About
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Institute for International Management and Entrepreneurship 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 political economies interact, and affect the development experiences of late industrialising countries.
My current projects engage with the debates on geoeconomics, industrial policy, and domestic industries in late industrialising countries. More specifically, they discuss how geoeconomic shifts limit and enable industrial policy in late industrialising countries, and the implications of industrial policy for domestic firms in those countries.
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, Global Networks, Industrial Relations Journal, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, and Capital & Class.
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 hold a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Cambridge.
Recent news
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2026 – Promoted to Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at Loughborough University London.
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2026 – Special issue on industrial policy beyond the hegemon(s), co-edited with Fulya Apaydin and Andreas Noelke, published in Journal of Economic Policy Reform.
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2026 – New article on national populist neoliberalism in Türkiye and Hungary in Capital & Class.
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2025 – Chapter on immigrants and refugees in skill systems published in Skills and Values (Oxford University Press).
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Merve Sancak
Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, Loughborough University London
I am a political economist. I study how global economic change and national political institutions shape industrial development, and who benefits from it.
RESEARCH
My research is broadly about the political economy of development, for which I try to bridge international political economy with comparative political economy and economic sociology. I am currently working on several projects along these lines.
Geoeconomics and industrial policy
My current work focuses on geoeconomics and industrial policy in late industrialising countries. I examine how geoeconomic shifts limit and enable industrial policy, and what industrial policy means for domestic firms in these countries. With Fulya Apaydin and Andreas Noelke, I co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform on industrial policy beyond the hegemon(s), which includes my article on the Turkish garment industry.
I am also comparing solar PV strategies in India and Turkey (with Melike Bozkurt and Gerhard Schnyder), studying how geopolitics is restructuring the global apparel industry, with evidence from suppliers in Turkey and India (with Sneha Kadyan, Melike Bozkurt, and Gerhard Schnyder), and examining how geoeconomic risk shapes the readiness to embrace the green transition (with Arbnor Bajraliu, Cristian Nitou and Gerhard Schnyder). Since 2022, I have been co-organiser of the Geoeconomics Research Network at SASE.
Industrial policy and growth regime adjustment
I recently completed a research project conceptualising industrial policy as a growth regime adjustment, based on a relational comparative analysis of the Hungarian and Turkish automotive industries (with Gabor Scheiring and Tamas Gerocs). An article from this project on national populist neoliberalism in Türkiye and Hungary is published in Capital & Class, and an essay based on this research can be seen in The Conversation.
Skills and refugees’ employment in labour-intensive industries
The project Labour-intensive industries and development challenges: Dynamics of technology investment and refugees' employment in the Turkish textile industry was funded by the British Academy and has now been completed. This project included research on the labour market integration programmes addressed to refugees, and the implications of these programmes for refugees' employment, in collaboration with Vildan Tasli-Karabulut, as well as several non-academic partners. In scope of this, I organised the International Workshop on Refugees’ Employment and Integration, which focused 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 involved academics, NGOs, refugee representatives and local and international organisations (with Nicola Chelotti). Findings from this project have been published in the Industrial Relations Journal and in the edited volume Skills and Values: The Political Economy of Education in Latin America (Oxford University Press, 2025).
PhD supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD projects in line with these broad research interests. I am currently supervising the following 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 (first supervisor)
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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 (first supervisor)
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"The role of intermediaries and institutions in Nigerian music industry" by Teniola Ogunmokun (second supervisor)
CURRENT PROJECTS
My current research focuses on understanding how the benefits and costs of geoeconomics and the subsequent industrial policies are being distributed across populations.
Geopolitical conflicts, geoeconomics, and supplier responses in apparel value chains in India and Turkey
With Sneha Kadyan, Melike Bozkurt and Gerhard Schnyder
Wars, trade restrictions, rising energy costs and new environmental rules in the EU are reshaping global apparel value chains. Most research on these shifts looks at large brands and ‘strategic’ sectors such as semiconductors. This project asks a different question: how are supplier firms in India and Turkey responding, how does government policy shape their options, and how are global apparel chains being restructured?
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed articles
Sancak, M. (2026). The political economy of growth regime adjustment: national populist neoliberalism in Türkiye and Hungary. Capital & Class. (with Gerocs, T. and Scheiring, G.)
Sancak, M. (2026). Industrial policy in turmoil: sectoral policy undone by macroeconomic instability and rising production costs in the Turkish garment industry. Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 29(3), 331–351. [DOI]
Sancak, M. (2026). Industrial Policy beyond the Hegemon(s): Introduction to the Special Issue. Journal of Economic Policy Reform. [DOI] (with Apaydin, F. and Noelke, A.)
Sancak, M. & Tasli-Karabulut, V. (2024). Vocational education and training: A pathway for refugees' integration in the labour market? Lessons from Syrian refugees in Tarsus, Turkey. Industrial Relations Journal, 55(6), 401-424. (Open Access)
Sancak, M. (2024). Why do national skill systems vary? The state’s role in skill system institutions for maintaining growth models. New Political Economy, 29(3), 478-493. [DOI] (Open Access)
Sancak, M. (2022). 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. [DOI]
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. [DOI]
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. [DOI]
Book chapters
Sancak, M. (forthcoming, 2026). “Vocational education and training, business, and government” in Wilson, G. and Maguire, M. (eds.), Elgar Encyclopaedia of Business and Government. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Sancak, M. (2025). “Immigrants and Refugees in the Skill Systems of Late Industrialising Countries” in Bogliaccini, J.A. and Madariaga, A. (eds.), Skills and Values: The Political Economy of Education in Latin America. Oxford University Press.
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. [DOI]
Blog posts and media
Does the British state have what it takes for its industrial strategy? Encompass Europe (2025), with Gerhard Schnyder.
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)
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 business 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 session, 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.