Designing transitions towards integration: Entrepreneurial capacity development for Syrians in Turkey

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2019

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: AZRA TUĞÇE SÜNGÜ

Danışman: Harun Kaygan

Özet:

The growing intersection of design with systems science and social innovation gave way to new directions to the design discipline today, making it an actor in guiding and leveraging transitions for more sustainable futures. One of the critical transitions today is migration, for which Turkey has been a major scene. This shift of populations required mobilization of actors and resources at a systemic level, for the integration of Syrians. This thesis investigates entrepreneurship as a strategic approach towards integration through the case of Build Your Future entrepreneurship program for Syrians, through field observations and interviews with actors of the program. This thesis draws four main conclusions: capacity development towards social change can be approached from a Transition Design framework, open-ended processes can be employed to accommodate changes in the social context and leverage existing practices, shared visions and cooperation is needed among solution stakeholders for systemic impact and entrepreneurial capacity development activities towards refugees can be approached as agents of integration of refugees to local entrepreneurial ecosystems.