From narrative to realities: The return from urban to rural

No two stories are the same. That is why what you find in each story is of a different color. The story of this study is the sociological coloring of the experiences of individuals who make a conscious decision to return from the city to the countryside. These colors, which are only pointed out in the literature but are quite ambiguous, were brought together through the study. This study, which follows the steps of the qualitative research process, also includes the positioning and questioning of the method while bringing these steps together with the experiences of the researcher. Using participant observation and interview techniques, the study includes semi-structured interviews with 40 people selected through purposive selection, as well as unstructured interviews with 11 people through serendipitous and spontaneous contacts. This study, which provides the theme and unity of ethnography and grounded theory designs in line with the research subject, purpose and method, is the result of an effort to describe and analyze the character of the return to rural areas with the voice of the research subjects and the field observations of the researcher. The field process of the study, in which I, as the researcher, moved between the position of full observer and full participant, covered a period of approximately one year. The field of the study consists of rural areas in the provinces of Bursa, Burdur, Eskişehir, İzmit, Muğla and Sakarya, where subjects who are identified, reached and accept to be included continue their lives in line with the methodological understanding built on being an observer and sharer of experience. As a result of the evaluation of the voices heard from the field, it became clear that the key to gaining a deeper understanding of the back-to-rural mobility, which embodies a different vision of the future, is to focus on the socio-biographies and life experiences of rural returnees. Their individual life experiences placed mobility within a collective framework. In this way, it was also seen how possible and sustainable an alternative way of life is in terms of its potential for a different way of feeling and living that is more meaningful than others.