NEOLIBERAL SUBJECT AND PUBLICITY: THE CASE OF MIDDLE LEVEL PROFESSIONALS IN TURKEY

Date

2025-4-08

Author

Oral Gündoğdu, Bahar

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This thesis seeks to explore "neoliberal subjectivation" and barriers and possibilities toward the collective action and public engagement under neoliberal capitalism. The existing literature on the "neoliberal subject" often promotes the idea of "de-democratization," suggesting the emergence of economized individuals who behave and think as homo economicus in all areas of life. This kind of subject is argued to replaces the politically conscious citizens. This view is contested through a case study from Turkey, which has undergone neoliberal transformation in tandem with the West since the 1980s. The study focuses on forty professionals from Turkey’s two largest cities in terms of the private sector employment. They are selected for their relevance to the “human capital” theory. Through in-depth interviews, they were asked about their realities and strategies in the neoliberal context, as well as their attitudes toward collective action and public engagement. The research findings reveal that the economized behaviors of these individuals are not driven by the discourse of neoliberal subjectivity or human capital theory but by the imperatives of neoliberalism, which manifest in the production level, administration level, accumulation level, and political level. This thesis asserts that neoliberal subjectivity does not represent preferences or perspectives of individuals; instead, it reflects their limits. Therefore, subjects in the neoliberal period should not be degraded to being a mere functional component of neoliberalism, but should be addressed by taking into account the contradictions arising from their position within neoliberal capitalism and their public tendencies shaped by common material experiences.

Subject Keywords

Neoliberalizm, Neoliberal Subject, Publicity, Turkey, Neoliberalizm, Neoliberal Özne, Kamusallık, Türkiye

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114076

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis