Prelims

Half Title Page

A NEW SOCIAL STREET ECONOMY

Series Page

CONTEMPORARY STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Series Editor: Simon Grima

Title Page

CONTEMPORARY STUDIES IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS VOLUME 107

A NEW SOCIAL STREET ECONOMY: AN EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

EDITED BY

SIMON GRIMA

University of Malta, Malta

OSMAN SIRKECI

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey

and

KAMURAN ELBEYOĞLU

Girne American University, Turkey

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Editorial matter and selection copyright © 2021 Simon Grima, Osman Sirkeci, and Kamuran Elbeyoğlu. Published under exclusive licence.

Individual chapters copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-124-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-123-6 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-125-0 (Epub)

ISSN: 1569-3759 (Series)

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

About the Contributors

Neriman Acikalin completed her bachelor, masters, and doctorate degrees in Sociology. She is currently working in the Department of Sociology in Mersin University. Social classes, disadvantaged groups, Roma, gender, women, and child poverty constitute her main study areas.

Shabab Ahmad holds a doctorate in Social Work bearing a title ‘A Study of Street Vendors of Delhi’. He published and presented papers on emancipation on the street vendors highlighting problems and challenges. He started his career as a participant in an International Leadership Program in Canada and became a Project Supervisor and Team Leader in CWY’s Global Learning Program for Foreign Students. He worked as an Academic Coordinator in Bharti Foundation. He presently works in Central University of Himachal Pradesh as an Assistant Professor. He has given various national and international seminars.

Derya Altun received a PhD degree on General Economics in the Economics Department, Ege University. Her master thesis is about efficiency and productivity in NGOs, and her PhD thesis is on gender budgeting in local governments. She worked as a Researcher at the University of Essex for three months, in 2012. Gender, NGOs, local governments, migration, and sustainable development are academic fields of her study. She is a member of local and national NGOs. Currently, she is working as an Economist at Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. She is a member of Sustainable Urban Development Network Committee in Izmir.

Demet Arslan graduated from the Department of İnternational Relations at Giresun University in 2017. She has been doing her master’s degree in the Department of Coaching Education in Health Sciences Institute at Uludag University since 2019. She participated in several international conferences on micro entrepreneurship and street economy. She has participated in the projects such as the phenomenon of career, cybernetic business, innovative education and entrepreneur student. She has been an Executive in the ‘Dating Violence in Sports; Victimization, Method and Frequency of Applying’ study at Faculty of Sport Sciences with Faculty of Medicine at Uludag University since 2019.

Kamuran Elbeyoğlu completed her master’s degree in the Department of Psychological Services in Education in Educational Faculty at Ankara University and her PhD in 1994 in Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. She is currently working as a project expert in İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Social Projects Department. She is among the founders of Self Workers Global Union-Geneva, Menderes Village Council-Izmir and the advisor of Izmir Street Vendors Council and Union of Recycling Workers -Ankara. She is a Field Editor for Urban Academy Journal and editor for various national and international journals. She is a coauthor of Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship published in 2020 May by Emerald Publishing House with Dr. Osman Sirkeci. Her research interests are philosophy of mind, women rights, social philosophy, existentialism, and philosophical therapy.

Ahmet Fidan graduated from I.U. Faculty of Political Sciences in 1993. He completed his PhD in M.U. Social Sciences Institute Local Administrations and Decentralization Department. He worked in IETT General Management between 1997 and 1999. He worked as an Academician in Balikesir University and in Avrasya University. He currently works in Ordu University. He is managing AEF Culture and Research Center for which he is the establisher. He is the Chief Editor of Urban Academy Journal (www.kentakademisi.com), Turkey Interactive Columnist Newspaper (www.yazarportal.com), and Journal of Environmental and Natural Studies (www.jenas.org). He is the President of Blacksea Poets and Author Association, Blacksea Nature and Environment Association.

