Receiving Money as a Form of Justice: Work-related Deaths, Victim Workers’ Families, and (In)justice in Turkey

• In Event: 4255 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 9. Markets and Morality

Abstract

How, if ever, can mere money redress a wrongful death? In the event of a work-related death, Turkish law gives directions to the victim worker’s family to see that their injury is accidental and remediable through monetary compensation. Based on interview data from a group of victims’ survivors, who I call silent families, this article examines how and why the injured family makes sense of accepting money for their loss. Despite their compliance with the conventional legal process, the interviews suggest that these families simultaneously have grievances against it. I show how pressing economic needs, a profound sense of disentitlement, and the limiting nature of legal counsel lead the families to suppress their frustrations and accept the law’s terms. Consequently, I argue, many come to narrow their expectations of justice to get what they think of as a fair amount of money. Insofar as the families see their deserved compensation through a moral frame of justice however, structural factors behind their losses are apologized for but remain unaddressed. In the course of the argument, this article situates the problem of occupational safety in Turkey within the broader issue of the ethical logics and limits of monetary restitution. It contributes to Viviana Zelizer’s argument of monies as grounded in moral considerations by offering an analysis of how this grounding can work from and perpetuate social inequalities.

Author

• Yalcin Ozkan, Univ. of Massachusetts - Amherst