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Koç University Social Policy Center (KÜ-SPM) was established in April 2010. We began our journey with the aims of developing research and applied research projects on social policy and increasing public awareness on social policy issues in Turkey.

In Turkey the field of social policies is a vast arena where citizens frequently interact with state institutions, where service exchanges and the practical use of social rights occur. Yet it is also a space in which hierarchies, contention, unmet demands and inequalities reside. In KÜ-SPM, our purpose is to increase our accumulation of scientific knowledge and experience through field research, scientific meetings, cooperative implementation projects with stakeholders and through policy analyses. We aim to strengthen the channels of communication on social policy issues between official institutions and policy-makers; advocacy, expert and other NGOs; service-receiving citizens and the academia. As social scientists interested in this field of inquiry, we value social policy-making based on scientific evidence and on the analysis of that evidence.

We can summarize what sort of research has so far been completed within our center with reference to the research topics of scholars in our executive and advisory boards:

• Types of employment, livelihood strategies, ways of dealing with economic crises in Turkey;
• Citizenship capacities in terms of distribution of income and habits of tax-paying;
• Gender inequalities, gender studies, participation of women in employment and other spheres of life;
• Youth studies, education-employment transition in young people;
• Factors influencing school access, attendance and success of children in basic education and secondary education;
• Studies on the development of pre-school children;
• Socio-economic exclusion;
• Health reform, social security reform, social services and social assistance services;
• Rights of people with disabilities and their social inclusion;
• Urban sociology and urban transformation;
• Irregular migration, refugees, internal displacement;
• Communication, media technologies, social policy studies on the protection of intellectual property rights and of privacy rights.

Our research center is always open to collaborations of knowledge production and implementation with social policy-making and policy-implementing governmental bodies, other universities, municipalities, NGOs working on social policy-related issues, EU and UN institutions and other stakeholders.

Within KÜ-SPM, located in Koç University’s Rumelifeneri Campus, there are 7 social scientists (Executive Board) and 2 researchers employed as administrative staff.

Arçelik is the consumer durables, consumer electronics and information technologies equipments manufacturing company of Koç Holding. Arçelik was founded in 1955 and it is the third and the sixth largest household appliances manufacturer in Europe and in the world respectively. Arçelik is serving its customers in more than 100 countries with its 10 different brands; Arçelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, Elektra Bregenz, Arctic, Altus, Leisure, Flavel and Defy, and has realized a consolidated turnover of EUR 3.3 billion in 2009.

Arçelik has 8 R&D centres with over 700 personnel, fully equipped test laboratories; for consumer electronics, consumer durables and IT products. Arçelik collaborates with local and international universities, suppliers, research organizations and research institutes in carrying out its R&D activities and is actively participating in EUREKA Clusters and EU Framework Programmes since 1993.

Arçelik’s product range covers full range of household appliances and consumer electronics products including Standard and High Definition, Digital TVs, Personal Video Recorders,  Personal Media Players, Set-Top-Boxes, PCs, Laptops, Audio Sets, Home Theatre Systems and so on.

Department-free by design and unique in its scope and organization in Turkey, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is an interdisciplinary home to degree programs that range from visual arts and visual communication design to cultural studies, social and political studies through conflict analysis and resolution, economics and history.