Dr Merve Uzunalioğlu

Merve is smiling and standing with her arms folded in front of a brown brick building. She has long dark hair and a fringe. She is wearing a white shirt and brown blazer.
Postdoctoral Researcher
merve.uzunalioglu@spi.ox.ac.uk

I am a postdoctoral researcher for the rEUsilience project at the DSPI. My research interest is in family policies and I have experience in policy analysis and evaluation using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

My research focuses on families and how they interact with social policies. Leave and care policies lie at the core of my research, and I am curious to explore further the interplays between different family policies, how resilience in families is exercised and how all these elements together could be conceptualised through a social sustainability lens.

I hold a PhD in Social Sciences from UCL. My research was generously funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund which also endowed me with an affiliation at LISER, where I was locally hosted in Luxembourg.

I am an Associate Member of the International Network on Leave Policies and Research, where I work closely with the coordinators of the Network as the Communication Coordinator, and I am responsible for the authorship of Turkey Country Note since 2022. I am also a member of a working group on “Theoretical Understanding of Paid Parental Leave Policies in the Context of Social Sustainability” at the COST Action titled “Parental Leave Policies and Social Sustainability.”

As a member of the rEUsilience team, my current research is centred around families and their capacity to manage risks in adverse scenarios. Exploring the types of socio-economic risks that the families face and assessing their behaviours by analysing the underlying factors that shape their coping mechanisms and the extent to which social policies are available and effective in supporting families during crises constitutes the core in this project.

The rEUsilience project tackles the concept of resilience from a social policy perspective. The project endeavours to place families at the forefront, with a particular focus on comprehending their adaptive capabilities in the face of socio-economic and other potential risks. Through eight work packages concurrently led by six teams across Europe, the project seeks to gain insight into the resulting inequalities and dilemmas that European families may encounter. Further information about the project is available at the project website: https://reusilience.eu/

Uzunalioğlu, M., Valentova, M., O’Brien, M., Genevois, A-S. 2021. When Does Expanded Eligibility Translate into Increased Take-Up? An Examination of Parental Leave Policy in Luxembourg. Social Inclusion. 9(2): 350-363. 

Book chapters and policy reports  

Uzunalioğlu, M. (2023) ‘Türkiye Country Note’, in Blum, S., Dobrotić, I., Kaufman, G., Koslowski, A., and Moss, P. (2023) 19th International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2023. DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.431. Available at: https://www.leavenetwork.org/annual-review-reports/review-2023/  

O’Brien, M., and Uzunalioğlu, M. (2022) Leave policies and a global social policy agenda In I.  Dobrotić, S. Blum, & A. Koslowski (Eds.), Research Handbook on Leave Policy: Parenting and Social Inequalities in a Global Perspective (pp. 67-81). Edward Elgar Publishing.   

Uzunalioğlu, M. (2022) ‘Turkey Country Note’, in Koslowski, A., Blum, S., Dobrotic, I., Kaufman, G., and Moss, P. (eds.) International Review of Leave Policies and Research 2022. Available at  https://www.leavenetwork.org/annual-review-reports/country-reports/  

Aldrich, M., Connolly, S., O’Brien, M., Uzunalioğlu, M. (2021) Monitoring the eligibility for Parental  Leave in EU-28 countries. EIGE.  

O’Brien, M., Connolly, S., Aldrich, M., Ward, K., Uzunalioğlu, M. 2020. Eligibility for Parental Leave in EU Member States. EIGE https://eige.europa.eu/publications/eligibility-parental-leave-eu member-states  

Aran, M.; Uzunalioğlu, M.; Aktakke, N. 2018. Türkiye’de 0-6 Yaş Çocuğun Durumu (The Status of  Children Age 0-6 in Turkey) AÇEV (Mother and Child Education Foundation) https://acev.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Ilk6YilBilgiNotu.pdf 

Aran, M., Zekrya, L., Aktakke, N., Uzunalioğlu, M. 2017. Education of Disadvantaged Children in the OIC: The Key to Escape from Poverty. Ministry of Development of Turkey, COMCEC Coordination Office.  http://ebook.comcec.org/Kutuphane/Icerik/553d8a1b-ca91-4a33-bd6f-83d066a...

Aran, M.; Görmüş, E.; Aktakke, N; Uzunalioğlu, M. 2016. Supporting Access to and Retention in Employment for Women by Enhancing Child Care Services in Turkey Agence Française de Développement  http://librairie.afd.fr/en/nt-16-child-care-turkey/  

Aran, M., Aktakke, N., Colopinto, K., Baser, Z., Uzunalioğlu, M., Sinanoglu, S. 2015. Supply and demand for child care services in Turkey: a mixed methods study.  Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.  http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/114451467999711217/Supply-and-... care-services-in-Turkey-a-mixed-methods-study