Woman and Family Studies  Application and Research Center

Individualization tendencies, which are common in today`s societies, bring the person away from the family. This process, also including the loss of effectiveness of traditional ties on social life, paves the way for the emergence of many problems in social life. Lawlessness, violence and anomie can be considered as just a few of the mentioned social problems. The key role of the family in ensuring social reconciliation is embodied in its transmission of social values across generations. With individualization, this transfer gets into trouble and the mentioned conflict environment exists. This problem, which is faced by the family in particular and the society in general, can be eliminated by supporting the family and all its members. In this framework, it may be possible to ensure that the existence of the family continues in harmony by identifying the problems faced by each of the family members, which we can group as women-men, children-young-adults-elderly.

Rapid transformations in information and communication technologies bring along the process of experiencing different socialites. Traditional control and surveillance by family-centered structure is gradually losing its effect in these environments. Abuse of children and young people, abuse of women, and abuse of elderly and disabled people are among the problems frequently encountered in these socialites. In this regard, the protection of children who are in the early stages of physical and cognitive development, and the elderly population who experience significant physiological and mental limitations due to advanced age, as well as the whole society, emerges as an important requirement. In this framework, construction of awareness in family members not only in the areas of attitude and knowledge; but also in the behaviors will be an important step in the control of the problem in question. At this point, significant progress can be achieved in the control of this problem by making efforts to prevent cyber bullying experienced in digital areas through the center.

Another problem created by communication technologies and frequently encountered in various social areas can be named as the erosion of values. The protective and guiding function of traditions becomes ineffective in different social media environments. There are significant breaks in the perception of privacy. Values are important mechanisms that ensure coexistence in human associations, and their absence, as stated before, provides a basis for the formation of environments of corruption and chaos. With this Center, which aims to contribute to the continuation of the family`s existence in balance, it is possible to contribute to the re-discovery of the importance of values in daily life by the members of the society.

Violence and divorce, which are increasing in our country, can be accepted as a result of the forgetting of the family institution’s roles as binding and support. In addition, migration events that take place both within the borders of the country and beyond the national borders bring together people from different cultures. Çankırı is also considered as one of the regions where internal and external migration is received and given. Such mass population movements also reveal the change of family unity. The coming together of people from different cultures can cause both positive and negative results. In this context, the main purpose of this Center is to bring the well-being of the family to the fore. It is to contribute to the plans and policies related to this issue by taking into account the mentioned factors. In order to achieve this goal, the Center also wants to act as a bridge between the University and Çankırı Province.

Regarding the evaluation of policy implementations related to the solution of social problems, it is possible to say that in recent decades, the limitations of top to down policies have been criticized and bottom-up policies have been preferred because of their inclusive and long-term characteristics. Perhaps the most important criticism of the top to bottom policies is that those who have problems are defined as passive victims. According to the perspective that cares about acting from the bottom, social problems do not only create victims. At the same time, it reveals the people who will be the source for the solution of these problems. This serious differentiation in perception emphasizes that those who experience social problems also play a key role in solving them.

The Women and Family Studies Application and Research Center attaches great importance to work with the Çankırı and the University it represents, and to work in the solution of social problems by learning from each other, by placing the understanding that recommends feeding from the bottom instead of top-down policy.

Setting out with the aforementioned reasons and objectives, the Center was officially established with the regulation published in the  Turkish Republic Official Gazette dated 17 August 2021.