In Good Times and Bad: Living Together

In Good Times and Bad: Living Together

This project aims to discuss “living together with our differences” in an in-depth manner with journalists, scholars, activists and human rights defenders in order to challenge deepening polarisation and to strengthen democratisation in Turkey. This broader aim will be reached by informing the wider public about the transnational character of these rights-based debates and by training journalists about these issues to support citizens’ right to

obtain information. In partnership with IPS Communication Foundation Bianet, we aim to 

to broaden the space of debate via more inclusive, democratic and diverse mediums. This project will contribute to such debate both via its content and the tools it chooses to use. We will publish 10 podcasts, 10 news files and our partner organisation Bianet will organise 3 online trainings.

The notion of living together, which is the essential notion of this series of podcasts, news files as well as the trainings refers to equal citizenship rights of all the segments of the society for establishing a democratic and peaceful political and social environment. It is one of the founding principles of modern societies implying equality, rule of law and prevalence of fundamental human rights and a democratic public space where different stakeholders coexist and deliberate, despite their various differences. In countries like Turkey, where different forms of violence historically occupied the political scene, polarization became the norm concerning different public debates. In addition to that, difference has always been perceived as a sign of danger and criminalized. Initiating democratic debates on the root causes of different contentions, in connection with the notion of living together democratically, is of crucial importance. Also, unlike the popular public opinion prevailing over the Turkey’s public space, these problems are not peculiar to Turkey, they exist globally with different appearances.

The podcasts and the news files will be focusing on 10 subjects related to notion of “living together in Turkey’’ on the topics of family, punishment, fear, hate, creativity, racism, memory,  lie, anthropocene and friendship. These topics are deliberately chosen since each of them reflects one of the genuine problems and conflicts related with the theme of living together. 

The Project is executed in partnership with IPS Communication Foundation under the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – Matra Programme. The Project team members are Müge Karahan, Özgür Sevgi Göral, Özlem Kaya and Öznur Subaşı.