My primary research interest lies in the field of poverty and household livelihoods (coping, survival). I am interested in understanding how households respond to poverty with a specific focus on their income generation, intra-household income allocation (financial management), consumption and investment behaviour. I also take an interest in understanding how resources beyond income (e.g. social, economic and cultural capital), along with household characteristics and wider structural processes (e.g. state housing and welfare policies) shape household responses and their outcomes for poverty. Hence a particular area of interest concerns the measurement of poverty from a deprivation perspective and methods used to combine its ‘objective’ and subjective dimensions. Another relates to the macro-economic and policy aspects of poverty reduction. More recently, I have developed an interest in migration research and specifically in understanding the economic behaviour, success and integration of migrants. Migrant entrepreneurship, remittances and investments are amongst my current research interests. Methodologically, I am interested in research that uses qualitative or quantitative methods or both.

Current research

I am currently working on a NORFACE funded survey, focusing on Turkish migrants in Europe spread across four generations within 2000 families. The survey is led by Dr Ayşe Güveli with a research team based in the UK, Netherlands and Germany. For project details see the following links to ‘LineUp: Migration Histories of Turks across Europe’ at http://www.lineup.essex.ac.uk/and at http://www.norface-migration.org/currentprojectdetail.php?proj=4

Past research

• Poverty, Social Welfare and Household-Level Processes in Turkey - 2005/2006 Independent ESRC-funded Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme.

• What Difference Do Resources Make? A Longitudinal Study of Household Responses to Poverty in a Gecekondu Settlement in Ankara, Turkey – 2001/2004 independent PhD research.

• Urban Survival Strategies: Ankara Case – 1998/1999 A household survey of low-income neighbourhoods on which I worked as a researcher in the leadership of Professor Melih Ersoy and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tarık Şengül at the Middle East Technical University.

• World Bank Poverty Alleviation Project on Turkey – 1999 A qualitative study on which I worked as a researcher in the leadership of Assist. Prof. Dr. Galip Yalman at the Middle East Technical University. The research was performed within the poorest urban and rural parts of five provinces: Ardahan, Artvin, Diyarbakır, İstanbul and Urfa, and involved focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with inhabitants, municipal leaders and local representatives of government departments.