Simon Grima is the Head of the Department of Insurance, in charge of the bachelor of Commerce in Insurance, the bachelor of Commerce (Honours), and master’s degrees in Insurance and Risk Management and an Associate Professor at the University of Malta. He set up the Insurance Department in 2015 and started and coordinates the MA and MSc Insurance and Risk Management degrees. He served as the President of the Malta Association of Risk Management between 2013 and 2015, and President of the Malta Association of Compliance Officers between 2016 and 2018. Moreover, he is among the first Certified Risk Management Professionals and a board member of the Federation of European Risk managers, is the Chairman of the Scientific Education Committee of the Public Risk Management Organization, and was a member of the Curriculum Development Team of Professional Risk Managers’ International Association in 2014. His research focus and consultancy is on governance, regulations and internal controls (i.e. risk management, internal audit, and compliance) and has over 30 years of experience varied between financial services and with public entities in academia, internal controls, investments, and IT. He acts as an Independent Director for Financial Services Firms, sits on Risk, Compliance, Procurement, Investment, and Audit Committees, and carries out duties as a Compliance Officer, Internal Auditor, and Risk Manager.

He has acted as Co-chair and is a member of the scientific program committee on some international conferences and is a chief editor, editor, and review editor of some journals and book series. He has been awarded outstanding reviewer for Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance in the 2017 Emerald Literati Awards.

Mehmet Gungor completed his PhD in Faculty of Science and Literature in the Sociology Department, İnonu University. He worked as a Research Assistant at Hacettepe University, Sociology Department, Lecturer at Dicle University Primary School Education Department, and as an Assistant Professor at Mersin University in the Department of Sociology. He still works as an Associated Professor at the Faculty of Education. He has articles published in national and international journals about nation-state citizenship and global citizenship, sociology of education, child rights, child labour, value education, and the struggles in access to education of disadvantageous children.

Ayca İzmirlioğlu is working as a Head of the Department of Labour and Social Security Law, Faculty of Law, Izmir Democracy University. She earned her BA in 2006 from Faculty of Law, Dokuz Eylul University and received her PhD in Private Law at Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. Her academic interests and study fields are labour law, occupational health and safety law, social security law, and European labour law.

Abbas Karaağaçlı received his master’s and PhD in International Relations at Istanbul University. He is currently working as a Faculty Member of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations at Giresun University. He has many articles and books published in Turkish, Kyrgyz, Persian, and Kazakh. He is the Director of Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies, the Institute of Central Asian Studies and Ahmet Yesevi Culture Association. He is a member of the Academic Council of the Eurasian Economic Relations Association, and the Manager of the Black Sea Strategic Research and Application Center.

Halim Kasim graduated from Electrical Engineering Department, Yıldız Technical University. He worked in the Municipality of Çamdibi. He is an electrical engineer, occupational health and safety specialist, and application auditor. His research interests include the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity (solar power), heating–cooling, generating electricity from domestic and industrial wastes or generating solar power in solar-free areas. He is especially interested in strengthening collective solidarity, so that the poor and deprived people gain their self-confidence and express their thoughts and wishes. He is currently working as a freelance project expert.

Özlem Duva Kaya received her PhD in the Philosophy from Ege University, Turkey, in 2010. Her thesis examined the effects of Immanuel Kant’s philosophical anthropology on contemporary political thought. Her research interests focus on political philosophy, gender and philosophy, and philosophy of law. She is a member of Initiative for Critical Studies of Masculinities and Society for Women in Philosophy in Turkey. She is a volunteer of Refreshment University for elderly people in İzmir. She has various publications on philosophy of law, political philosophy, and gender and philosophy.

Işil Kellevezir is the Head of Vocational School Foreign Trade Department at Yaşar University. She graduated from Faculty of Science, Department of Statistics, Ege University and earned her MA in 2004 from Total Quality Management Department, Dokuz Eylül University. She received her PhD in the Department of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations at Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. Her academic interest areas are social policy, labour, education, work force planning, statistics, quality, and process management.

Hasan Oguz was born in 1981 in Afyon. He completed his primary and secondary and high-school education in the district of Sultandağı. In 2007, he was appointed as a Police Officer in Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. He completed his master’s education in the field of urbanism in 2017 with a graduate project ‘Traffic Control of the Municipal Police, an example of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality’. He contributed to the preparation of the directives and regulations in force in the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Police Department, where he still works as a Municipal Police Commissioner.

