Methodological Nationalism in International Relations: A Quantitative Assessment of Academia in Turkey (2015-2019)

Abstract

This article seeks to expand the discussion on Methodological Nationalism (MN) within the discipline of International Relations (IR), to contribute to MN literature from the perspective of IR studies and to evaluate the prevalence of MN in the field by the quantification of selected works. To achieve these goals, the article, firstly, recapitulates the general MN literature and critically evaluates this discussion in IR. Later, it identifies the forms of MN as they appear in IR with two faces: Level of analysis (nation-as-arena) and unit of analysis (nation-as-actor). Secondly, the article proposes a method to assess the prevalence of MN through quantification. Finally, the article applies its method to IR works to address the question of how widespread MN is in academia in Turkey. The findings demonstrate the proportional pervasiveness of MN within the IR community of Turkey, which is part of the "periphery" in the discipline. The findings also let us draw some hypothetical conclusions, which have the potential to be a springboard for further research on the MN-IR nexus.

Applied linguistics and language education research in Turkey: 2016–2022

“…While progress has been made in relation to the above-mentioned areas of research, the same methodological concerns persist among the studies we reviewed between 2016–2022 – an issue that is by no means unique to the field of applied linguistics in Turkey (Aydınlı, 2022; Sula, 2022; Tetik, 2022). For instance, two of the concerns we raised in our previous review were the lack of genuine mixed-method research and lack of a genuine gap statement/discussion (Aydınlı & Ortaçtepe, 2018).…”