Urban middle class, lifestyle and taste in Keçiören and Çankaya, Ankara:distinction through home furniture, furnishing and decoration

Download

index.pdf

Date

2011

Author

Arslan, Zerrin

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

388
views

265
downloads

This dissertation aims to scrutinize the fractions of the Turkish middle class, based on Bourdieu’s theory of social, cultural, economic capitals and habitus. Distinction among the fractions was identified through lifestyles and tastes via home furnishing and decoration. A quantitative field research was conducted in two towns of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, namely Keçiören and Çankaya, and the data was collected by applying a detailed questionnaire on a sample that is not representative. The data was analysed with SPSS. The outcomes of factor and multiple correspondence analyses were formulated as four fractions of the Turkish middle class: Lower/bitter, Middle/resentful, Upper/contemptuous, and Well-off/happy middle class. The structural and material conditions, social-psychological utterances of the respondents and interviewees, survey results, field notes and observations as well as insights collected from furniture/decoration magazines provided the basis for defining and naming these subcategories. This categorization is an important step for further studies of lifestyles and tastes of the fractions. Lifestyles were defined as everyday habits/routines/activities, and tastes as selections/arrangements of furniture/accessories of everyday life objects. The finding of the dissertation is that the middle class(es) in Ankara is stratified within itself and these fractions have different lifestyles and tastes of their own: The well-off/happy fraction has an ‘outgoing’ lifestyle, and ‘legitimate/highbrow taste’; the upper/contemptuous fraction has a ‘shopping mallcentred’ lifestyle, and ‘middlebrow taste’; the middle/resentful fraction has an ‘emulationcentred’ lifestyle and ‘popular taste’; finally, the lower/bitter fraction has a ‘‘stuck to home, family and neighbors’ lifestyle and ‘taste of necessity’.

Subject Keywords

Lifestyles., Decoration and ornament.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614287/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/21502

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Urban streets and urban social sustainability: a case study on Bagdat street in Kadikoy, Istanbul Lotfata, Aynaz; Ataöv Demirkan, Anlı (Informa UK Limited, 2020-09-01) This paper focuses on the social function of historical public space in Turkey that has been transformed with rise of modernism. Before that, it functioned as a suburban recreational area. The increasing demand for urban lands has been led to its transformation and its function as an urban component. The historical pattern of urban space can be conserved to protect and strengthen social interactions as the key issue of urban social sustainability. With a focus on the urban design through literature review, ...
Consuption, income and liquidity constraints : the case of Turkish economy Ceritoğlu, Evren; Güzel, Alper; Department of Economics (2003) The aim of this thesis study is to enlighten the economic relationship among consumption, income and liquidity constraints in Turkish Economy. For this aim, generalized instrumental variables estimation technique (GIVE) is used to estimate reduced-form consumption equations derived by Hall (1978) and improved by Campbell and Mankiw (1989). Estimations are realized for two separate periods of Turkish Economy. For the sub-period of 1987 to 1995, it is observed that a significant part of households consume the...
On consensus, constraint and choice: economic and monetary integration and Europe's welfare states Bolukbasi, H. Tolga (Informa UK Limited, 2009-01-01) This article reassesses the theoretical expectations and empirical findings in the political economy literature on the impact of economic and monetary union (EMU) on European welfare states. After summarizing the literature which views EMU as the symbol of the primordial conversion to neoliberalism, the article identifies the underlying hypothesis, assumptions, and predictions of the earlier, largely apprehensive literature of the 1990s which was based on ex ante convictions on EMU's social consequences. Th...
Cultural actors as agents of generating social co-presences within the place: Istanbul's contemporary art scene KAHYA, GÜZİN YELİZ; Ataöv Demirkan, Anlı (Informa UK Limited, 2019-06-03) This paper builds on the designation of cultural actors' actions as a decisive factor in the emergence of urban patterns of art-driven social co-presences in Istanbul. It contributes to the creative city debate from the perspective of community development by incorporating the contemporary arts into urban social space making efforts. Methodologically, the locations of art organizations in the contemporary arts scene of Istanbul are approached as an urban pattern of art driven social co-presences that result...
Pluralism in science Bakdur, Eser; Sol, Ayhan; Department of Philosophy (2009) This thesis investigates the determinants of financial development in Turkey. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is employed in order to examine the main determinants of financial sector development and shed light on the structure of the financial system in Turkey. The empirical studies on financial development suffer from the measurement problem. This study aims to remedy the measurement problem by providing proxies that explain different aspects of financial development more accurately than other proxies ...

Citation Formats

Z. Arslan, “Urban middle class, lifestyle and taste in Keçiören and Çankaya, Ankara:distinction through home furniture, furnishing and decoration,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2011.