Koray Caliskan

Koray Caliskan is a Turkish economic sociologist and organizational designer. He is a tenured professor at Parsons School of Design, The New School, Associate Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy, the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Design Strategies. He is the founder of Mamame, a social innovation project bringing together the organizational form of cooperative and limited liability company in economizing under-represented women’s labor, which won the Entrepreneurship of the Year Award in 2017 from Microsoft Turkey. He is the co-founder of The Wrong Department, an international strategic design studio with office in London and New York City. He is married and has two children, living in Brooklyn, New York City.

Education
He received his B.A. in Political Science, Bogazici University, Istanbul and M.A. in Politics, NYU, New York in 1999. He received his Ph.D. with distinction from NYU’s Politics Department, with which he won the Malcolm Kerr Social Science Award from MESA.

Publications
Books

Market Threads: How Cotton Farmers and Traders Create a Global Commodity came out from Princeton University Press and focused on global commodity markets and relations of economization.

Data Money: Inside Cryptocurrencies, Their Communities, Markets, and Blockchains (2023) came pout from Columbia University Press and drew on an award-winning research on cryptocurrencies, their communities and blockchains.

Economization: Markets, Economies and Platforms in Perspective is co-authored with Michel Callon and Donald MacKenzie, coming out in 2024 by Columbia University Press.

Important Articles

2024. (Forthcoming) (with Michel Callon and Donald MacKenzie). Stacked Economization: A Research Programme for the Study of Platforms, Journal of Cultural Economy.

2022. (with Matt Wade) ''DARN Part 1: What is Strategic Design? Social Theory and Intangible Design in Perspective'', She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. Vol. 8, Iss. 3, Autumn 2022, pp. 299–318.

2022. (with Matt Wade) ''DARN Part 2: An Evidence-Based Research and Prototyping Methodology for Strategic Design, She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, Autumn 2022, pp. 319-335.''

2022. (with Michael Lounsbury) Entrepreneurialism as Discourse: Towards a Critical Research Agenda, Research in Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 72. Volume 81, pp. 43–53.

2021. Data Money Makers: An Ethnographic Analysis of a Global Cryptocurrency Community, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol 73, 168-187.

2021. Platform Works as Stack Economization: Cryptocurrency Markets and Exchanges in Perspective, Sociologica: International Journal for Sociological Debate, Vol. 14, Iss. 3, pp. 115–42.

2020. Polanyi, Callon, and Amazon: Institutionalist, ANT, and DRAN Approaches to Platform Economies. Sociologica: International Journal for Sociological Debate, Vol. 14, Iss. 3, pp. 195–204.

2020.  Data Money: The Socio-Technical Infrastructure of Cryptocurrency Blockchains, Economy and Society, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 1–22.

2019. A Timely Rapprochement between Design Scholarship and Economization Studies, City, Vol. 23, Iss 4-5, pp. 673–675.

2018.  Towards a New Political Regime in Turkey: From Competitive towards Full Authoritarianism, New Perspectives on Turkey, Vol: 58, Iss. 1, Spring, pp. 5–33.

Film projects
He directed, produced and wrote seven fiction and documentary films, including "Esma"., shown at the Cannes Film Festival. He was the producer and co-writer of "In Flames", feature film. He was the director of the film "Last Villagers of Avshar", producer of "Pipelines Made up of Donkeys" film and producer of the documentary "Republic of Wonderland: Turkish TV Series in the World".

2016. Director, The Last Peasants of Avshar. Documentary, 42’26’’, English, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel.

2015. Producer and Writer, Pipeline Made up of Donkeys. Documentary. 45’, Kurdish and Turkish, Al Jazeera. (Not Released by the network).

2013. Producer, The Republic of Wonderland: Turkey. Documentary. 200’, 4 episodes, Haberturk TV.

2011. Script co-writer and Producer, In Flames, Fiction, Turkish with English Subtitles, 100’, Awards: Best Actor (Ankara Film Festival, Varna Film Festival), Best Actress (Ankara Film Festival, Varna Film Festival), Best Editor (Ankara Film Festival). Available on i-Tunes.

2009. Director and Script writer, Esma, Short Fiction, 18’, Turkish with English Subtitles, (Cannes Film Festival, Tampere Film Festival Competition).

Awards
His last research project on cryptocurrencies, their global communities and blockchains was selected to be a winner of the Scientific Breakthrough of the Year Award in Social Sciences and Humanities by the Falling Walls Foundation. Currently, on an ESRC grant, he is carrying out research with his team on the economic sociology of digital advertisements.