Osman Sirkeci is a street economist. He completed his master’s degree in Germany in 2005 and 2011 and received his PhD in Finance from Dokuz Eylül University. He is currently working in the Department of City Council at İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, where he is an expert and the founder of the Street Economy Department. He is among the founders of Self Workers Global Union-Geneva, Menderes Village Council-Izmir and the advisor of Izmir Street Vendors Council and Union of Recycling Workers - Ankara. He is a Field Editor for Urban Academy Journal and editor for various national and international journals. He is a coauthor of Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship published in 2020 May by Emerald Publishing House with Dr Kamuran Elbeyoğlu.

Huriye Toker is a member of the Communication Faculty at Yaşar University. She earned her MA in Journalism at Ege University and second MA degree in Media at Oslo University and received her PhD in the Department of European Studies at Dokuz Eylul University. She has participated in various national and international projects. In 2017, she was awarded a Jean Monnet Module by her course on integration of Turkish public sphere to EU and media. Her academic interest areas are corporate social responsibility, European Union and media, gender, disability studies and disadvantaged groups, elections, and politics.

Nurseren Tor was born in Mersin. She is the Head of the Department of Painting in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Mersin University. She completed her PhD in the Department of Painting at the Fine Arts University of Mimar-Sinan in 1997. She received a scholarship from DAAD and worked in Berlin and Madrid. She carried out projects such as Uray Art 2019, Myrna Art 2019, Mersin Art2020, LoveArt2020, and Gulnar Art Symposium with the slogan ‘the real place of art is the street’. Her latest work includes concepts of ‘city’, ‘history’, ‘memory’, and ‘moment’.

Cengiz Mesut Tosun received his master’s degree in Mersin University with his thesis ‘Individual and Society in Frankfurt School’ (Philosophy-2001) and his doctorate in Hacettepe University with his thesis ‘Theories of Contract and Minimal State’ (Philosophy-2010). He teaches the courses like introduction to philosophy, society and political philosophy, contemporary political philosophy at the undergraduate level and political philosophy problems, John Rawls, liberalism, and anarchism at the graduate level. His field of study is the concepts of state, law, freedom, power, ownership, and related problems in Plato, T. Hobbes, J. Locke, J.J. Rousseau, Robert Nozick, and J. Rawls.

Betül Karagöz Yerdelen holds two MA in Culture and Art Sciences (1999) and Political Sciences (2003) and two PhD in Culture and Art Sciences (2003) and Political Sciences (2008). She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in the University of Giresun. She is the author of many articles, papers, and books. Her main fields of research are political institutionalisation and state transformation; imperialism and hegemony; the problem of failed states, social movements, humanitarian intervention; cultural-political violence and trans-boundary identity problem; regional-global studies, economy-politics of Turkophone and international nationalism.

Merve Yıldırım completed her MA degree in 2010 in the Department of Fine Arts Education, Institute of Educational Sciences at Gazi University and received the PhD degree in Educational Sciences, Faculty in Fine Arts Department, Gazi University. In 2014, she received her Assistant Professor degree. She has opened personal national and international exhibitions and also attended many group exhibitions. She is a Founder Member of the Global Street Economics Platform who is working on the design of streets. Currently, she is the Head of Graphic Design Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Giresun University.

List of Contributors

Preface

COVID 19, or the Coronavirus as it is commonly used, came into our lives suddenly and unexpectedly and forced us all to fundamentally change our entire life routine. Each of us was doing things we should do in our daily routines at school, at work, at home, and social life was going on as long as possible in cafes, restaurants, neighbourhood markets, shopping malls, and streets. But when the Corona epidemic has compelled people to stay at home, beyond breaking away from the routines we are used to, people also started to adapting to an isolated state of existence from the social life we are accustomed to, the fear of catching a deadly virus and death, and of course, for those who had to close their jobs or were unemployed, there was also a concern for subsistence.

The Corona crisis has left the world’s unshakable national authorities vulnerable and desperate, dependent on each other. Faced with the depletion of resources, it has become the nightmare of all the national wealthy who are concerned about lost or diminished profits. However, virtual money, which does not fit into national boundaries as before and is said to have no colour, race, religion, language, as is often said, has proven its global sovereignty.

