Sociological approach to vegan lifestyle: The Antalya city case

The fact that veganism is a lifestyle beyond a nutritional practice will enable it to be evaluated sociologically and to understand the individuals included in that community well. To reveal the reasons why people are vegan with this research and to determine the value mo-tivations of vegans in Antalya constitute the purpose and scope of the study. It has been de-termined in the literature review that more than one reason for individuals to be vegan was also found in previous studies. In the field research of this study, observing new reasons such as being involved in consumer culture, desire to be different and creating awareness, having social status, among the reasons for being vegan in the interviews with vegan individuals, will provide both the uniqueness of the research and the discussion of new ideas that will be bro-ught to the literature. In this study, the historical development of veganism, health, gender roles, animal rights, restoration of ecological balance and reduction of carbon footprint, bioethical reasons, consumption culture, veganism as identity and status value are discussed. For this, qualitative research was conducted with the "snowball or chain sampling method" which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. Interviews were held with individuals aged 15 and over who lived in Antalya and had a vegan lifestyle for at least two months. A pilot interview was con-ducted with 3 people before the research. After the pilot interview, no editing was made in the interview form. The interviews were held between 16.01.2020-17.09.2020. With the per-mission of the individuals, the interviews were recorded with a voice recorder. The opinions of 38 people who did not allow voice recording were noted. The interviews took an average of 17.5 minutes. The number of people interviewed is 50. The data obtained from the inter-view results of the study were coded in the maxqda program and evaluated by the phenome-nological method within the qualitative research methods. The subject was discussed in line with the data obtained and recommendations were made according to the result.