Spatial habitus of the industrial workers in the Gaziantep Industrial Development Zone

This study aims to focus on the acute housing problem. In the Western World, the nineteenth century heralded an onslaught of industrialization and urbanization. In Turkey, a similar process took place beginning from the mid-twentieth century. A great deal of attention was paid to the decisive sociological phenomenon of urbanization and squatter settlements. However, the life-world of the working people was missing in most of the studies. This thesis is an attempt to bridge this gap. In this thesis, using Pierre Bourdieu's sociological notion habitus, we examined how workers in Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zones have understood and appropriated the spatial relations. Under the rubric of the workers' spatial habitus, this thesis brings together the everyday life patterns of the workers -which are shaped by the focus of the factory and the workplace- housing and life expectations, neighborhood relations, the transformation of kinship, gender relations, future expectations, and taste related to the concept of an ideal home. Here, it was emphasized that, conceptually, housing problem is not only a problem rooted in political economy, but also workers who are social actors play an active role in the production of space. One of the most important contributions of this thesis is the fact that Bourdieu's conclusions about the middle-class habitus are valid for the industrial workers' spatial relationships and experiences in built environment in Gaziantep.