Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T23:43:25.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2019

Alpkan Birelma Open the ORCID record for Alpkan Birelma [Opens in a new window]
Alpkan Birelma*
Affiliation:
Özyeğin University, Turkey; alpkan.birelma@ozyegin.edu.tr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Keywords

Entrepreneurialismworking-class entrepreneurialismentrepreneurshipself-employmentworking-class subjectivitiespetty bourgeoisie
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 61 , November 2019 , pp. 45 - 70
Copyright
© New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldrich, Howard E. “Entrepreneurship.” In The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Edited by Smelser, Neil J. and Swedberg, Richard. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 451–477.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Howard E. and Ruef, Martin. Organizations Evolving. Los Angeles: Sage, 2006.Google Scholar
Bechhofer, Frank and Elliott, Brian. “Persistence and Change: The Petite Bourgeoisie in Industrial Society.” European Journal of Sociology 17, no. 1 (1976): 74–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechhofer, Frank and Elliott, Brian. “The Petite Bourgeoisie in Late Capitalism.” Annual Review of Sociology 11 (1985): 181–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, John. The Penny Capitalists: A Study of Nineteenth-century Working-class Entrepreneurs. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Benton, Lauren A. “Industrial Subcontracting and the Informal Sector: The Politics of Restructuring in the Madrid Electronics Industry.” In The Informal Economy Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Edited by Portes, Alejandro, Castells, Manuel, and Benton, Lauren A.. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 228–246.Google Scholar
Birelma, Alpkan. Ekmek ve Haysiyet Mücadelesi: Günümüz Türkiyesi’nde Üç İşçi Hareketinin Etnografisi. İstanbul: İletişim, 2014.Google Scholar
Boratav, Korkut. İstanbul ve Anadolu’dan Sınıf Profilleri. Ankara: İmge, 2004.Google Scholar
Capecchi, Vittorio. “The Informal Economy and the Development of Flexible Specialization in Emilia-Romagna.” In The Informal Economy Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Edited by Portes, Alejandro, Castells, Manuel, and Benton, Lauren A.. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 188–215.Google Scholar
Chen, Martha Alter. “Informal Employment: Theory and Reality.” In The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment. Edited by Edgell, Stephen, Gottfried, Heidi, and Granter, Edward. London: Sage, 2016. 407–427.Google Scholar
Chari, Sharad. Fraternal Capital: Peasant-Workers, Self-Made Men, and Globalization in Provincial India. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Davis, Diane E. Discipline and Development: Middle Classes and Prosperity in East Asia and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erder, Sema. İstanbul’da Bir Kent Kondu: Ümraniye. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1996.Google Scholar
Geniş, Arif. İşçi Sınıfının Kıyısında. Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2006.Google Scholar
Gerry, Chris and Birkbeck, Chris. “The Petty Commodity Producer in Third World Cities: Petit-Bourgeois or ‘Disguised’ Proletarian?” In The Petite Bourgeoisie: Comparative Studies of the Uneasy Stratum. Edited by Bechhofer, Frank and Elliott, Brian. London: The Macmillan Press, 1981. 121–154.Google Scholar
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Global Report 2016/17. Babson Park: Babson College, 2017.Google Scholar
Gürsel, Seyfettin, Uysal-Kolaşin, Gökçe, and Altındağ, Onur. Anadil Ayrımında İşgücü Piyasası Konumları. İstanbul: BETAM, 2009.Google Scholar
Hodson, Randy. Dignity at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, Randy and Sullivan, Teresa A.. The Social Organization of Work. Belmont: Thomson, 2008.Google Scholar
Jütting, Johannes P. and de Laiglesia, Juan R., eds. Is Informal Normal? Towards More and Better Jobs in Developing Countries. Paris: OECD Development Center Studies, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpat, Kemal. The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Kefalas, Maria. Working-Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Kemal, Orhan. Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde. İstanbul: Cem Yayınevi, 1972.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. State and Class in Turkey. London: Verso, 1987.