AKP S CHRONIC IMPASSE: THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL POWER

2022-12-26
CANER, EMRE
In this thesis, I examine the reasons why the AKP, the ruling party of Turkey for 20 consecutive years, failed to establish its cultural power despite having political power. For this purpose, I trace how the ‘legitimate culture’ is determined along with the source and the main purpose of popular culture from the perspective of Bourdieu, who offers an extremely comprehensive set of concepts related to the ‘cultural field’, in order to analyze the ongoing cultural power struggle in Turkey. I examine the reasons that lead to the melancholic nostalgia of the Conservative/Political Islamists by analyzing what kind of strategy and the historical background of it that AKP decided to apply in order to establish its cultural power, and I argue that this strategy is the main reason for the failure. I examine the project of reviving traditional archery as an example, and analyze the special importance and support given by the State to this project. The efforts to popularize traditional archery are exemplified by a comprehensive news and discourse review, and it is explained why the dominant culture cannot be changed through popular culture.

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Citation Formats
E. CANER, “AKP S CHRONIC IMPASSE: THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL POWER,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.