Türkiye?de kültürel, sosyo-ekonomik ve ahlaki sınırların inşası

This study aims to explore how the segments of the society in Turkey differentiate themselves by constructing cultural, socio-economic and moral boundaries. To examine this process, the theories generated on the relationship of social class and culture is depicted as the starting point of the study. Based on the previous studies on class and culture, this research is designed to look at an understudied section of the construction of cultural boundaries. Since the literature tends to focus on how `elite? constructs their cultural boundaries and how they differentiates themselves from the working-class, this thesis tries to speak to the gap in the literature, which is how the subordinate classes construct their boundaries. Within the scope of this research, construction of cultural boundaries is considered to be a mutual process which both subordinate and dominant classes are involved in; not as a process only defined by the elite segment of the society. For this aim, the research is conducted based on the qualitative techniques. In-depth interviews conducted in four cities and a village in Turkey to analyze the perceptions of the respondents in various spheres, including their socio-economic conditions, cultural consumption, ethnic and cultural differences, religion and their political orientation. Based on the in-depth interviews, this study concludes that subordinate classes also construct their cultural boundaries, as dominant classes do. In some cases members of the subordinate classes give consent to consume what is left from the elite in the cultural arena. However, the data depicts that many of the respondents from subordinate classes draw clear boundaries and differentiate themselves from the dominant class and from the dominant culture.