From Sakıp Aga to life architect Ali Agaoglu: Neoliberalisation in Turkey and transformation of the ideal businessman

This study aims to discuss the effects of neoliberalism in shaping new subjectivities with reference to the transformation of the image of a popular businessman as embodied in Sakıp Sabancı and Ali Ağaoğlu. Both businessmen were/are among significant figures in Turkish popular culture and were/are frequently on the popular agenda with what they do and own. Exhibiting the difference in the subjectivities of these two businessmen may enable understanding and analysis of the social circumstances of two different eras in Turkish history and discussing the outcomes of this transformation. The study is based on the assumption that the two businessmen were two different characters that lived in two different eras. Accordingly, while Sabancı is understood to be the traditional productive subject of an industrial society, Ali Ağaoğlu is defined as a competitive company-man of neoliberalism. In this study, which is expected to contribute to studies on the wealthy in Turkey, the differences between the two character types have been analysed through their autobiographical narratives, understanding of success, relations with traditional institutions such as family and marriage, relations with their fathers, altruism, ways of showing off wealth, meanings attached to pleasure and strategies in winning popular appreciation.