotional accountability during a period of heavy infrastructure investments in City Hospitals in Turkey.
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| 3. |
- Firtin, Cemil Eren, et al.
(author)
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Ac/counting for the pandemic: The emergence of contesting accountings in the handling of COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
- 2021
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In: Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) Network Conference 2021.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study is about the emergence of multiple and antinomic accountings in a crisis. In specific, it focuses on the management of COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. With an Actor Network Theory (ANT) outlook, the study depicts these efforts an ac/counting process with different calculations which narrate and reconstruct the pandemic in different directions. While this complexity is as a challenge to tackle with the pandemic, on the other hand, it also provides a political space for the public sector organizations to narrate and reconstruct the crisis in a “manageable” way. The empirical data is collected qualitatively from secondary resources from public institutions, including official websites of public institutions, open access interviews with Scientific Board members, newspapers, and the official posts of state representatives (both individuals and institutions) on social media. For the analysis, the data was categorized into four aspects, health, economy, finance and mobility restrictions via NVivo codes. The analysis shows that managing the pandemic has involved the multiplicity of actors, interests, and therefore faced an intense complexity in terms of policies, interventions, measures and calculations. In the construction of COVID-19 accounts, both reductions and manipulations were the case. Depending on the intressements of actors, pandemic is interpreted differently which have brought about contesting calculations. The paper sheds light on the accounting practice in a crisis situation in which there is high complexity and contestations and draws its conclusions on the emergence of accounting within a hybrid context in multiple, contesting, and antinomic forms.
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| 6. |
- Tekin Bilbil, Ebru, et al.
(author)
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Exploring publicness as a social field in contextual shifts: A Bourdieusian analysis on social supports in Istanbul
- 2022
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In: International Research Society for Public Management Annual Conference 2022, Encountering development and public management in the evolving post-covid era panel.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- By utilizing the key concepts of field, habitus and capital inherited from Pierre Bourdieu, this study explores what the public values that publicness represents (i.e., capacity, network, expertise), are by analyzing interconnections between publicness and fields shaped by diverse social contexts. In doing this, the paper problematizes publicness in relation to (social) field and empirically explores the organization of social support in Istanbul. We posit our research question as: What are the tensions and dynamics in producing public value within the relation between field and publicness formed by tensions and contextual dynamics? To what extent, does the publicness open up a space for collaboration and convergence in different contexts? The data gathering and analysis follows qualitative methodology. Empirical data have been gathered between June 2021 and January 2022 from 20 interviews with actors in different institutions involving the delivery of social supports including Istanbul municipality, municipal companies, and civil society organizations. We found that publicness as the field is inclusive to unfold public value with and among formal rules and voluntary practices and networks. Once publicness is dominated by the powerful actor and their interests, the public value is deteriorated. In doing this, the paper extends the conceptualization of publicness by making a distinguish between the publicness of, by, and as the field.
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| 7. |
- Tekin Bilbil, Ebru, et al.
(author)
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Exploring publicness as social practice: An analysis on social support within an emerging economy
- 2023
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In: Financial Accountability and Management. - 0267-4424 .- 1468-0408.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- By utilizing the concepts of field, habitus and capital inherited from Bourdieu, this study explores publicness as a social practice. In doing this, the paper problematizes publicness concerning accountability and public value and empirically explores the organization of social support delivery in Istanbul. We posit our research question: in what manners does publicness open up a space for collaboration and convergence in relation to accountability? The data gathering and analysis follow a qualitative methodology. We found different forms of publicness under three different conditionalities: (1) Publicness as political authority based on hierarchization and centralization; (2) Publicness as competing positions produced by diverse actors and their diverse positions taken beyond hierarchical relations; (3) Publicness as social inclusion and diversity that is all-embracing by employing more inclusive practices. Publicness relationally unfolds public value with and among formal rules, voluntary practices and networks. By delving into constitutive elements of practice -symbolic capital and habitus- engaging in the field struggles of redefining and owning publicness, the paper goes beyond the conventional dichotomy of normative versus empirical conceptualizations of publicness, and instead differentiates between distinct forms of publicness in different conditionalities and contributes to the literature by bridging publicness and accountability habitus.
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| 9. |
- Tekin Bilbil, Ebru, et al.
(author)
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Smartization of cities through standardization? Framing, overflows, and performativity of multiple standards
- 2022
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In: AAAJ Special Issue Online Workshop “Accountability for a Connected Society: The Unaccounted Effects of Digital Transformation”. - Kozminski University, Poland.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Abstract Purpose – This study addresses the role of multiple standards in organizing for the smart city infrastructures. In specific, the paper is about the construction of standards in the local and national efforts to materialize and establish the smart city concept in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach – Research data is qualitatively gathered (starting from June 2020 to March 2021) from three focus group interviews and observations (more than 12 hours in total) and 25 interviews with managers and professionals involving smart city projects in six municipalities and ministries. By an interventionist approach, the themes of these meetings were chosen by the researcher in a collaborative manner with stakeholders and based on the preliminary interviews with the project partners in the line with prior desk research. The focus group meetings were designed to allow participants to reflect and discuss around these themes. Additionally, documents were analyzed including policy guidelines, strategy and action plans, and PowerPoint presentations of the stakeholders in the meetings. Findings – The empirical analysis shows that smart city projects have been pioneered by the municipalities in the local contexts, which later have been intervened by the ministries and government agencies with the ambition to scale the projects up to a national level. In doing this, there have emerged multiple and contested standards relating 1) the description of smart city as a concept, 2) the construction of accounts in the reach for the financial resources, and 3) the mobilization of the political authority governing the smart city projects. Originality/value – The study contributes to the role of accounting in smart city standardization theory by demonstrating the performative consequences of standards in shaping the ideas and actions, however, because of their multiplicity, such performativity is dependent on which standards the actors choose to engage and in the way they interpret the engaged standard. In doing this, the study shows in a slight contrast to the previous research that the standards are the domains in which the (political) power is not only accumulated and mobilized, but also challenged and annihilated due to such multiplicity.
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