Companies want and make the public pay the cost of the change forced by the structural crisis of capital masked by the epidemic. Companies that add profits to their profits both on the rise of capitalism as well as during its crisis are determined to maintain profitability by creating new riches in crises while imposing the burden on the public. The unfairness in the distribution of crisis support packages between companies and the public clearly demonstrates this. But, as history is being written tomorrow, this period will be called after Corona before Corona and nothing will be the same as before.

Social economy principles can be a good starting point to discuss the new paradigm in the preparatory processes for the construction of the post-capitalist world. The social economy proposes ways to transform the existing economy, which seeks to grow and earn more profits by destroying and wasting resources, into living in harmony with nature and an economy that will serve people.

Social economy appears in many societies in different forms of cooperation, cooperatives, or various mutual funds. The increasing number of solidarity-based social economic practices around the world increases due to a growing number of people living in extremely poor living conditions and in deep poverty. Today, because of the Corona crisis, many people lost their jobs and regular income. Therefore, the street economy is gaining more importance in these conditions. Street vendors still come to the rescue of the poor and low-income citizens. The citizens, who cannot afford the products sold in the shops, choose them. Street vendors go to poor neighbourhoods where there is not even a market. These people meet the needs of the elderly and the patients who cannot go out. Regardless of the epidemic, whether they are citizens of the country or migrant recycling employees, they still bring the waste to the economy.

This book comes as a complement to our first book Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship, where street economy was discussed with all its social, economic, and political dimensions, actors, sectors, and functions. In this work, for the first time, street economy is discussed in terms of how it is related to social economy and how it contributes to the four main components of social economy, which are supply of needs, social benefit production, fair distribution, and sustainability. Reciprocity is the mechanism that makes relational and organisational life possible. When reciprocity finds an economic expression for providing goods and services to people and communities, the conclusion is social economy. In these difficult times, witnessing the best and worst aspects of human nature, street economy is the most basic component, indicator, and guarantee of the egalitarian, solidarist, sharing and truly participative social economy and democracy in epidemic or in health without questioning the identity or origins of the groups in need.

This book is aimed to discuss that the street economy which flourishes with the externalities and failures of capitalism is the foundation stone of social economy. For 170 years, most of the capital owners and companies have neither cared about the dignity of the people who have created their company, nor have they cared to combat the impending environmental disaster. This crisis put an end to two centuries of despair in the mind and action of an important segment and showed that another way and solution is possible. It is possible to see the possibility of a new social economy with participatory democracy that eliminates labour as a commodity with traditional and micro-scale enterprises and enterprises that produce social, economic, and cultural benefits, and where people and their labour are not merely a ‘resource’.

This book will discuss how social, solidarist, sharing, and collectivist economic systems such as street economy can provide humanistic and sustainable solutions against capitalism, which is environmentally unsustainable, socially unfair, and cannot guarantee the happiness and dignified living conditions of anyone anywhere on the planet.

We would like to thank the founders of SWG, India’s Arbind Singh, Argentina’s Oscar Silva, and Spain’s Cesar Garcia Alan for their contribution to the globalisation and institutionalisation of the work, and academicians and researchers from all different fields who contributed to this book.

We owe the visibility of millions of street vendors, artisans, and entrepreneurs, who have been pushed, marginalised, deprived of their basic human rights, and ignored in hundreds of years, to our local and national politicians who resolutely brought their problems to the agenda, and to the special representatives of the media that brought these problems to their newspapers and magazines. On this occasion, we owe a debt of gratitude to our politicians who kept this invisible section of society on the agenda during the pandemic days and bravely expressed their crucial problems, and all media members who brought the problems of street vendors to their headlines, from America to India, from Izmir to Erzurum.

Last but not the least, we would like to thank the founders and members of all street vendors associations and cooperatives for their determined and devoted work, and our special thanks to the Chairman of the Izmir Street Vendors Association, Evren Laçin, who has survived in the streets and squares of Izmir, since childhood by peddling and devoted all his time and energy to solve this ancient problem permanently.

Dr Osman Sirkeci and Prof. Dr. Kamuran Elbeyoğlu

Izmir, Turkey, 2020