About
I am a Lecturer in the Institute for International Management at Loughborough University London.
My research sits in the intersection of international political economy, comparative political economy, economic sociology, and development studies. More specifically, I am interested in understanding how national and global politics and institutions interact, and affect the development experiences of late industrialising countries.
My work so far has focused on the cases of Mexico and Turkey, and my book Global Production, National Institutions, and Skill Formation (Oxford University Press, 2022) analyses the impact of governance structures in global value chains and national institutions on the skill formation strategies of Mexican and Turkish firms. My research has been published in New Political Economy, Review of International Political Economy, Competition & Change, and Global Networks.
Before joining Loughborough London, I worked as a Lecturer at De Montfort University and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. I completed my PhD in Economic Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
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Research
My research is broadly about the political economy of development late industrialising countries, for which I try to bridge international political economy with comparative political economy and economic sociology. I am currently working on a few projects along these lines, which I bring together under the umbrella of Barriers to Development Project.
The first project is titled Labour-intensive industries and development challenges: Dynamics of technology investment and refugees' employment in the Turkish textile industry. I am working to understand the impact of migration flows and digitalisation on the employment systems in labour-intensive industries of late industrialising countries. I recently received a British Academy grant to study the pressures on textile industry suppliers, and the patterns of digitisation and employment of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Related to this, I am researching the labour market integration programmes addressed to refugees, and the implications of these programmes for refugees' employment. I am collaborating with Vildan Tasli (Yalova University) as well as several non-academic partners in these projects. I have organised the International Workshop on Refugees’ Employment and Integration, which focuses on the question why refugees end up working in labour‐intensive jobs that are prone to exploitation, and what can be done to improve refugees’ employment conditions, and involves academics, NGOs, refugee representatives and local and international organisations (with Nicola Chelotti).
In the second project, I am working on the populist political economy of the middle-income trap in late industrialsing countries like Hungary and Turkey. The project focuses on the automotive industry and investigates the how populist governments try to address the development bottlenecks related to this industry. It examines the implications of government strategies for the national automotive industry and wider population. (with Gabor Scheiring and Tamas Gerocs). An essay based on this research can be seen in The Conversation.
Thirdly, I am working on a research project to understand the global linkages of capitalist systems in late-industrialising countries, for which I bring together the studies on comparative capitalisms with the international political economy literature. This project criticises the capitalist typologies based on only nation-level institutions, and introduces global-level dynamics into the analysis of 50 late-industrialising countries (with Gerhard Schnyder). Related to this, I have been co-organising the mini-conference Connecting Global Capitalism and National Capitalisms for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 SASE Annual Conference.
I am interested in supervising PhD project in line with these broad research interests. I am currently supervising two PhD projects:
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"Industry 4.0 Development in the Era of Re-Globalisation and the Role of Institutions, Political Orientation and Global Value Chain Transformation" by Arbnor Bajraliu
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"The Strategy Shaped within the Framework of Authoritarian Neo-Developmentalism: The “New Turkey” and the “National Technology Initiative” in Comparative Perspective" by Melike Bozkurt
Book
My book Global Production, National Institutions, and Skill Formation: The Political Economy of Training and Employment in Auto Parts Suppliers from Mexico and Turkey is based on my doctoral research, which comprises field research in Mexico and Turkey, document analysis, and interviews with busniess associations, bureaucrats in education and labour ministries, labour unions, as well as auto parts producer firms in Mexico and Turkey.
Book Launch with Ben Ross Schneider (MIT), Christel Lane (Cambridge) and Marius Busemeyer (Konstanz) on 5th November 2022, Loughborough University London
Meet Critics Session at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) with Aldo Madariaga (Universidad Diego Portales), Geoffrey Wood (Western University), Fulya Apaydin (Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacional), July 20, 2022, Amsterdam
For more information on the sesion, visit: https://sase.confex.com/sase/2022/meetingapp.cgi/Session/5843
Book Synopsis
Many middle-income countries (MICs) that saw rapid growth in the 1990s and 2000s have been facing the danger of remaining in the 'middle-income trap' unless they shift from labour-intensive, low value-added production to higher value-added activities that require more advanced skills. Intermediate skills and vocational education and training (VET) systems that generate these skills are critical for addressing the challenges for MICs in achieving high-road development.
This book examines the skill systems in Mexico and Turkey, with a focus on auto parts producers, and the implications of these systems for these countries' development. It adopts a multi-layered understanding of the term 'skill system', which comprises firm-level hiring and training practices as well as the national and global dynamics that influence these practices. Drawing on discussions around globalization and the convergence of economic activity vs. national institutions and divergence, as well as interviews with auto parts producers and stakeholders of the skill systems, the book examines how the participation of local firms in global supply chains and these firms' institutional environment affect the firm-level skilling practices. It highlights key differences in the role of the state in the skills systems of Mexico and Turkey and investigates the implications of skilling practices for the high/low-road development prospects of both nations.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed articles
Sancak, M. (2023). Why do national skill systems vary? The state’s role in skill system institutions for maintaining growth models. New Political Economy, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2023.2279077 (Open Access, online first).
Sancak, M. (2021). The varying use of online supplier portals in auto parts‐automotive value chains and its implications for learning and upgrading: The case for the Mexican and Turkish suppliers. Global Networks, 22:4, 701-715. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12348
Sancak, M. (2020). Partisan politics of skills in middle-income countries: Insiders, outsiders and the vocational education system of Turkey. Competition & Change, 24: 3-4, 291-314, https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529419888430
Sancak, M. & Ozel, I. (2018). When politics gets in the way: domestic coalitions and the making of skill systems, Review of International Political Economy, 25:3, 340- 363, https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2018.1455062
Book chapters
Sancak, M. (2020). “Finding skills: skilling strategies of local auto-parts suppliers in Mexico and Turkey” in Alex Covarrubias V., Sigfrido Ramirez (eds.), The new frontiers and geographies of the world automobile industry. Trends and Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 429-453.
Book reviews
Sancak, M. (2018). "Ulrich Jürgens, Martin Krzywdzinski, The new worlds of work: Varieties of work in car factories in the BRIC countries, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2016; xvii, 345 pp.: ISBN 9780198722670,£ 55.00 (hbk) translated by Pete Burgess." Competition & Change. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529417752264
Blog posts and media
How Erdoğan framed his science and tech ‘great achievements’ as part of election campaign. The Conversation (2023).
Supplier–Buyer Relations: Automotive Value Chains and Upgrading Prospects of Mexican and Turkish Suppliers. LSE Middle East Centre Blog (2020).
Restrictions to immigration and work in the UK construction industry, Blog Series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy, SPERI Blog (2020).
Reading the results of the 2019 local elections in Turkey”, SPERI Blog (2019).
Skills for development: the contrasting experiences of Mexico and Turkey, GlobalDev Blog (2018).
Policy research
“Report: Challenges of and opportunities for the employment of refugees in late industrialising countries”, prepared in collaboration with the participants of the International Workshop on Refugees’ Employment and Integration, London, UK. (2023)
“Turkey National Needs Assessment of State School English Language Teaching”, British Council and TEPAV: Ankara (with Ozen, E., Alpaslan, I. B., Cagli, A., Ozdogan, I., Dizman, A. O., Sokmen, A.). (2013)
