The making of neoliberal subjectivity in Turkey: The case of coaching as a subfield of self-help industry

This thesis examines the processes of neoliberalization and the construction of neoliberal subjectivity in Turkey. Using both the Marxist approach, which sees neoliberalism as a class project and the Foucaldian approach, which analyzes it as governmentality, the thesis focuses on career coaching in the context of these two frameworks. The coaching profession, which is considered as a sub-field of the self-help industry, is a technique of power that has been effective in the normalization of ideological assumptions of neoliberalism and the restructuring of the hegemonic status of neoliberalism through the construction of neoliberal subjectivities. In this context, this thesis argues that coaching, career coaching in specific, is a technique of power that manufactures an employee subjectivity based on the principles of entrepreneurship and docility and, in this way, aims to adapt individuals to the neoliberal labor regime. It tries to prove this claim by analyzing semi-structured interviews conducted with coaches who specialized in career coaching and those who received coaching service.