Although the recent call to explore the ambiguities of middle-class positioning is only just emerging, the literature on Turkish gated communities and the associated architectural form of a single-family home in cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir is still very much embedded in the notion of a homogenous middle-class engaged in globalised consumerism (Candan and Kolluoglu 2008). Commenting on the suburban developments in Ankara, Turkey after 1990, Ayata describes the middle-classes as a of select and civilized ‘community people’ defined by what it excludes: life and its vulgar mix of the lower classes, the new ‘city rich and the Islamists.’ (2000: 30). Candan and Kolluoglu call this a of the city’ ‘gating through which places like Istanbul has experienced increasing pockets of new wealth located in exclusionary spaces of gated communities. The re-emergence of suburbia around Izmir in particular is said to have used the home as its central theme because of its ‘Anglo-Saxon’ reliance on economic relations, formation of new upper income groups, social ‘transnational polarization and changing consumption habits.’ (Sonmez 2009: 741). However, unlike Indian or Chinese middle-classes globalised consumerism have emerged largely during the states’ alignment with neoliberalism, Turkish middle-classes (particularly in Izmir) relate to globalisation through the radical moment of the making of the Turkish Republic in October 1923, when nearly 400,000 (Muslim) Turks from the Balkans and Aegean Islands moved into Anatolia and a majority settled in the Izmir region (in nearby villages and towns like Urla) (Arkon 1989, Karadag 2000). They thus identify themselves with a more complex geo-political history of Turkey seeing their personal identities as a combination of Greek, Balkan and Turkish heritage and their largely urbanised as ‘culture’ the rejection of conservative Islamic traditions embodied by the rural countryside. Izmir’s middle-classes also arose from a social and economic need for such a group as a result of the emigration of earlier Ottoman middle-class minorities from the region (Cagaptay 2004). In Izmir, these Turks acquired businesses and distribution and licensing rights that ‘emergent
Although the recent call to explore the ambiguities of middle-class positioning is only just emerging, the literature on Turkish gated communities and the associated architectural form of a single-family home in cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir is still very much embedded in the notion of a homogenous middle-class engaged in globalised consumerism (Candan and Kolluoglu 2008). Commenting on the suburban developments in Ankara, Turkey after 1990, Ayata describes the middle-classes as a ‘community of select and civilized people’ defined by what it excludes: ‘city life and its vulgar mix of the lower classes, the new rich and the Islamists.’ (2000: 30). Candan and Kolluoglu call this a ‘gating of the city’ through which places like Istanbul has experienced increasing pockets of new wealth located in exclusionary spaces of gated communities. The re-emergence of suburbia around Izmir in particular is said to have used the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ home as its central theme because of its reliance on ‘transnational economic relations, formation of new upper income groups, social polarization and changing consumption habits.’ (Sonmez 2009: 741). However, unlike Indian or Chinese middle-classes globalised consumerism have emerged largely during the states’ alignment with neoliberalism, Turkish middle-classes (particularly in Izmir) relate to globalisation through the radical moment of the making of the Turkish Republic in October 1923, when nearly 400,000 (Muslim) Turks from the Balkans and Aegean Islands moved into Anatolia and a majority settled in the Izmir region (in nearby villages and towns like Urla) (Arkon 1989, Karadag 2000). They thus identify themselves with a more complex geo-political history of Turkey seeing their personal identities as a combination of Greek, Balkan and Turkish heritage and their largely urbanised ‘culture’ as the rejection of conservative Islamic traditions embodied by the rural countryside. Izmir’s middle-classes also arose from a social and economic need for such a group as a result of the emigration of earlier Ottoman middle-class minorities from the region (Cagaptay 2004). In Izmir, these ‘emergent Turks acquired businesses and distribution and licensing rights that
Datta_IJURR_final.docx