Motivations, values and beliefs of vegetarianism and their reflections on spaces: A qualitative study in İstanbul

Vegetarianism and veganism is a lifestyle that is being adopted by many individuals today. Studies show that there are ethics, health and environmental motivations behind the individuals' adoption of this lifestyle. In addition, the development of contemporary vegetarianism is closely related to social and economic change processes, values and the concept of risk. In parallel with the development of this lifestyle the vegetarian market is emerging. The aim of this study is to reach the motivations that are effective for participants to prefer vegetarianism and veganism, and to discuss the relationship between these motivations and the values associated with vegetarianism and their reflection on spaces. In this respect, ethnographic method was used in qualitative research in order to reach in-depth information about individuals' perceptions, perspectives and space experiences. The sample of the study consists of 8 vegetarian / vegan space owners, 9 vegetarian / vegan consumers and a total of 12 spaces physically. The data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, field notes and photographs. In data analysis, coding was used as the basic classification analysis. For the convenience of analysis "Doctools ExractData" was used. In the study, it was seen that most of the participants adopt vegetarianism with ethical motivations. In addition, it has been reached for the participants that vegetarianism is not only a diet, but a lifestyle that is closely related to democratic, altruistic, universal and traditional values. It has been found that the motivation and values of vegetarianism reached individually are reflected in the spaces in the context of user-space relationship.