Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Genç Yilmaz A. (Yürütücü)
TÜBİTAK - AB COST Projesi , 2025 - 2027
In recent years, the paradigm of security provision has shifted away from the public police toward a policing network characterized by the contributions of diverse actors, including private security firms, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and citizens. The concept of plural policing has been introduced to conceptualize this transformation. The scholarly literature identifies neoliberalism as a primary driver for the emergence of plural policing.
This project introduces a critical intervention by elevating climate change and environmental degradation as pivotal factors driving the emergence of plural policing. The research seeks to analyze the evolution of policing through the lens of a reconfigured security governance framework, establishing a thematic link between climate change and the transformation of policing. Recognizing that climate change requires novel policing modalities within the maritime security domain—an understudied topic in the literature—the project undertakes a detailed analysis of the marine ranger system established in Türkiye in 2013 for marine ecosystem conservation.
The marine ranger system has been originally implemented by the Mediterranean Conservation Society (MCS) and encompasses practices where local populations, operating under the organizational structure of an NGO and in collaboration with state institutions, engage in marine ecosystem protection. This specific mechanism is conceptualized by the project as "non-profit policing." The project critically examines the rangers’ contribution to the security governance through the precepts of power distribution and public good. This is achieved by their adoption of a preventive, proactive, and community-based approach that stands in contrast to conventional punitive policing models. Furthermore, the analysis addresses the specific forms of environmental offenses encountered by rangers, the innovative policing forms they develop in response, and their strategies for managing climate change-induced risks such as wildfires and floods.
In its examination of the policing contributions made by local communities in the face of climate change, the project will also substantively engage with emerging scholarly discourse concerning adaptive and resilient policing, specifically focusing on the pathway by which vulnerable communities transition into effective agents. This process serves to bridge the divide between theoretical constructs and empirical application, while simultaneously investigating the potential for leveraging historical experiences to enhance future adaptation capacities.
The analysis relies on a qualitative research design, incorporating documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus group methodologies, and limited participant observation. The first phase involves an analysis of MCS documents and semi-structured interviews with its founding members. Semi-structured interviews with rangers in the second phase and with Coast Guard personnel in the third phase will follow. The fourth stage will entail a focus group discussion with the local populace to ascertain their perceptions of the ranger system. A subsequent phase will involve the project coordinator conducting limited-duration participant observation to analyze both the routine operational activities of rangers and their inter-agency interactions with the local community and other security agencies. The final step will involve the presentation of the project's preliminary findings at an international workshop dedicated to the climate change-policing nexus.
The project is committed to generating two key outputs: a scholarly monograph for MCS detailing the ranger system's effectiveness in climate change mitigation and its interface with state and society, and a policy brief establishing the viability of the non-profit policing system as an implementable model for climate change resilience. The research is explicitly aligned with Türkiye’s 12th Development Plan, supporting the pillars of disaster-resilient life, sustainable environment, and democratic good governance. By demonstrating how local participation can successfully inform and secure a scientific foundation for public popolicy, the project contributes to fostering a democratic, participatory, and evidence-based civil society sphere.