Reconstruction of childhood in Turkey after 1980s: A reading through games and toys

The 1980s has corresponded to a period of time which there were drastic changes in many areas such as social, economic and culture in Turkey. With January 24 Decisions and September 12 military coup, the economic structure completely changed, the military rulers have designed political life back to square one, everyday life and culture changed dramatically and with positive and negative sides a very different Turkey has emerged than previous decade. This study aims to reveal the impact of the transformation process mentioned above on children and childhood. Turkey fully has deflected its way into the Western capitalist system and has entered a period of fast moving under the influence of the neo-liberal policies. In these years when modernization is integrated with free market economy, one of the products that enter into our country was toy. The toys have become one of the symbols of modernization after 1980. This thesis focuses on how children have been included in consumption economy by way of toy, how childhood perception has transformed to global comprehension from local cultural vision, how comprehension of childhood has been shaped and how the toy has been functioned as ideological tool and cultural meta with the modernization, in Turkey which has been located in global financial market after 1980.