Wednesday Talk

Politics of Distinction: Cosmopolitan Elite Networks in The Middle East
Özlem Altan (Lecturer, Koç University)

Özlem Altan’s presentation was focused on the interesting aspects of transnational elite networks and their situation in local scene. She compared the elite groups in Istanbul, Cairo and Lebanon who are graduated from the Universities founded by the USA. The important and remarkable questions that this presentation raised were the following:

• How are these transnational elite networks situated in the local structures and relations of power?
• How are their global ties manifested in the everyday political (or apolitical) activities?
• How are their relations to knowledge production to rationality, objectivity and politics?
• In what sense are these groups comparable with the rest of the world?