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Working-class entrepreneurialism: Perceptions, aspirations, and experiences of petty entrepreneurship among male manual workers in Turkey

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Abstract

This article examines working-class entrepreneurialism in Turkey from a comparative perspective. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a working-class neighborhood of İstanbul, the article focuses on the perceptions, aspirations, and entrepreneurial attempts of manual workers employed in formal jobs. It aims to contribute to the understudied literature on working-class entrepreneurialism, which is often overlooked or underestimated by the critical research on labor and the working class. First, the article demonstrates that the level of entrepreneurialism among manual workers is rather high. Alongside revealing the popularity of aspirations for self-employment and the working-class roots of many self-employed individuals, I present an ethnographic account of five workers’ transition from wage work to self-employment. Second, the article finds that a colloquial phrase, “ el işi ” or “a stranger’s business,” is widely used to refer to wage work. I argue that this phrase perfectly manifests the popular resentment felt toward wage labor in a social milieu where self-employment seems accessible. Finally, by drawing on a review of a scattered set of studies, I claim that entrepreneurialism among working-class men seems to be quite common, especially in peripheral countries.

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... Boratav, 1990;Boratav & Yeldan, 2006;Şenses, 2016). Notably since the 1980s, the neoliberal politicaleconomic restructuring of Turkey has fostered a socio-cultural framework with an overemphasis on entrepreneurialism and material success (Turem, 2016;Caliskan & Lounsbury, 2022;Birelma, 2019;Tuğal, 2012). Following the premises of IAT, we focus on the entrenchment of the globalized market economy as the dominant institution through topdown enforced neoliberal policies, and its repercussions on the polity, family and education institutions, the tripartite of which might otherwise appease criminogenic strain (Messner et al., 2008;Messner and Rosenfeld, 2009). ...
... The reply was mostly interpreted as resorting to petty corruption, as was widespread at that time (Timur, 2005: 51-8), contrary to the firm, cautious image of traditional bureaucracy. Confirming the entrenchment of neoliberal individualism, studies have later emphasised the necessity of being entrepreneurial in the neoliberal period, revealing how pervasive it has become in the self-evaluation of both middle-class professionals (Turem, 2016) and lower-class wage earners (Birelma, 2019;Tuğal, 2012). ...
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... According to the authors, the contextual framework of entrepreneurship, consisting of government policies, socioeconomic conditions, financial support, and skills (both entrepreneurial and business-related) seem to favour the growth of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Turkey. The approach by (Birelma, 2019) explores working-class entrepreneurialism in Turkey. The author identifies that among manual workers, wage work is considered as working for a stranger. ...
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