Her keseye, her habitus'a uygun (mu?): İstanbul'un toplumsal-mekansal çeperinde bir özel üniversitenin etnografisi

This thesis presents an ethnographic analysis of a newly founded and low-ranked private university. There is a global trend of educational expansion in terms of increasing schooling rates and student numbers. In Turkey as well, this trend has been at stake over the last 15 years; and the proliferation of private universities is one of the important carriers of this expansion. Observations on the case university indicate that although privatization is regarded as "commodification of education," education becomes an "absent commodity" in the low-ranked, peripheral, roadside, building universities of İstanbul. This absence creates a gap between students who have "double loss" and institutions who get "double gain". Therefore, this thesis tries to understand what mediates this gap which incorporates low-income students and sustains the system, by participant observation and in-depth interviews. Firstly, by looking at the historical and structural transformation of the education system in Turkey, this thesis explores the context in which the emergence of such an institution is possible. Secondly, by the utilization of the Bourdieusian concept habitus, this thesis tries to illustrate the dispositions which urge low-income students to be contained by the private higher education institutions. Lastly, through the analysis of the relationality between individual habitus and institutional habitus, it elaborates on how this system which is based on education as an abstract commodity is sustained.