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar and Yenal, Zafer. “Agrarian Change under Globalization: Markets and Insecurity in Turkish Agriculture.” Journal of Agrarian Change 11, no. 1 (2011): 60–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koo, Hagen. “Small Entrepreneurship in a Developing Society: Patterns of Labor Absorption and Social Mobility.” Social Forces 54, no. 4 (1976): 775–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koo, Hagen. “From Farm to Factory: Proletarianization in Korea.” American Sociological Review 55, no. 5 (1990): 669–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, Michele. The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lippmann, Stephen, Davis, Amy, and Aldrich, Howard E.. “Entrepreneurship and Inequality.” In Research in the Sociology of Work, Volume 15: Entrepreneurship. Edited by Keister, Lisa. New York: Elsevier, 2005. 3–31.Google Scholar
Lubeck, Paul. Islam and Urban Labor in Northern Nigeria: The Making of a Muslim Working Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. The Sources of Social Power, Volume II: The Rise of Classes and Nation-states, 1760–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meager, Nigel. “Foreword: JMO Special Issue on Self-employment/Freelancing.” Journal of Management & Organization 22, no. 6 (2016): 756–763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milkman, Ruth. Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the late Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Mingione, Enzo. “Labour Market Segmentation and Informal Work in Southern Europe.” European Urban and Regional Studies 2, no. 2 (1995): 121–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hikmet, Nâzım (Ran). Bütün Şiirleri. İstanbul: YKY, 2008.Google Scholar
Nichols, Theo and Sugur, Nadir. “Small Employers in Ankara.” In Work and Occupation in Modern Turkey. Edited by Kahveci, Erol, Sugur, Nadir, and Nichols, Theo. London: Mansell, 1996. 72–96.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2014. OECD Publishing, 2014.Google Scholar
Parker, Simon. The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, Castells, Manuel, and Benton, Lauren A.. “Conclusion: The Policy Implications of Informality.” In The Informal Economy Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Edited by Portes, Alejandro, Castells, Manuel, and Benton, Lauren A.. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 298–311.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro. Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sappleton, Natalie. “Self-Employment.” In Sociology of Work: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Smith, Vicki. Los Angeles: Sage, 2013. 752–756.Google Scholar
Savage, Mike, Bagnall, Gaynor, and Longhurst, Brian. “Local Habitus and Working-Class Culture.” In Rethinking Class. Edited by Devine, Fiona, Savage, Mike, Scott, John, and Crompton, Rosemary. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 95–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skeggs, Beverley. Formations of Class & Gender: Becoming Respectable. London: Sage, 1997.Google Scholar
Smith, Joan and Wallerstein, Immanuel. Creating and Transforming Households. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taussig, Michael T. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Thébaud, Sarah. “Entrepreneurship.” In Sociology of Work: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Smith, Vicki. Los Angeles: Sage, 2013. 251–254.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward P. The Making of the English Working Class. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1963.Google Scholar
Tuğal, Cihan. “‘Serbest Meslek Sahibi’: Neoliberal Subjectivity among İstanbul’s Popular Sectors.” New Perspectives on Turkey 46 (2012): 65–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valdez, Zulema. The New Entrepreneurs: How Race, Class, and Gender Shape American Enterprise. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Willis, Paul E. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Wong, Raymond Sin-Kwok. “Vertical and Nonvertical Effects in Class Mobility: Cross-National Variations.” American Sociological Review 57, no. 3 (1992): 396–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Erik Olin and Steinmetz, George. “The Fall and Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie: Changing Patterns of Self-Employment in the Postwar United States.” The American Journal of Sociology 94, no. 5 (1989): 973–1018.Google Scholar
Wright, Erik Olin. Class Counts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yörük, Erdem. “Labor Discipline in the Informal Economy: The Semi-formal Professional Code of Istanbul’s Apparel Urban Factory.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 53 (2009): 27–61.Google Scholar