ABOUT SOMDER (ASSOCIATION OF SOCIOLOGY GRADUATES)
SOMDER (being the abbreviation for the Turkish name 'Sosyoloji Mezunları Derneği' or 'Association of Sociology Graduates') is an NGO formed in Istanbul, on 25 December 2007, by a group of sociology graduates. It aims to develop democratic and professional rights of the graduates of the sociology departments, as well as the solidarity among them. Access and participation to our association is open to all sociology graduates. We perform our activities under the form of autonomous working comities, formed at the end of an open and transparent process of decision-making. The main objectives of SOMDER are:
- To contribute actively to the solution of the economic, social, cultural and professional problems of the graduates of the sociology departments in Turkey and in the world, with B.S., M.A. or Ph. D. degrees.
- To protect and to develop their democratic rights.
- To struggle against the problems and obstacles or the unjust and abusing behaviours that the sociologists may meet during or at the end of the process of research.
- To develop solidarity among the sociologists.
- To promote the collaboration of sociology with other disciplines of the social sciences and to support the interdisciplinary studies, meetings and debates in social sciences.
- To contribute to the formation of different occasions where the professional and the scientific dimensions of the sociology would be able to cooperate.
- To encourage and contribute to the initiatives that seek to augment the quality of the instruction in the field of sociology.
- To conduct original research or to sustain autonomous researches in the domain of sociology.
- To develop solidarity based relationships with other NGOs and other professional associations.
- To contribute to the transformation of the conditions that damage the Professional honour of the sociologists and to extend the professional field occupied by them.
In order to fulfil these objectives, SOMDER conducts the following activities:
- To form networks of solidarity
- To struggle for the solution of the professional problems of the sociology graduates (Namely to increase employment opportunities for the sociology graduates in the public or private sector or to improve the professional rights of the sociologists already employed)
- To conduct researches on the sociology instruction or on the actual situation of the production of the sociological knowledge in Turkey.
- To organize conferences, seminars or workshops to moderate the existing distance between sociology as an academic discipline based on critical thinking and sociology as a professional practice.
- To act with solidarity with people, who meet problems or who are exposed to unjust behaviours and obstacles while they are conducting research in the domain of social sciences.
