SESAM (Sakarya Economics and Social Researches Centre) is one of the oldest research centres of Sakarya University. A centre has been conducting economic and social researches on Sakarya and sharing the results with the public. We’ve talked with the director of the centre Assoc. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Çağlar Özdemir about SESAM’s works.
SESAM is the short name of Sakarya University, Sakarya Economic and Social Research Centre. The research centre, which was first established in 1965 within the Institute of Economics (Sociology) of Istanbul University and has been operating since 2005 under its current name.
It conducts researches, studies and applications in economic, commercial, social, historical, administrative, cultural, agricultural and industrial areas that directly or indirectly concern Sakarya province and its environment. Then shares the findings with the public and related institutions.
The effectiveness of the policies currently implemented or planned to be implemented in the future depends on accurate and qualified data. No organization, region, city or country can be effectively managed without having the right data. This fact has led us to produce information about Sakarya in different fields. Our aim is to produce data sets or pools that allow the planning to direct the dynamism in our province. Moreover, we have the chance to discover the hidden dynamics of the city. Sometimes we find and remove important dynamics that many people neglect or disregard.
Research data is obtained from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are the information that we obtain directly through our field research. Secondary sources are local and national statistics. Unfortunately, since 2015, our national statistical institute TurkStat has stopped producing some of the provincial data. The data is generated according to statistical region classification. As you know we are in the TR42 region. To put it more clearly, we form a quintet together with Kocaeli, Yalova, Bolu and Düzce. Many national data are available for this region as a whole. However, in order to solve the specific problems of our city, we need customized data about our city. For example, we need to know how many women are employed or how many young are unemployed. However, it is quite difficult to differentiate these or similar details from the statistical data on the general sample. Therefore, local investigations are required.
Different techniques including qualitative and quantitative methods are used in SESAM researches. Moreover, we are very sensitive about the method as these researches can be carried out within the scope to include the master's and doctoral theses made in our university. This process not only provides the data outputs needed by the city, but also helps young researchers learn their research methods very well. Recently, we have started to actively use programs such as NVivo, QDI Miner, Max QDA for our qualitative researches. SPSS is already the standard in quantitative research.
As you know, we have a website; www.sesam.sakarya.edu.tr Researches can be reached from here. In addition, new researches are being served to local news centres. When we conduct specific research, we are directly sharing with the relevant institutions and organizations. Within this framework, researches are shared with SATSO (Sakarya Chamber of Commerce and Industry), metropolitan and district municipalities, professional organizations, public institutions and the other relevant organizations (NGO’s). This information is spreading downwards due to its structure and scope. For example, we are sharing our research with district and village-based (now called hometown) administrators.
Due to its research structure, different experts are employed in SESAM. However, we have an exevutive board. We have 3 board members and a fixed researcher. We also have three research assistants working in different areas of responsibility. We also have research teams conducting research in different fields. Each team's research commissions are formed in their areas of expertise. We have a flexible and dynamic structure. In other words, I am talking about a transitive research team. Research commissions have the capacity to conduct joint studies and make different reports according to needs or cross-cutting areas.
Yes, although it varies, we definitely have stakeholders and partners. For example, one of our most comprehensive projects is “City Memory” (https://www.sehirhafizasi.sakarya.edu.tr/), Sakarya Governorship, SATSO, Metropolitan Municipality, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences are our stakeholders and partnerships. In some of our projects our partners can be professional organizations. Sometimes non-governmental organizations. It takes shape according to our research and project.
Yes, the other day an engineer working in the industry wanted to meet with us and we invited him and got his opinions on our latest Sakarya Industrial Inventory study. Ultimately, the most important purpose of our research is usefulness. His information and requests contributed to our research. In addition, we manage the process by linking our professional or amateur researchers who want to do research on any subject with our commission on their subjects.
One of our most important projects is to make the strategic plan of the city. We have been actively working with the Governorate, Metropolitan Municipality and SATSO for about 6 months. Within the scope of the United Nations Development Program, the Strategic Plan on which we take the Sustainable Development Goals as a basis has the capacity and program to overcome the city by an international class until 2030. After completing the infrastructure, we hope that this effort is seriously taken into consideration and implemented by the city administrators. If fully understood what we want to do with this project I think Sakarya would be a good example in Turkey, and also will be possible to become one of the few cities in the world.
